I'd Like to Thank the Academy

...for not handing George Clooney a Best Director Oscar and thus another opportunity for him to open his mouth. "We are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood," he told the audience, adding that being out of touch once in a while that was "probably a good thing."

"We were the ones who talked about AIDS when it was just being whispered; we talked about civil rights when it wasn't popular," he said. "I'm proud to be part of Hollywood, proud to be part of the community and proud to be out of touch."

Well, he got the "out of touch" part right. AIDS? Civil rights? Real people living real lives addressed these topics from the beginning. Hollywood? Hollywood wrote the scripts, built the sets, fitted the wardrobe and applied the makeup well after the hard work was done and the struggle became popular. Lord knows, nobody dared talk openly about McCarthyism until Clooney broke that barrier last year with his film on the subject.

Thank God for Tom Hanks or we'd all be German-speaking AIDS patients today.