WE DON'T WANT TO THANK THE ACADEMY - AT 8:03 A.M. ET:  There's a changing of the guard at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - the Oscar people - in Hollywood.  But the personalities are far less important than the symbolism.  The academy today is presiding over a creatively dying industry, and seems to know it:

EVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Tom Sherak, a veteran film executive who was long associated with 20th Century Fox and then Revolution Studios, was named president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in a changing of the guard that followed an unusually active tenure by Sidney Ganis, a film producer whose four-year run in the presidency expired on Tuesday.

Okay, congratulations.  Have a nice dinner.  But here is the news:

In an interview shortly before the board vote on Tuesday, Mr. Ganis said his proudest achievement was repositioning the academy as less a show business organization than an advocate for world film.

“This academy is not about Hollywood and not even about America,” said Mr. Ganis. “It’s about international filmmakers and filmmaking.”

Wrong, Mr. Ganis:  The academy is about Hollywood, dammit, and Hollywood is about show business.  And it's about America, and the American vision.  And tell me, Mr. Philosopher, why Hollywood was at its best, and making its greatest films, when it understood that.

Hollywood has been intellectualized to death.  It has replaced talent with education.  It has replaced great stories with plodding propaganda.  Its stars have become smaller than life.  The glamour we loved has been replaced by green vehicles and tributes to Al Gore.  Gary Cooper could blow Sean Penn away without using a gun.  Rita Hayworth could...well, she could just be Rita Hayworth and send us back into the theaters again. 

When they start talking about "internationalizing" an industry,  you know things are going south. 

Hooray for Hollywood?  Not today, dahlings.

August 20, 2009