Slumdog Millionaire Wins 8 Oscars

I will pay the price today for staying up until midnight and watching the Academy Awards Sunday night and I honestly can’t explain why I find myself glued to this show each year. I’m certainly not into the celebrity thing, could care less about the fashion angle and find the motion picture industry filled with more than their share of self-righteous egomaniacs who have been put on too big a pedestal. With that said I like many of you have my favorites and like to see if those movies and actors are rewarded for their efforts. It’s obviously important to win and I really don’t buy into that “I’m just happy to be nominated” garbage because winning an Oscar stays with you for the rest of your life and beyond. In death those that have won a statue or two are always identified as Academy Award winners as they don’t write in an obituary that you were nominated once. It’s kind of like being elected to the Hall of Fame in baseball or football as you are forever known as Hall of Famer which carries with it a certain stature that goes far beyond being al All-Star or the like.

Movie stars often seem larger than life but when they are on that stage clutching that first-ever Oscar they are as close to everyday people as they might ever be again. They may make their living from acting but when their name is announced as a winner their emotions sometimes get the best of them as they realize a dream they’ve had for years has been fulfilled. At that moment you can almost relate to what they are feeling and frankly it doesn’t matter if they make millions for a film or live in a mansion overlooking the beach.

To me last night’s highlight was the success of the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” which my wife and I both loved. The film sort of came out of nowhere to be one of the feel good stories of the year and there must have been about 50 members of the cast and crew in attendance enjoying every single moment of the evening as they kept raking in Oscars, including the big one for Best Picture. The movie itself was about overcoming odds and believing in your dreams and Hollywood, for all its faults, does deliver us some great stories which we need now more than ever.