Out of touch and proud of it...

This, from his Oscar acceptance speech, is one of the reasons that George Clooney is my pretend movie boyfriend:

"And finally, I would say that, you know, we are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in a while. I think it's probably a good thing. We're the ones who talk about AIDS when it was just being whispered, and we talked about civil rights when it wasn't really popular. And we, you know, we bring up subjects. This Academy, this group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. I'm proud to be a part of this Academy. Proud to be part of this community, and proud to be out of touch."

Not, of course, that I agree unreservedly with his assessment. I do think Hollywood is largely out of touch with the sensibilities of a significant portion of their audience. I think there is a fundamental lack of respect and an underestimation of both the audience's intelligence and its desires.

No, what I like about Clooney's statement is the heartfelt belief that Hollywood can change things for the better; that it can be the leading edge of the nation's opinions about social and societal issues. This is optimism about what can be good about the arts and the art of filmmaking.