R-P: Better Said by My Personal Friend (whom I had asked to join the Tennessee Williams Festival I'd hoped to mount in Puerto Vallarta in 2011) -- about Ellen Degeneres!!!

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Rick McKay

I have been thinking about why Ellen disappointed me so much hosting the Oscars the other night. I guess it must be because the Oscars have always celebrated Hoywood and excellence in the industry - or "The Dream Factory," as it was once called – and it's ability to transform the mundane into magic, thereby giving us hope and inspiration to keep going through a century of depressions, wars, plagues and transition. Whereas Ellen's mission was to bring each of our dream weavers "down a peg" and reassure the world that these fabulous monsters (as the French call their icons) were no more interesting, impressive or important than you or I are. 

And isn't that the exact opposite of what the movies, at their best, do for us? And even if Hollywood is no longer always successful, isn't this the one night that we can hope that it is still possible, rather than celebrating the "dumbing down of America" and the average person's desperate need to believe that nobody "up there" is any better or more talented than all of us in front of our TV sets. Do we knock down our Olympic champions to prove that they are no better than us? 

If Ellen is right and this is what people want, then what is there to dream of or to reach for? I think we go to the movies because we still desperately need and cling to the illusion that we are not alone and that there is something better, or at least more exciting, to aspire to for a few hours – which Ellen's style of hosting seemed determined to debunk with pizza and selfies.

Is this what we have come to as a population? Is Ellen just delivering what the average person wants? Or should the host be someone who "drives" the evening to help it rise above the common and into something magical – if just for one night? If not, it does not beckon well for all of us storytellers and filmmakers, I am afraid.

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ADDED LATER: 

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• Rick McKay I guess what made it so dispiriting to me was that it seemed to be one of the first years that the last generations of young talent decided to really "class up" their act. With Brad and Angelina looking like old Hollywood royalty, ditto Amy Adams and even Sondra Bullock, although resembling a department store mannequin more than the comedic actress she became famous for being. And Lupita was an alternate world Grace Kelly with those impossibly long legs swathed in that elegant goddess' gown. 
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• So as they were trying to raise the level of the room Ellen was trying to bring it down for her daytime audience. Was she "wrong?" Obviously, if we are judging the Oscars by the Nielsen ratings, she is right on the money and clearly has her finger on the pulse of the nation. 
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• But that, is unfortunately, what scares me the most. I certainly was not old enough to be around for it, but I always loved how old Hollywood would write smart to encourage the shop girl to reach up while she was sitting in that movie theater escaping the mundane entity of her job in the steno pool. She had to think faster and pay attention to keep up with the savvy, sarcastically clever crowd on the screen. 
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• And I cannot believe she wasn't thinking, "One day I'm going to be able to say something like that back to my boss, Instead of thinking of it when I'm laying in bed that night!" But today we are writing down to the audience and encouraging them to make shit pie for their boss (albeit very funny!) -instead of trying to pull them up to reach higher. 
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• I expect that, unfortunately – but still am just old-fashioned enough to think that the Oscars could still someday be the last bastion of class in Hollywood. Clearly I am the one deluded… ; –)