Sunday Roundup

At this week's State of the Union, President Obama succeeded in shifting the tone from "You Lie!" to what HuffPost's Howard Fineman called a "'Love Train' Moment." Hollywood should take note because no sooner were this year's Oscar nominations announced than the dirty politicking began, with charges that The King's Speech is historically inaccurate and that the sympathetic stuttering monarch at its center was actually a dim-witted Nazi appeaser (full disclosure: I am hosting a party for Colin Firth and the film next week). It used to be that we had to wait until an election year for negative campaigning, rumor-mongering, mud-slinging, and win-at-all-cost consultants. But, now, we get to be treated to these unseemly political staples every year come Oscar time. In past years, we saw similar mud being slung at A Beautiful Mind, and The Queen. What's next, rumors that Woody and Buzz from Toy Story 3 are secret lovers? The Academy clearly didn't get The New Civility memo.