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Society + Culture, Academy Award Voting Lessons for Activists
by Richard Oxman
 "Oh those heartthrobs, especially the winners" -- My silly neighbor, gushing.
Rebecca Murray, intimately associated with the 78th Oscars, tells me that Academy voting procedures are quite secure, immune to tampering. In her words:
"Nomination ballots are mailed to members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in December, and must be returned within two weeks in order for their vote to be counted. The secret ballots must be returned directly to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm in charge of processing the votes. PricewaterhouseCoopers tabulates the votes and the final list of nominees is announced in January. Another round of secret voting takes place, with members of the Academy only able to vote on the final nominees listed in each category. Those ballots must be returned to PricewaterhouseCoopers within two weeks. After the ballots are tabulated, only two partners of PricewaterhouseCoopers will know the results until the envelopes are opened on stage during the Academy Awards presentation."
Really?
*Paradise Now*, the Best Foreign Film nominee by Hany Abu-Assad, has been the subject of severe attack this past week...by Isreali relatives of victims of suicide bombers. They've been calling for the suicide bomber-centered cinematic winner of the Independent Spirit Awards --and odds on favorite as per the top bookies-- to be disqualified, dumped. And defeated it was...by the suprising victor, the South African *Tsotsi*.
Why can't there be an upset, pure and simple? How come we can't just accept the "good turn of events" for the Israeli relatives of victims of suicide bombers at face value, without succumbing to conspiratorial accusations? 
Well, perhaps we should follow the money. And by that I don't simply mean what was laid down at the books. Talkin' more here about the influence of money and related wood in Hollywood. And the history of tampering. Not in Hollywood (necessarily), but elsewhere. Like in Ohio and Florida for the Big Bucks. In the supposedly More Secure Realm of Higher Stakes.
The real problem is is that the Middle Eastern marvel was the surest lock to come down the pike since Secretariat's seventh race. It was almost taken off the boards in some places. The last time I remember something like that happening (to me) was for an Ali bout.
Now I don't really know who runs Hollywood. But I do know that you and I don't know who's supervising the voting anywhere these days.
And I thought that it might be an appropriate time to remind the public that no one gets in anywhere anymore unless the results work for The Powers.
A group of Israeli bereaved parents collected more than 32,000 signatures ranting against the nomination of Abu-Assad's film. And that pressure/potential influence reminded me of what must have come down with the cast of *Crash*, Best Picture Winner this year. With the huge, star-studded cast lobbying up the kazoo day and night leading up to tonight's awards, it all begged for a contrast with the low-key, low-profile rounds at Tinseltown parties by the very quiet Ang Lee and Heath Ledger & Co. Hail-fellow-well-met-with-megaphone plays particularly super relative to Humble Soup.
And that's the other lesson, the damn aspect operating in all elections/selections these days.
Even a legitimate choice by voters is based on a crippled cultural spine.
We're damned if we vote, and we're damned if we don't. It's time to come up with another option, another use of our heartbeats.
Richard Oxman, info@parisgraves.com trusts that readers will try to come up with something *new* for...outside the ballot box. His recent, most updated, writing is at www.oxtogrind.org.
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