The Extremities of Not Being Talked About

THE PRINCE OF WALES:
Ah, my congratulations, Wilde. Your play is a great success. The whole of London's talking about you.
OSCAR WILDE:
Your highness, there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
(There follows fifteen seconds of restrained and sycophantic laughter)
THE PRINCE OF WALES:
Oh, very witty, Wilde ..... very, very witty.
JAMES McNEILL WHISTLER:
There is only one thing in the world worse than being witty, and that is not being witty.

Monty Python's Flying Circus -
"Oscar Wilde"

I've always loved that Monty Python dialogue, the take-off of the so-called Oscar Wilde witticism. The absurdity of it.

And yet ... how absurd is it? How unreal?

I thought about it last night when I was watching the Oscars. Suddenly it wasn't so absurd, although someone was.

I was watching the 'In Memoriam' section of the Oscars where oh-my-god-what-happened-to-sweet-Baby-James was strumming along singing, "In My Life", while clips of movies featuring actors who died in 2009 along with their portrait-stills, showed in the background.

As the song faded out and Sweet-Baby-James' guitar stopped pretending to weep , I thought, "Hey where was Farrah Fawcett?" I played it back, assuming I'd missed it.

I remembered Farrah Fawcett dying the same day as Michael Jackson. I KNEW I hadn't gotten the year wrong. I watched again, carefully.

She wasn't there.

Why not?

For her role in "Extremities" alone, she should have been. I just LOVED the bit where she tortured that rapist dick-head!

But the powers-that-be chose to not choose Farrah.

And I suppose that it just goes to show, there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

All things must pass.

Nothing changes.

There's only one thing wrong with being shown in the Oscars' "In Memoriam", and that's not being shown in the Oscars' "In Memoriam".

Or is it the other way around?

Stay tuned.