Life imitating art imitating life

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

Both Hollywood and Bollywood have been atwitter with this recent story:

Days after his whirlwind Oscars-and-Disney tour of Los Angeles, ten-year-old 'Slumdog Millionaire' actor Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail was physically disciplined in the presence of onlookers in the Dharavi slum in Bandra, Mumbai [Thursday]. The Sun reports that the child actor was slapped and kicked by his father for refusing to speak to the press a day after his lengthy return flight from the United States.

I mention this only because I saw Slumdog Millionaire last evening, and, while it's what I'd call a nice picture, it's hard to believe it's better than its competitors for Best Picture Oscar®. Perhaps this wasn't the year to select a homosexually-oriented movie (Or, perhaps, any movie with Sean Penn in it is Oscar®worthy.), or a politically-tinged one. At any rate, SM just didn't seem to me to have the power of other winners I've seen.

UPDATE — I see that we haven't seen the last of unfortunate stories concerning SM's child stars.