Fluff Tonight, Real Life Tuesday

And the loser is ... the California electorate?

The state primary election is Tuesday, and tonight television screens everywhere will be awash in speculation: Will the winner be a pig? No that’s not more political, er, mudslinging. The question pertains to a movie, and whether it will win an Oscar.

Hey, this is Hollywood, after all. This is the entertainment industry town, and we love movies. Unlike most other parts of the nation, we in Los Angeles actually know people who work in film, we stay seated for movie credits until we see the copyright clause, we actually know what a gaffer is.

All well and good. But as we mark our mock Oscar ballots tonight in front of the tube, let’s not forget an admittedly duller but far more important ballot. The primary election. Sure, Bill Clinton and Bob Dole are shoo-ins as presidential nominees, but there are 12 ballot propositions having to do with the quality of Californians’ lives. No matter who wins an Oscar tonight, life will go on unchanged for most of us Tuesday (except for the winners, who presumably will be able to demand a lot more money). The same can’t be said if the wrong ballot propositions win; if that happens, we’ll all feel the difference, and chances are, it won’t feel good.

So tonight, fluff is fine. Tuesday, real life. Vote.