The SAG Awards: Jewels, Monarchs and Billionaires

Call us crazy, but what does it say about our culture that in the midst of a general American decline, on the eve of austerity measures poised to virtually eliminate the social safety net, and in the middle of a democratic movement in the Middle East that in a matter of months could potentially take away access to all the cheap, ill-gotten oil our society is built on, do we choose to elevate films about a power-hungry billionaire, a pitiable British monarch and ballet, while lavishing praise and attention upon an actress–Natalie Portman–for showing up to her celebration decked out in $2 million worth of jewels?