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It was linkable yesterday, but David Halbfinger‘s N.Y. Times piece about Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck‘s sharply critical doc about former House majority leader and right-wing ideologue Tom DeLay is in today’s issue. The Big Buy: How Tom DeLay Stole Congress, which is about the trouble DeLay got into over campaign fund-raising as well as Texas redistricting, has been produced and will be distributed by “liberal provocateur” Robert Greenwald. Staunch leftie orgs like People for the American Way and Democracy for America “are expected to sponsor the film’s release,” which will start with openings in a few cities before being made widely available on DVD. “An important aspect of the release plan is to organize hundreds, if not thousands, of house parties in May and June at which the movie will be shown,” the story says. “The distribution strategy is to be detailed on Tuesday — primary day in Texas — as a ‘welcoming gift’ to Mr. DeLay.”

“My friend Jim is more interested in the Academy than anyone I know who isn’t involved in the industry. (He’s a chauffeur in Seattle.) By early summer he’s already talking up possible nominees. The discussion reaches a fever pitch in November and December when the prestige pictures are rolled out and critics make their ‘best of’ announcements. He goes to see these films. He talks about them. He actually cares. Not anymore. Crash‘s win did him in. The Academy, he said afterwards, ‘is not a serious body of voters who vote rationally. If they’re influenced by a DVD sales pitch, they’re not worth my time.’ Are they worth anyone√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢√É‚Äû√ɬ¥s time? Once again, they showed themselves susceptible to something other than a legitimate search for ‘the best.’ Once again, marketing appears to have won. The Academy is 78 years old and acting every bit of it, and last night they took another doddering step towards irrelevancy.” — MSNBC’s Eric Lundegaard on last night’s Best Picture Oscar winner.

Jon Stewart sure as shit didn’t hit it out of the park last night. The general consensus is that his material was a little too dry, and that he was mostly hit-and-missy. Did he do better than Chris Rock? Somewhat, but not that much. A few of his ad-libs were slightly funnier than the prepared material, but they weren’t golden either. The filmed bits were the funniest of all. If Oscar show producer Gil Cates was a hipper, nervier guy, he would have followed my suggestion and tried to get Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughan to co-host. C’mon…those guys would have killed. And Sarah Silverman‘s performance at last Saturday’s Spirit Awards showed she would have been great also. But Cates doesn’t watch her on TV so she probably wasn’t even considered.

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It was Gil Cates‘ idea to have that soft prompt music play under the Oscar winners’ acceptance speeches, right? And what was that film noir reel about? And that pitch about movies being better served in a big theatre on a big screen? And that chit-chat between Leonard Maltin, Joel Siegel and Anne Thompson was smooth and smart but felt overly rehearsed, and this, I gather, was mandated by the Cates team. It was an irksome, not-terribly-enjoyed show, and I think it’s pretty clear that the 71 year-old Cates needs to be sacked and somebody younger (somebody in their 50s, maybe?….sopmeone who wasn’t old enough to vote in the 1956 Presidential election?) and more-on-the-ball needs to be brought in. Really. Just because Cates has produced the show all these years and knows everyone doesn’t mean he’s doing the show any big favors. I think it’s obvious to one and all that he isn’t.

“Just in case you hadn’t heard — 10 years from now people will say ‘Oh right….I forgot that Crash won for Best Picture. That was the ‘little’ year.” — message from broadcast news guy.

“Crash was far more representative of the our industry, of where we work and live,” said “player” David Cohen to the New York Times guy David Carr in another what-happened-last-night? story. “Brokeback took on a fairly sacred Hollywood icon, the cowboy, and I don’t think the older members of the academy wanted to see the image of the American cowboy diminished.”

Just to reiterate: It’s pretty clear to me that an undetermined but not-miniscule percentage of Academy voters went for Crash the Tony Curtis way — because it wasn’t Brokeback Mountain, because they flat-out didn’t see Brokeback, or just didn’t feel good about supporting a film that meesed with the iconic image of macho cowboys. Curtis said he wouldn’t see it, an Academy-member uncle of a friend said the same thing, and I’ve heard or read about this same mindset among older Academy members from others aroudn town. There were many Crash supporters who undboutedly voted for it because they admired it the most…fine. (Let’s presume that the majority of its supporters felt this way without homophobia clouding the issue.) But it’s widely believed that others voted for it because it wasn’t Brokeback Mountain. I don’t know what percentage, but with Ang Lee winning for Best Director I presume the overall margin was close.

N.Y. Daily News critic Jack Matthews speculating why Crash won and Brokeback didn’t. (1) “Enough Academy voters found the gay subject matter of Brokeback Mountain too uncomfortable to sit through, meaning they abandoned their professional responsibility and didn’t watch all five nominated films”; (2) Lionsgate “simply bought the grand prize by outspending everyone else in a $4 million campaign that included mailing DVDs to each of the 130,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild” and thus “a combination of everybody seeing Crash and some refusing to watch Brokeback Mountain“; and (3) Crash‘s subject matter — racism, fear, and intolerance on the streets of L.A. — “hit Academy members where most of them live.” I think all three of these reasons were factors.

If James Mangold and producer Stacy Keach had wanted to kill audience interest when they were making Walk the Line, they would have portrayed Cash as intensely religious and full of faith. Because they knew what they were doing, they avoided this. The New York Times ‘ Robert Levine has found some Christian types who wouldn’t have.

If my stuff isn’t making it for you, check out the Oscar simulcast commentary from Salon’s Camille Paglia and Cintra Wilson, starting at 7:30 Eastern, 4:30 Pacific.

“I’m kinda shocked that you’re drinking the Crash kool aid. Doesn’t the film that wins almost all the critics awards, the top Golden Globe prize, all the main Category Guild Awards (except SAG), makes the most money and gets the most nominations…doesn’t that film usually win Best Picture? Crash won the SAG cast award but it’s an ensemble and ensembles usually win — Sideways , Gosford Park, Traffic and The Full Monty all won the SAG cast award but they didn’t win Best Picture. If they really give the Big Trophy to Crash I think there’s going to be a huge backlash against the Academy for the homophobia that obviously led to this call. At the end of the day Crash, though a decent film, is basically a souped-up Lifetime TV movie.” — Randy Byrd. Wells reply: What kool-aid? All I said is that I don’t know what’s happening but that all the pulsetakers are getting signals or picking up insect antennae vibrations that Crash may win the Best Picture Oscar.

Everything is either down or mezzo-mezzo at the box-office this weekend. 16 Blocks, the Bruce Willis cop thriller from director Richard Donner, will come in second to Madea’s Family Reunion , which is down about 58% and will probably end up with about $12 million on Sunday night. 16 Blocks is being projected to earn just over $11 million for the weekend, and that means Willis isn’t bringing them in like he did in the late ’80s and early ’90s and is basically over the hill. (Sorry, but that’s the reality right now.) “He made a string of lousy pictures, and when you do that it’s almost impossible to resurrect your career,” a marekting veteran said this morning. “Unless he gets lucky with something phenomenal it’s Burt Reynolds time from here on…he’s basically worn out his welcome.” Other weekend projections: Eight Below, $9.5 million. Ultraviolet , $8.5 million. David Chappelle’s Block Party, $7.3 million. The Pink Panther, $6.7 million. Aquamarine , $6.6 million. Date Movie, $5 million.
Curious George, $4 million. Firewall, 3.6 million.