Those Who Were Not Amused Speak Up

Only in Hollywood could a movie that didn’t have the best director or the best screenplay or the best cinematography or the best editing or even the best score still walk off with an award for best picture. Of course, there’s always the best actor nod, but that’s relevant only if you actually believe Russell Crowe’s performance in “Gladiator” was more daring and nuanced than, say, the volleyball in “Cast Away.”

ELIZABETH BARR

Los Angeles

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If Russell Crowe is such a great actor, why can’t he act like he’s having a good time?

MONICA McGARVA

Woodland Hills

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She gushed over herself. She thanked everyone she’d ever met. The press and television crowned and recrowned her, some newspapers devoting entire articles to her Monday morning. If Julia Roberts represents the “woman of our times,” if this is “female empowerment,” if this is indicative of victory re: “female demographics,” then where was the real Erin Brockovich in all of this? Her name was never uttered by Roberts in the acceptance speech; it was all “Julia, Julia Julia,” ad nauseam.

The eco-warrior, as David Brower would call her, was ignored because Hollywood is all about “image.” A struggling mom, an emerging activist, a woman who fought an incredible environmental battle, was forgotten in the glitter and glitz of self-indulgence.

ROGER VON BUTOW

Laguna Beach

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As sad as we are that the live action short film that starred our friend, Debra Christofferson, did not receive the Oscar, we are even more furious that she was not the actor featured in the blip-vert of a clip while Ben Stiller mangled the name of the film, “Seraglio” (the G is silent, genius). Instead, the clip was of another actor in the film, who appears in only about 1 1/2 minutes of it, while Debra appears in nearly every scene, and whose face is featured on “Seraglio’s” Web site.

We have nothing against the actor who appeared, but it certainly made us wonder: Was Debra, who is a tall, big, stunning brunet, snubbed in favor of a tall, slender, white male actor, because Debra herself is not a size negative 2? We sure as hell think so.

That was it for our interest in the Academy Awards, from now on. Size bias is no longer even remotely subtle or winked at; it’s blatant and disgusting. Hollywood, home of the “tolerant” liberal? Nope. It’s a bastion of the last “acceptable” prejudice: size bashing.

SAMANTHA KIMMEL

KIMIT MUSTON

North Hollywood

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I’m pleased and proud to be one of the 126 people who didn’t watch the Oscars on Sunday night. I used to plan business trips out of the country just so I didn’t have to be around for this self-congratulatory marketing orgy designed to separate people eventually from their money. Two weeks of breathless “news” about who will wear what (who cares?), what post-Oscar party will serve what menu to whom (again, who cares?) and every detail of the manufactured lives of the “stars” is more punishment than any of us deserve.

The only good thing I can say about the Oscars is it will, thankfully, be another year before they come again.

HENRY J. SILVERMAN

Los Angeles