E! Online reports that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has committed to moving the Oscar nomination announcements from its traditional Tuesday perch in January to two days later. January 20, 2009, the original date of the announcements, is the date America inaugurates the winner of its biggest popularity contest, the Presidency. Don't even think I'm going to court trouble by assuming who the winner of that contest will be, but I pray that Price Waterhouse counts the votes instead of Diebold.

"It didn't make any sense for us to try to compete with [the inauguration] from a news point of view," said Academy Executive Administrator Ric Robertson. Poppycock, I say! (Did I just say poppycock?!) These nominations come on damn early in the morning. Unless President Whomever is getting sworn in at 5:30 AM, they can run the blasted nominations. What would happen if, on that day, Lindsay Lohan was revealed to be one of South Park's Crab People. Would the National Enquirer hold that news story because it's Inauguration Day? I think not. Does the Academy really think more people will pay attention on the Thursday after the inauguration? More than likely, at least half the country will be too worried about what's going to happen because their candidate didn't win, which is an even bigger problem for Oscar than fighting for column space in the newspaper.

The Academy can really start another cable war by having the nods appear exclusively on Fox News if the Democrats win or on CNN if the country will be ruled by John McCain ("not McClane -- he's in Die Hard!"). The loser in the contest will also have to appear alongside Karl Malden to read the nominations while the winner basks in the glory of a job that pays a lot less than a movie-star's salary. I don't doubt the Academy is doing this as a show of respect for our new leader; they just shouldn't pretend it's because they didn't want to fight for the headlines. But then again, the last time actors and the Presidency shared the news, we got Ronald Reagan. Whether that was good or bad I leave up to you.

Tags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Oscar awards