OSCAR TRIVIA: Lefty Frank Rich of the NYT has an interesting piece today stating that indecency is the way to higher ratings on TV. He makes some dam good points.

....."indecency" is gaining in popularity in direct proportion to Washington's campaign to shut indecency down.

He mentions that the clean clean Golden Globes lost 40% of its audience to the malodorous vaginal secretions of Desperate Housewives, and makes another point about Super Bowl ratings---that are off the mark because the teams were East Coast---but the piece is interesting.

Robin Williams skit cut by ABC and believe me they did the Academy a monster favor. A skit attacking almost everything while endorsing anything after those same scumbags ignored Passion would have cost ratings big time. Hilarious lines like:

"The Road Runner's hooked on speed" and "Pocahontas is addicted to craps."

I'm rolling in the aisles. ABC cut it because Indians might be offended----it gets better---and if the Road Runner shoots speed everyone will. But there was a direct attack on Dobson that would have cost them plenty. The tone was to have Williams imitate a Baptist preacher and sermonize over a gospel-music groove, as if he were a full-throated preacher inveighing against other newly-discovered sinners in the nation's midst:

Pinocchio's had his nose done! Sleeping Beauty is popping pills!/ The Three Little Pigs ain't kosher! Betty Boop works Beverly Hills!

Like I said, ABC did them a favor.

Hugh Hewett has a few views about the Oscar disconnect from his LA viewpoint. I disagree with a lot of criticism from outside of the business regarding Hollywood. It is the very nature of art----and great business---to think and create outside the box and to ignore everyone. Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ is the perfect contemporary example; Fed X was a "D" paper at Harvard. Hollywood, like architecture, needs massive capital to carry an idea to its final revelation. The requirements create excessive caution as well as the need to get approval from one's peers. Because Hollywood is exclusively Left, the creators can only listen to Left thought and raise money from those sympathetic with the Left. Don't look for change real soon because the movie "business" is not in good shape.