Mar 03, 2006  |  By: JEFF GANNON  | COMMENTS     

JUDGING FROM THE nominees for Best Picture, it appears that Hollywood has decided that 2006 will be "The Year of the Gays." Two of the five films competing for the Best Picture award-—-"Brokeback Mountain" and "Capote"- —-have gay themes. The lead actress in a movie that didn’t make the cut, "Transamerica," a story about a transgender character, is poised to win an Oscar for her performance.

While none of these productions are box-office hits, Hollywood is nonetheless touting them as the best it has to offer. Unfortunately, that harms the very films and subject matter the studios are trying to promote.

There was a time when Hollywood reflected traditional values, but now it seems to be at war with them. A substantial number of Americans, particularly in the heartland, perceive Hollywood to be a threat to cultural norms.

Who can blame them? "Capote" is a film about one of the most flamboyant, effeminate homosexuals of the 20th century. "Transamerica" focuses on a subject most Americans may never understand, let alone be sympathetic to.

BUT A MOVIE about gay cowboys is the straw that "Broke-the-camel’s-back." Making icons of American masculinity the central figures in a same-sex tryst, complete with on-screen anal intercourse, crosses the line.

All three of these movies together provide red meat to the "family values" merchants that issue dire warnings about the "homosexual agenda."

They posit that the preponderance of these gay-friendly movies at a time when the country wrestles with same-sex marriage as a political issue is no coincidence.

Another of this year’s candidates for Best Picture is George Clooney’s "Good Night and Good Luck." The film recounts the McCarthy era and its effect on American journalism, making a not-so-subtle comparison to current events. For the record, there were Communists in Hollywood and the State Department during that period. And they’re still there.

When legendary director Elia Kazan was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Academy in 1999, hundreds of attendees refused to applaud. In 1952, Kazan had cooperated with the House Committee on Un-American Activities investigation of Communist sympathizers in Hollywood.

At this year’s awards ceremonies, will the actors refrain from expressing their political views? Not likely, since the seething rage of Hollywood elites toward the Bush administration has reached critical levels.

Last week, Alec Baldwin called Vice President Dick Cheney a "terrorist," a point of view shared by many of his colleagues in the entertainment industry. Richard Dreyfus chimed in with an appeal for the impeachment of George Bush.

Robert Redford claimed, "Watergate … is happening every day."

JUST AS SIGNIFICANT as the political overtones is the assumption by many that nominating gay-themed films for honors indicates tacit approval of their content. The cultural divide is so great that you need only look at the most successful films of the past five years to understand this phenomenon.

Mel Gibson’s "Passion of the Christ" is a film that Hollywood refused and did everything it could to stop. "Passion" overcame the obstacles placed before it by the Hollywood establishment to reach an audience that rarely goes to see a feature film.

Hollywood continues to be tone-deaf, which accounts for its growing irrelevance. The three films with gay themes may in fact be terrific and the subject matter important, but the fact that they are coming out of Hollywood and being overly celebrated in an "in your face" manner, probably makes many less inclined to view them.

A few weeks ago, an activist asked President Bush if he had seen "Brokeback Mountain." He replied, "I haven’t seen it. … I’ve heard about it." He expressed the attitude of most Americans who are rejecting the message because of the messenger. This is the unfortunate result when entertainment and politics become virtually indistinguishable.