Oscar darling ‘Sinners’ might be the perfect movie for our trying times

A place haunted by hardships

Tonight — the Oscars. Stuff like the vampire flick “Sinners.” Takes place during the Jim Crow South. Now what’s better entertainment for a country with: seniors aging, incomes falling, prices rising, work diminishing, residents moving, thieves robbing, stores closing, patriotism waning, spring coming, poverty approaching, families disappearing, workers striking, schools protesting, immigrants marching, Jews fleeing and Hollywood wobbling.

Hollywood. Land of the free, home of the craven. The USA’s falling on its behind, but movie people are voting in push-up bras.

Costs of fame

Not every entry Oscar maybe name’s 100% red-hot. Some have the excitement of a manhole cover. So let me tell you about a former awardee. All true. I know this as a fact:

• $50,000 for honoree’s table
• $200 for vet to house honoree’s dog
• The cost of a private plane, with pilots and stewardesses
• $200 tip to regular driver for the extra early flight
• $500 for congratulatory journal ad
• $300 for private airplane’s breakfast on board
• $1,500 for hair, makeup, nails
• $4,000 for outfit for honoree
• $1,500 for son’s new tux
• $500 for daughter’s dress

Poker game’s call to action

A Long Island charity poker event marks a 10-year milestone of helping the needy. The nonprofit Life’s Angels is dedicated to those whom life’s “dealt a tough hand.”

The special helps needy children, a mother requiring surgery, scholarships sending kids with disabilities to summer camp. It also delivers meals to shelters, provides holiday support to struggling families, even delivered cooked food to front-line nurses during the pandemic.

Life’s Angels will host its 10th annual charity poker tournament on April 29 at the Mansion at Oyster Bay in Woodbury, NY. It features two grand prizes of seats at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. 

State of affairs

I want to know how today’s courtrooms can decide criminals should be let loose.

A while ago, I toured Delaware, where nobody, not one local body, would mouth the name Biden. His home-state neighbors heard nothing, spoke nothing, breathed nothing. Besides knowing the state’s name, they knew nothing.

This just-happened story could only have happened in dimwitted Delaware. Dimwitted because their Chancery Court is the corporate battlefield where Earth’s biggest companies fight over billions and decide if a criminal should be let loose.

This particular courtroom was the stage for a high-stakes corporate showdown. A place where CEOs win or lose fortunes and even Elon Musk compensation packages get fought over.

Just recently the opposing lawyer threw a box of Kleenex at attorney Stuart Slotnick and quipped, “You’re going to need these.” The tissues were premature. Slotnick won his case. Maybe the lawyer who threw the Kleenex is the one wiping his own nose — or whatever part required cleansing.

So this drunk waddled up to the parking meter, inserted the necessary change, saw the dial change and said: “How do you like that? I weigh an hour.”

Only in New York, kids, only in New York.