The Week In

For the annual spectacle that is the Oscars, two of Cosmodrome's resident film snobs/celebrity culture experts will debate the event in real-time.

Here's their prepared opening statements, and don't forget to check back post-show for the blow-by-blow account.

The Film Snob, Jeff

Every year, the Academy nominates a handful of Hollywood films – films that were distributed by subsidiary companies like Focus Features, New Line Cinema, and Warner Independent Pictures – in a race that will allow one or two lucky prestige films to join the ranks of big blockbusters in making a fuck-ton of money. For a movie-snob like myself, the reason to root for one of these films over another usually has less to do with the quality of the movies – which are mostly bad, anyway – than it does with a war of ideas in the culture. If the Oscars provide one good public service, it’s the free publicity that it gives to one or two slightly offbeat Hollywood films.

Damn, I’ve got to get to Russia, soon.

For those of us more interested in the section of the Expedia email revealing what plane is making the trip than, say, that the flight leaves at 6:30 in the morning, this week’s announcement of the conglomeration of all Russian aircraft companies was a call to action.