Shrub actually needs to get out to Hollywood for some grecian 2000...he is
going greyer than the seepage from my septic tank.
Oscar winner blasts 'fictitious president' on Iraq war
24.03.2003
Politics grabbed centre stage at the Academy Awards today as maverick
director Michael Moore charged President George W Bush with waging a
"fictitious war" against Iraq.
Winning the Best Documentary Feature award for his anti-gun film Bowling
for Columbine, Moore appeared on stage backed by other nominees in the
category.
Referring to his colleagues as people who preferred fact to fiction, Moore
described Bush as a fictitious president.
"We live in a time with fictitious election results that elect fictitious
presidents," he said. "We live in a time when we have a man sending us to
war for fictitious reasons."
Wagging his finger from the stage, to both applause and boos from the
audience, Moore said; "We are against this war, Mr Bush. Shame on you" as
the music came up and began to drown him out.
Moore won the Oscar for best documentary for Bowling for Columbine, a
provocative film on the roots of gun violence in America, whose title
refers to the Colorado high school where two students massacred 13 people
before killing themselves in 1999.
Moore's outburst shattered the restraint that had marked today's Oscar
ceremony where many celebrities wore discreet peace pins or peace doves on
their gowns and tuxedos but otherwise kept their opinions largely to
themselves.
Moore had given virtually the same speech when he won an Independent Spirit
Award for Bowling for Columbine on Saturday, but then he had been greeted
only with cheers.
Moore, author of the controversial but best-selling Stupid White Men, which
attacks Bush and senior figures in his administration, told reporters
backstage at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre: "I'm an American and you don't
leave your citizenship when you enter the doors of the Kodak Theatre.
That's what's great about being an American."
"I say tonight I put America in a good light. I showed how vital it is to
have free speech in this country."
Moore however said he did not think the Oscar ceremony should have been
postponed because of the war with Iraq. Oscar organisers spent much of the
week agonizing over whether to go ahead or not, and decided to ax the
glitzy red carpet arrivals to tone down the party atmosphere.
"I think it is important to have the Oscars and after all isn't that what
we were fighting for - our American way of life? What could be more
American than the Oscars," he told reporters.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3251646&thesection=news&thesubsection=world
