Why Wasps Don't Watch the Oscars   Everybody I know watched the
Oscars, except the people I know best: the collection of
affluent Protestant families society typically refers to as “old
money.” These dynastic clans, who have held fortunes over
several generations, are traditionally anti-Hollywood, and their
disapproval of celebrity and the attention paid to movie stars
is never so apparent as it is during Oscar season.  Sure there
are famous stories of film icons getting rejected from patrician
country clubs and turned away by butlers who guard the doors at
formal parties in Newport and Palm Beach, but I notice Wasps’
distaste for Hollywood most at Oscar time. An easy way to detect
the hidden aversion is to ask an elderly Wasp who reads the
paper every day, “what happened at the Oscars?” Almost
invariably, the response is “I don’t know.”  I don’t think these
people are necessarily lying, but I do find it odd that anyone
glancing at a paper on the morning following the Academy Awards
could be unaware of the da