A broadcast on behalf of the Luvvies Party
BREXIT, Trump, equality, Trump, racist, sexist, world gone mad, government lies, Hitler, refugees, Trident, Article 50, our lives matter, diversity, building walls, building bridges, Muslim ban, travel ban, Trump, Trump, Trumpety Trump.
Welcome to a political broadcast on behalf of the International Luvvies Party – or the Baftas as it is otherwise known.
There has been a recent trend for celebrities to use film award ceremonies to lecture audiences about politics and morality, and last night’s show was no exception.
La La Land star Emma Stone, winner of the Best Actress award, took the opportunity to fuzzily point out that ‘the world is going through a bit of a time, a divisive time’ and she was glad that ‘the positive gift of creativity can transcend borders and help people feel a little less alone.’ Yes, tap dancing does that to me, too.
Veteran director Ken Loach went onstage to call the Conservatives ‘a disgrace’ and called for a change of Government, but then again doesn’t he always? Best Supporting Actress Viola Davis said that it was ‘everyone’s duty to speak out against political injustice’ and told an emotional tale about her janitor father, the ‘heavy boot of Jim Crow’ and emphasized that black ‘lives matter.’
Accepting his award for best original screenplay, Ken Lonergan, director of hit film Manchester By The Sea, explained how his 15-year-old daughter woke up in tears the morning after President Trump was elected and subsequently had been on five anti-Trump marches. ‘I am very, very proud of her,’ he said, as the audience cheered and clapped. Zoe Ball set the tone when interviewing stars on the red carpet earlier in the evening. She spoke to Damien Chazelle, the director of feelgood musical La La Land, which went on to win best film.
‘Thank you for La La Land, people really needed it. I think we all needed that film. Song and dance and romance and dreams is something that people really need in the current climate,’ Zoe gushed, as if the Nazis were goose-stepping down the Mall at that very moment.
Yes folks. The award ceremony turned out to be another night for richly remunerated stars to burnish their lefty credentials and bleeding hearts under the glare of the spotlights. The world might be in a ‘dark place’ right now, as so many of them insisted, but what they fail to realise is that if that is the case, the last thing anyone needs is sanctimonious speeches from people of privilege like them.
Host Stephen Fry made as many jokes about President Trump as he possibly could – at one point referring to him as a ‘blithering idiot’ – and perhaps this one-note humour led to an oddly lacklustre evening. Fry lumbered around like the Honey Monster in a dinner suit, making little effort to lift the celebrity gloom.
‘I can’t help feeling the best of us have gone,’ he mused glumly, after a filmed tribute to recently deceased stars of stage and screen. Stars banging on about pet causes on nights like this might make them feel good about themselves, but it is becoming boring for those of us watching at home. Look. If they want to go into politics they could do so. Only we all know that it doesn’t pay as much money and it isn’t half so much fun.