It's a peculiar week

For the last several years, Slate has run an on-line discussion in oscar week, in which Slate critic David Edelsten asks producer Lynda Obst (author of the hilariously titled Hollywood expose Hello, He Lied) gives some dirt on the mood in Hollywood, how the various parties are, and some thoughts on what is going to win and why. I thought that they had decided not to run the feature this year, but they did in fact run it half heartedly and a bit late. Obst basically comments that everybody in Hollywood is deeply uncomfortable about the whole exercise, and raises the prospect of political comments from stars and presenters at the awards. She says

Pity the poor actors. They can't do anything right. If they speak out they are dumb. If they don't speak out they are trivial. If they go, they feel guilty; if they don't go, we think they're wimps.

David Edelsten comments that as a critic he feels the same way. As a blogger I feel the same way myself. I am not really a warblogger. My hits are down this week, presumably because people are going to read actual warbloggers. On the other hand, I don't want to close up shop for a fortnight either. In any event, I will give my oscar picks at some point in the next 24 hours. And I am actually going to spend the best part of twelve hours tomorrow watching cricket and then the oscars.