All that glitters not Oscar gold

Oscar night is a celebration, a journey into the magic only Hollywood can create.

If only.

Yes, the Oscars recognize great achievements in film; and, yes, this year was particularly noteworthy, with nominees that explored worlds usually shunned by the gold statuette — “Nomadland,” “One Night in Miami,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Judas and the Black Messiah.”

“It was definitely one of the most diverse slates of nominees in terms of gender and race,”

Rob Reynolds of Al Jazeera said. “There were nine actors of color in the acting categories. There were 76 different nominations for 70 women in a variety of categories.”

And, even more poignantly, you see the winners accept their awards, and they exhibit so much pride, joy and energy that you swear they could jump halfway to the moon.

But — there is always a “but” with Oscar night — the movies

and performances recognized are undermined by the ceremony that recognizes them.

Oscar night is Hollywood at its worst, driven by ego and excess and exorbitance — decadence so profound that it would make the ancient Romans look like wallflowers.

Hyperbole?

Perhaps, but consider the

“red carpet” during the Oscar ceremony last Sunday — an exercise in poor taste that did nothing more than accentuate the income gap between the stars and the people who fund their excess through high ticket prices.

TV hosts fawn over the outfits — and the stars who wear them — with an obsequiousness that raises the smarm-o-meter to the breaking point.

Does any outfit, no matter how grand it may seem, merit all

that oooing and aaahing and shrieking?

A newborn baby, yes; an outlandish outfit, no.

Former Oscar winner Regina King’s “ornate gown absolutely slayed the red carpet,” an entertainment journalist wrote of the outfit, estimated to cost $10,000. Really?

Yes, really.

“King looked absolutely stunning at the 93rd Academy Awards,” the journalist wrote.

There is that word “absolutely” again — itself an exercise in excess.

Excess was the watchword in 2013 when Jennifer Lawrence wore a $4 million gown; it was loaned to her, as the face of the brand, by Dior Couture, according to Finances Online; but the cost was still stunning, and it made you wonder how we got to this point? How did a celebrity

come to sporting a $4 million dress when a hoodie and blue jeans would do just as well?

OK, no one expects a movie star to wear a hoodie and blue jeans at the ceremony, but fashion lies in the eyes of the millionaire, and excess is excess, no matter what the occasion.

After strutting like peacocks on the “red carpet,” some of these stars, women and men, then head to the podium to expound on the social ills that afflict our country — sanctimony that reflects how oblivious they are.

Then, again, maybe it is sanctimonious to condemn others for sanctimony; these stars are human, after all, and they have a right to display their finery, earned through hard — and, in some cases — magnificent work.

Also, some of these stars have done admirable charity work,

including Brad Pitt, who won an Oscar for his fine, comic turn as a stuntman in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” last year.

Like other stars, Pitt has supported numerous worthy causes — UNICEF, Cure Autism Now, Doctors Without Borders — and nothing he wears could offset the good he has done.

“The Oscars’ worst tendencies towards bloat and self-congratulations were only amplified in the new setting,” Dave Nemetz of TV Line wrote. “Every Oscar broadcast has its slow parts. This year, it felt like all slow parts.”

Perhaps, but the parts seemed more outrageous than slow.

Chris Pizzello / Associated Press Stars bask in the moment last week. Outstanding films and performances are undermined by the ceremony that recognizes them.