Will Oscar Go Gay This Year?

Sunday night millions of people (but not me) will be watching to see who takes home the Oscars, and whether the multiple gay-themed nominees will be the big winners. Some in the industry are concerned that with so many movies harping on gay themes, middle America just may tune out (again, like me).

People Magazine published a special Oscar daily this week in which the first headline was in hot pink and declared: "Oscar: Yep I'm Gay." This was superimposed over a photograph of the gold statuette and a poster for Brokeback Mountain and posters for two other films -- Capote and Transamerica.

"Eight nominations for the gay cowboy movie, two for the tranny (transsexual) road flick, five for the Truman Capote story -- at first glance the lesson of this year's Academy award is simple. The shortcut to Oscar glory is a three-letter word: g-a-y," People explained.

Said Oscar pundit Tom O'Neil, "I've heard more people talk of voting for Crash than for Brokeback, but I remember when every Academy voter I spoke to (in 2002) said they were voting for Moulin Rouge and the favorite for that year, A Beautiful Mind, won. It is very hard to dislodge a front-runner."

"The Oscar voter wants to be on the winning side, but maybe there is an unspoken subtext this year of enough with these 'homosexual persecution movies.' But how can you judge the unspoken factor -- being politically incorrect in Hollywood," O'Neil added.

I'm guessing that many Oscar voters will go gay on the lessor awards, but will refrain from giving the big award to the gay sheepherders in Brokeback Mountain. Let me know how it turns out.