If Celebs Cared About Their Causes, the Oscars Wouldn’t Cost $44 Million

Hollywood honors itself every year at the Academy Awards. Lately, however, this is not an industry worthy of praise.

This year’s Oscars production cost a whopping $44 million to put together, according to a Forbes report. With celebrities virtue-signaling and using the event to amplify their leftist agendas, perhaps this money could be put to better use going to some of the causes these celebs actually preach about on a regular basis.

In terms of politicizing, this year’s Academy Awards went even beyond what was expected.

Former NBA star Kobe Bryant received an Oscar for a short film titled “Dear Basketball.” Keep in mind — Bryant was accused of rape in 2003 and settled the case out of court, yet he walked away from Sunday night’s Academy Awards with a golden statue in the year of #MeToo and #TimesUp.

But past accusations did not stop this individual from attacking Fox News host and LifeZette co-founder Laura Ingraham during the program. Bryant said, “As basketball players, we are really supposed to shut up and dribble, but I’m glad we do a little bit more than that.” The “shut up and dribble” comment, of course, references Ingraham’s recent remarks about Trump critic LeBron James as a play on her 2003 book, “Shut Up and Sing: How Elites from Hollywood, Politics, and the Media are Subverting America.”

With leftists trying to reduce the rights granted by the Second Amendment, it was only a matter of time before someone took a shot at law-abiding gun owners. That sentiment wound up coming from rapper Common, when he got up on stage and rapped the line, “Tell the NRA they are in God’s way.” This is from the same singer who honored FBI fugitive Assata Shakur in his music — a person who in 1973 killed a police officer in New Jersey. Common was also saying Sunday night, ironically, that the NRA is the problem — all while surrounded by armed security.

Jimmy Kimmel used the movie “Call Me By Your Name” — about the homosexual relationship between a 24-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy — to attack the Trump administration.

“We don’t make movies like ‘Call Me By Your Name’ to make money,” Kimmel said. “We make them to upset Mike Pence.”

This is the same Jimmy Kimmel who had a segment on “The Man Show” called “Guess What’s in My Pants?” He would get random women on the street to feel his crotch.

If these celebrities are so passionate about the causes for which they speak at great length, then maybe they should clean up their own acts before preaching. Hypocrisy does nothing but hurt one’s beliefs and causes.

Think about it: These people spend tens of millions of dollars to put together this show every year. Why not just donate that money to a charity or a cause they want to tout — or help stop the sexual assault these performers say they care so much about preventing? Remember, this is the same group of stars who have supported such sexual predators as Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and Roman Polanski in the past — and for years.

Related: ‘We Hate the Oscars!’ — Regular People Speak Up

All they seem to care about is feeding their egos. That’s certainly how their actions come across to the rest of America. These actors can say all they want on their live television awards show — but Hollywood’s toxic culture needs a huge makeover.

Until then, leftist celebrities’ opinions can go straight into a garbage can.

Tom Joyce is a freelance writer from the South Shore of Massachusetts. He covers sports, pop culture, and politics and has contributed to The Federalist, Newsday, ESPN, and other outlets.