5:38 a.m.?!

THIS BEING AN INDUSTRY TOWN, we dutifully set out to write an editorial about Tuesday’s Oscar nominations. We were poised to pontificate on what they say about the struggling movie business and, by extension, about our society. We considered focusing on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ disdain of major studio releases and its fondness for smaller films put out by the studios’ artsy boutique production houses, or the academy’s distinct bias for films that champion blue-state values.

But we couldn’t bring ourselves to write such an editorial, not when there is a far more pressing (though timeless) issue that needs addressing -- the abomination of colonialism.

The largest and most important state in the nation, outrageously enough, remains a colony to a distant land, a mother country whose time zone rules our lives. So much of L.A. existence is dictated by the rising and the setting of the sun -- in faraway New York and Washington. Pity those wretched subjects who had to come together at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater for the 5:38 a.m. unveiling of the Oscar nominees.

And pity the wretched brokers and analysts who must go to work in darkness because the stock market opens at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time. And good luck trying to buy stock at the unseemly hour of 3 p.m. -- don’t you know what time it is in New York City?

Much of what the rest of the world admires about this country emanates from California -- be it the latest iPod or “Shrek 2” -- and yet the daily lives of too many Californians are governed by another place’s clock. We might as well be living on the Falkland Islands or some equally far-flung colony.

The issue used to be a perennial grievance in the political context, back when media outlets would call national elections while Californians were still voting, but it remains a factor in all walks of life. “Saturday Night Live”? Never live. Want to watch the State of the Union address? You’d better have a television in your SUV. And raise your hand if you’ve mumbled your way through a 7 a.m. conference call with the bosses on the East Coast.

But there is something especially humiliating about Hollywood -- the epicenter of the entertainment industry -- having to bow to our colonial overseers back East by announcing the Oscar nominees at such an ungodly hour.