There are few things more unappealing than the orgy of self-adulation one witnesses during a celebrity awards show.

Yes, the Oscar nominations are here, and America simply can't afford to stand idly by anymore. Not after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had the audacity to claim misleadingly that Brad Pitt not only had engaged in acting this past year but also was among the finest to practice the craft.

Absurdity of such scope is one of the reasons the Oscars continue to lose viewers and hemorrhage influence. Sometimes it seems as if the Academy has a desire to disconnect from the average moviegoer. Last year's Oscars telecast, accordingly, logged the show's tiniest audience on record.

There seem to be a number of problems at play: The most talented actors often star in movies Americans don't care very much about, while the movies we do care about, all too often, feature Leonardo DiCaprio. This toxic formula has set our expectations to tragic lows.

In the '70s, audiences were treated to Oscar-worthy performances by names such as De Niro, Pacino, Nicholson and Hoffman, stars who regularly were involved in artistically meaningful films that also could draw crowds.

These days, conversely, there is a movement afoot to convince us that the unsettling dullness of a Jake Gyllenhaal or a Mark Wahlberg is deserving of Oscars rather than pubic scorn.

Moreover, for the past decade, we've allowed half-baked, predictable traumadies, such as "American Beauty" and "Crash," to masquerade as thoughtful pieces of societal commentary and win Oscars. (I mean, permitting Roberto Benigni to escape the country with an Oscar for "Life Is Beautiful" in 1998 was a crime against not only history but also art.)

During these dark days, the gap between what we watch and what we're told to watch has continued to widen. This year, in fact, even with the rise in ticket prices, the cumulative average box-office gross of the Best Picture nominees is at its lowest level in more than two decades. Continued...