Frida Pinto and Rubina Ali from the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” greet each other at the Governor’s Ball following the 81st Academy Awards Sunday, Feb. 22, 2009, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

And the Oscar goes to…..Slumdog Millionaire!

Every so often a wonderful movie about India wins a series of Oscars promising to finally put the face of this massive culture on the map. Gandhi, A Passage to India, Slumdog Millionaire.  But after the initial euphoria, the world eventually goes back to life as they know it. This time, after sweeping the Oscars with eight awards, India’s slumdogs are headed back to the slums.

The movie has reached massive acclaim in a very short span of time. Americans love it as it offers the romance of a rags- to-riches story artfully crafted by the creative hand of Danny Boyle, a proven talent in film-making. Indians on the other hand have had mixed responses about what the movie portrayed and the fact that its producers have exploited those who live in abject poverty.

So the question is did India actually win? Or was it simply a convenient subject for Hollywood?

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Despite this year’s shortened Hollywood award season and last minute preparations, organizers managed to up the green cred for entertainment’s premier event, the Oscars®.

During the telecast, host Jon Stewart mentioned that the Oscars® had gone green, but didn’t go into any details…I was left wondering, “How green?” A quick trip to the Oscars website revealed a lot of detail. Some initiatives were simple prerequisites for any greening program, such as:

• Recycling collection for glass, paper, metal and plastics
• Use of low-VOC paints in the green room
• Reuse of anything and everything possible after the show, including plants, furniture, and set pieces
• Purchase of paper products containing post-consumer content

Other elements were a bit more interesting:

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Allow me to begin by saying that the Oscars are a bloated display of lopsided wealth and navel gazing. But I love fashion. There’s nothing that makes me feel as good as donning a well-cut hemp pinafore over a clean, crisp unbleached organic cotton tee, my long kitty-cat earrings just brushing the tops of my shoulders. Which is why I read with interest the Oscar red carpet round-up Monday in someone else’s copy of the local paper. Once that person threw the paper down and ran away, I could really delve into the sartorial splendor that is Hollywood’s biggest event.

And I was not disappointed. Well, I was disappointed in the sheer waste of silk. And the fabrics that were obviously chemically processed. But I was not disappointed in the wealth of things to shake my head at. And believe me, I shook my head long and hard (not too hard; that’s a carbon suck) when I learned that An Inconvenient Truth won an Academy Award® for best documentary.

That movie puts me off my tempeh, with its hopeful ending and upbeat can-do message. I haven’t seen it, but I know enough about it to condemn it outright. It’s a salve for people who want to believe they can alter the history of our ecosphere by driving a Prius and reusing paper bags. They can’t. Their mere existence all but guarantees the doom of carbon-negative earth lovers like myself.

Here we are, drowning our glorious eco-orb with globo-refuse, and Al Gore’s mincing around about how we might all get our feet a little wet if we don’t consider driving smaller cars and turning off the occasional light. He had a real opportunity to frighten the living crap out of everyone in the Western World, and he let it go. What a wuss. Give me an Orson Welles, who didn’t bat an eye when the American public wet its collective pants at his War of the Worlds broadcast.

Even the title leaves untapped fear and misery on the table. An Inconvenient Truth, indeed. How about ‘We’re All Going to Die And It’s Your Fault (I’m Talking To You, China)’? Imagine that coming out of Jerry Seinfeld’s mouth as he read the list of nominees.

But no, Al Gore chose to add to the atmosphere of waste at this year’s Oscars. Wasted resources, wasted fabric, wasted opportunities for worldwide guilt and abject fear. But I have to admit I liked Reese Witherspoon’s dress.