Go Away, USA

Only last week we were commenting about Michael Medved's observation that "Hollywood Hates America" (also the title of Medved's best-selling book.

And now all four major actor Oscars have been awarded to foreign actors. We're told that this is the first time in the history of the awards that this has ever happened.

Does anybody at all know Marion Cotillard (pictured), the best actress winner? Has anybody ever heard of her? And what about Tilda Swinton, the best supporting actress winner . . . ever heard of her? I guess it's now too much to expect that the winners in major categories would be actors that we've actually heard of, people we've actually seen in movies.

It sort of reminds me of Gloria Swanson's great line in Sunset Boulevard: "I'm as as big as ever. It's the pictures that got small."

I also love the way presenters now have to say "And the Oscar goes to," instead of "And the winner is . . ." It's gotten so bad you can't call anyone a winner anymore because that implies that others are losers. So, if you win the Oscar it simply "goes to" you. It might just as well have gone to someone else, but this time it "went to" you. How nice. It's all so politically correct.

Not that Oscar has lately worried about being politically INcorrect - especially when it comes to the GOP. The show wasn't on for ten minutes last night before the droll and boring host Jon Stewart started lambasting McCain on the issue of age. He then when on to ask the entire audience: "So, which Democrat are you voting for?"

So much for correctness. So much for class.

Wrong Color

Barack Obama will most likely not be the next President of the United States and it all has to do with color.

But it's not the color of his skin that may stop him. No, not that.

It's the color of his eyes.

Get this: Even though only 20 percent of all Americans have blue, gray or hazel eyes nearly every American president since 1900 has had blue, gray or hazel eyes. And 38 of our 43 presidents have had blue eyes. Obama's eyes are brown. Hillary's are blue/grey. McCain's are blue.

These astonishing facts about presidential eye color are reported by Michael Medved on his blog. Medved says he was tipped off to this by a friend of his who is a film and advertising composer. Medved did a bit of research and managed to ascertain the color of presidential eyes beginning with George Washington (penetrating blue/grey) and continuing all the way up to George W (vividly blue).

And this, too: The few presidents with brown or darker eyes did not fare well. Lyndon Johnson was hounded out of office and Richard Nixon was forced to resign because of the Watergate scandal. And the others? Andrew Johnson (impeached) Chester Arthur (Remember him?) and John Q. Adams (seated after a disputed election and served only one term before being voted out).

As a brown-eyed person myself I was pretty much blown away by this history which I had never heard about. It's got to be disheartening for so many of us with soft, sympathetic, loving brown eyes.

But look at it this way: As more people of color emerge, so too will dark eyes ascend. In other words, Obama could be eyeing the future in more ways than one. Still, this marks yet another area where he's called upon to be a trail blazer. It's a heavy burden.