POLITICALLY CORRECT BUT UNPOPULAR

Lefty dominated Hollywood is losing its appeal for middle Americans:

Never before have the nominees for the best picture Academy Award been so exclusively devoted to liberal dreams, liberal nightmares. And there is a buzz of consternation among the experts. It's not just that the content of the best picture contenders (and most of those in the other major categories) has so little popular appeal. It's that "event" TV shows (the Golden Globes, the Emmys, even the Olympics) have, like the Oscars in recent years, been losing audiences.

To make matters worse, the movie box office swooned last year as well — attendance down by 6.2%, receipts down by 8.4%. Finally, the motion picture academy chose Jon Stewart to host this year's program; while he's a delight to the enlightened, he's not exactly beloved in the red states where, let's face it, most of the mass audience restively resides.

Four of the nominees for best film have grossed only in the $22-million to $55-million range, which means they are distinctly a minority taste — and probably have yet to turn a profit. The exception, "Brokeback Mountain," is a tidy success; it will have taken in about $75 million by Oscar night. But even so, it ranks only 33rd last year, far behind the real commercial winners such as "The Revenge of the Sith," "War of the Worlds" and, lest we forget, "Wedding Crashers" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," none of which, shall we say, had Oscar written all over it.

Conservatives may not know what's good, but they know shit when they smell it.