Putting the PC Back into the Academy Awards

With no Lord of the Rings film this year to ruin their festivities, Hollywood can get back to what it believes it does best – politics. Yes, with the Oscar-bait season now in full swing, there is a laundry list of politically charged pictures in the running for Best Picture.

Here is just a small list of the potential nominees …

• "Good Night, and Good Luck," the George Clooney flick that deals with the "Red Scare" era and beats up on Senator Joe McCarthy
• "North Country," which stars Charlize Theron and tells the story of sexually harassed female workers
• "Transamerica," where Felicity Huffman ("Desparate Housewives") is cast as a pre-operative transsexual who finds out that years earlier he had fathered a child
• "Brokeback Mountain," which is a cowboy movie with a new gay twist
• "Syriana," a George Clooney-Matt Damon matchup with a story that expands upon the liberal mantra "It's all about oil"
• "Jarhead," an atypical war film based on a Marine-bashing book
• "Rent," a Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning play that was adapted for the big screen and tells the tale of residents in the East Village of New York City who have AIDS and engage in alternative lifestyles
• "Mrs. Henderson Presents," in which Judi Dench plays a female theater owner who has her thespians perform naked