I turned on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last night, and quickly shut it off after hearing the phrase “nerd prom” about seven times and getting sideline reports from at least two guys wearing “wacky” bow ties. Hey, you know what would make the Oscars red carpet even worse? Add cable news pundits and smug DC spin doctors, all filmed on the one night of the year when they’re encouraged to be armchair comedians. Ugh, the worst.
Anyway, since they’re really good at countering the right’s argument that Hollywood is just a mouthpiece for the Democrats, Steven Spielberg showed up to present a parody featurette for Obama (in the vein of Lincoln), starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Barack Obama. It was…. decently funny, actually. Turns out Obama is a better comedy actor than most comedy actors. Also, it was worthwhile solely for reminding me of Bill the Butcher.
Say what you will about Gangs of New York‘s plot, my God, I want to live in that set. If a wild-eyed scientist screeched up to the curb in a time machine and asked me where I wanted to go, I’d be screaming “TOP HAT GANG FIGHT!” before he even got the words out of his mouth.