Celebrities getting political at the Oscars? Give them an award

Being both old enough and shallow enough to remember the once seemingly annual horror of Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins’ political speeches at the Oscars, I understand why so many people experience a kind of inner death when celebrities heave themselves up on their political high horse at award ceremonies. From Vanessa Redgrave denouncing the Jewish Defense League as “Zionist hoodlums” in 1978 to Jared Leto giving a shout out to “all the dreamers… in the Ukraine and Venezuela” in 2014, the list of celebrities dabbling in politics at the Academy Awards is only slightly more impressive than Donald Trump’s movie cameos.

So I get why people feel weary at best, disgust at worst about the inevitable tub-thumping we’ll get at tomorrow night’s Oscars. Trump supporters will sneer at the out-of-touch, hysterical elitists who think they have a right to tell us normal folk what to do. As journalist (and daughter of John) Meghan McCain put it after the Golden Globes last month: “This Meryl Streep speech is why Trump won. And if people in Hollywood don’t start recognising why and how – you will help him get re-elected.” People voted Trump for lots of reasons; but I don’t think a desire to stick it to Meryl Streep was one of them.

Meanwhile liberals have been making similar arguments, if in less strident tones. They say that overpaid celebrities railing against the government will only turn the current political situation into an even bigger culture war: coastal elites versus hard-working midwesterners. And that only helps Trump.

Bipartisan as this take increasingly is, I don’t have much truck with it. Maybe it’s because there is something pretty hilarious about people saying celebrities shouldn’t talk about politics, when a celebrity is currently the president of the United States. The suggestion that actors are too privileged to talk to us ’umble, potato-faced peasants would work better if a Manhattan billionaire who lives in a literal golden palace hadn’t been elected on the basis that he really understands the average American. Celebrities are, after all, free citizens, and last time I checked, the US wasn’t a totalitarian state where criticism of our Dear Leader is forbidden on TV. But I’m guessing Steve Bannon is working on that.

I am writing this from America, and, over here, President Trump is the only story in town. Whether people support or fear him, he is the first and last topic of conversation for pretty much everyone I’ve talked to over the past fortnight. For American celebrities not to acknowledge this would make them look a lot more cosseted by privilege than a dislike of the president. Yes, there will be total uniformity of political opinion at the Oscars: the awards take place in California, after all, a solidly Democrat state. And yes, the president can then spin that as proof of liberal elitism.

But if everyone avoided doing things that might be reframed negatively by the president, they wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning. And some things are just plain wrong, whatever your politics: the president spreading false rumours about voter fraud and Swedish terror attacks; the senate voting to defund Planned Parenthood, the primary health provider for many low-income women. So if Republican celebrities aren’t speaking up – Robert Duvall, say, or Adam Sandler – well, maybe they don’t fancy defending the indefensible.

For every two celebrities (Viola Davis, Meryl Streep) who speak brilliantly about politics there will be at least 20 (Madonna, Tom Hiddleston) who put their gilded foot in it, which is pretty much the average ratio for humans in general. I’m OK with that. Everyone who feels strongly about these issues has a right to protest, and that includes gratingly self-important celebrities at massively high-profile events. If you don’t want to hear celebrities wanging on, maybe just don’t watch the Oscars. I hear there are other TV channels out there.

Celebrity protests rarely change things. After all, as President Trump and his supporters are keen to point out, all the celebrities in the world – and I mean that pretty much literally – couldn’t help Hillary Clinton get elected. But they certainly rattle the current president, a man so desperate to be recognised by Hollywood he insisted on appearing in Home Alone 2. Chipping away at his insatiably needy ego may well be one of the more powerful tools against him. For the first time in history, telling celebrities not to talk about politics sounds a lot less like sensible advice, and a lot more like a means of stifling powerful protest.