ROGER SIMON: Sorry, Spike Lee: I’m to Blame for the ‘White Oscars:’

Woody Allen is famous for not attending the Oscars and not even reading his reviews.  I used to find that a bit pretentious, but then I read an interview with Woody (with whom I worked decades ago) in the latest edition of Written By, the magazine of the Writers Guild.  In answer to the question “You don’t read reviews?” Woody responded as follows:

I’m usually on to another film at the time.  Because the whole fun is making the film.  The results of the film and the notions of legacies and things like that never interested me. … I never joined the Academy.  I never participated in any of that stuff.  I just want to work and enjoy myself working.  And one day either people will say, “We’re never going to back a film of yours again,” or I’ll suddenly get a massive coronary on the set and that will be the end.  But apart from that, I just like to work.  I’m happy in the room writing and I’m happy on the set working.

Academy members — black, white and heliotrope — would be wise to listen to Woody’s words.  Anyone who is fortunate enough to earn tons of money making movies is far and away among the most privileged human beings on the planet.  Pretending you’re a  “social justice warrior” while living in a thirty million dollar mansion is creepy beyond words.

Exactly — as with a rock musician who seem more interested in PETA, environmentalism, or anti-war protests (when a Republican is in the White House) then writing good new songs, when activism replaces the process of creation as the primary goal of an artist, it’s a signal that his best work is long behind him.