Low cut 038; tall talk

With movies like Brokeback Mountain and Crash, 2005 was billed as the year of the message movie, but films do not lead the culture as they o...

With movies like Brokeback Mountain and Crash, 2005 was billed as the year of the message movie, but films do not lead the culture as they once did. Mostly the message of the Academy Awards show was a self-congratulatory one from Hollywood to itself: We care, we dare.

Rachel Weisz, seven months pregnant, was in a preachy mood, paying tribute to the 8220;people who are willing to risk their lives to fight injustice8221; when she won the best supporting actress award for The Constant Gardener. And, when Cathy Schulman accepted the best picture award for Crash, she thanked all the viewers around the world who were 8220;touched8221; by the film8217;s message of 8220;tolerance and truth.8221;

Even more than in most years, the self-seriousness of Academy Awards nominees competed with the public8217;s lese-celebrite.

Oscar night is no longer about movie stars feting each other in front of an awed audience. It8217;s about viewers deconstructing celebrity 8212; abetted by a cottage industry of stylists, dermatologists, surgeons and trainers who reveal the fakery behind even the most seemingly natural beauties: celebrity with a dehumanised face. On the E! channel8217;s countdown to the Oscars pre-red-carpet coverage began at noon, Isaac Mizrahi managed to keep his hands to himself 8212; apparently trying not to repeat his groping of Scarlett Johansson8217;s breasts before the Golden Globes awards 8212; but he did ask Dolly Parton whether she was wearing a wig he asked her if she kept her hairstyle on a 8220;shelf8221;.

Gay themes were inevitable in a year that included both Brokeback Mountain and Capote, though the film about the author of In Cold Blood also carried a message that is particularly dear to Hollywood: Murderers are bad, but journalists are worse.

The stage, meant to evoke old-fashioned movie palaces, was relatively somber for an Oscar event but in keeping with the spirit of the room. So were the clothes: most actresses wore sober, dark and jewel-coloured gowns, and even Dolly Parton looked more ike a post-op Faye Dunaway than a cheerful country-western singer. Other entertainers also kept the mood dark. Kathleen York sang the theme she wrote with Michael Becker for Crash in front of what looked like a burning car: new flights of literalism.

Even on the pre-show on E!, some stars tried to steer conversation away from fashion, makeup and plastic surgery to deeper concerns. Naomi Watts,said that she had chosen not to take a limousine to the awards ceremony. She low-keyed it with a chauffeur-driven hybrid Lexus, instead. As she put it, 8220;We are just doing what we can to help change the environment.8221; 8212; NYT