Taking on the issues at the Oscars

February 25, 2008 In a year when larger events -- the presidential election, the war in Iraq, the writers strike -- overshadowed and even threatened to undo the Academy Awards, Oscar responded Sunday night by incorporating those topics into the show. Host Jon Stewart, already a vocal presence about the strike on his own late-night series, made a number of joking references to the walkout that shut down Hollywood for three months. Continuing to riff on the labor stoppage, he referenced the cancellation of the Vanity Fair party with a joke about how writers were treated in Hollywood.

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