Oprah’s the One! Win With Winfrey!

By Adam Nadler

With the Oscar race growing as tight and unpredictable as the political one, has anyone noticed the brazenly one-sided nature of celebrity endorsements? Sure, Hollywood’s upper crust has long thrown its support behind a variety of candidates, but why don’t the candidates return the favor? Where are the candidates when it comes to the Oscars?

The silence is deafening. Barbra Streisand has come out strong for Hillary Clinton, but where was Hillary when the Academy snubbed Yentl? Oprah has put her eggs behind Barack Obama, but have you heard a peep from him about her voice-over work as Judge Bumbleton in Bee Movie? And while Chuck Norris has never been a serious Academy Award contender, wouldn’t you think Mike Huckabee would at least utter a prayer for a Lifetime Achievement Award? By the power of Grayskull, I would.

It’s high time Washington stop taking our celebrities for granted. Deft dodges like “I leave that up to the American people to decide” and “There are many issues I didn’t take a stand on as governor of Massachusetts” just don’t fly anymore. Come Oscar night, the voters have a right to know where the candidates stand. After all, if John McCain wants to hold onto that Florida vote, he’d be wise to say something nice about Old Men.

Adam Nadler is a writer-filmmaker living in New York City. His film Shoot George, a satire about gun violence, is available at Bside.com.