Jon Stewart at the Oscars

The Academy's choice of Chris Rock in 2005 and Jon Stewart this year to host the biggest Hollywood insider, ass-slapping charade of the year means one thing: Normal people just don't care anymore.

That's not to say normal folks don't like movies, or even that they don't like awards shows. They just don't like Hollywood.

In the news this week, one thing became painfully obvious: the host of the 78th Academy awards was chosen to build a bridge between the aristocratic elite of old Hollywood and the young, hip and deftly pessimistic American viewer; a viewer who at the end of the day doesn't give a damn what Susan Sarandon thinks about the Iraq War.

Though Stewart attracts "only about 1.4 million viewers" nightly to watch his faux news show The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Reuters said this week, he now has disproportionate influence on US politics and culture. That's the audience Oscar producer Gil Cates is hoping to reach, the news service reported.

Apparently, Cates doesn't realize the very audience he is trying to attract believes Hollywood is about as genuine as Washington, DC, and the man he picked as host tends to point those kinds of things out.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter that ran on Friday, Stewart was asked what Cates saw in him. "You'd have to ask him, but as far as I know, he didn't see a whole lot," Stewart responded.

Asked whether he was confident he'd succeed Sunday night, Stewart responded, "Uh, no. But I just had a baby, and Dick Cheney shot a dude in the face, so it's very hard to concentrate right now."

It's the kind of quote every working journalist dreams for, and few ever hear. Throughout the interview, Stewart fired off one gem after another, until by the end of session, he assumed that nihilistically befuddled stance that may have ultimately ruined CNN's Crossfire. In that infamous stare-down, Stewart said again and again, with the greatest boldfaced sanity, "You are part of the problem. Why are you destroying America?"

Let's not forget, this is the guy Fox News's Bill O'Reilly calls an "honest guy." Both of the "news men" are walkupons to these cultural elite Hollywood types, who make big and bold political statements in theaters across the world, garnering millions of dollars to feed their political machine. Mel Gibson and Michael Moore, to many Americans, have gone Section 8. In Hollywood, they are treated as hometown heroes, despite their divergent politics.

Instead of grabbing that young, hip crowd and proving the legitimacy of the Hollywood elite, the selection of Stewart could very easily have the opposite effect. After all, no one likes to see the shrewd boss of the underbelly of American life treated like a half-witted jester. Stewart's fans don't trust the puppet-izing of these kinds of shows, where an honest comedian is stripped of his dignity and made to pander to a "famously conservative" academy. It reminds them too much of US foreign policy.

Further alienation of the old West Coast culture, that at this point in American life seems evermore "suckled in a creed outworn," is the true danger here. In some sense, Stewart won't even have to take a political jab at the left or right for this to happen. He will just have to stand up there, propped up by a system far wealthier than the circles he is used to running in, and play along with a group of fascinating and beautiful people who no one would invite over for coffee.

But on Oscar night, if he slips into that dark and honest place where America seems like one giant war-making, politically flabbergasted machine — the place where his own show successfully dwells — he could knock the institution on its ass and strip the industry of its collective skivvies.

It's a danger for the Academy, perhaps, but judging from Stewart's resigned attitude this week, it probably won't happen. As Stewart told Larry King, he sympathizes with those nominated for the big awards: "...it's their big day, and you don't want to screw up their wedding."

The sad thing is, Stewart is the kind of guy that could probably re-legitimize the awards show, if he was given complete control over several years and granted impunity by the Academy. That won't happen, of course. In a sense, he is too "with it," as Cates was quoted as saying this week.

— David Irvin (dirvin79 at hotmail dot com)