Cecil B. DeMille holds his Best Picture Oscar for “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952). Hollywood is a nest of vipers whose public figures tend to be narcissists who behave like entitled children. Would American society have it any other way? After all, if the dream factory functioned like any other business, there would be no Academy Awards ceremony, the most glamorous spectacle of celebrity self-love ever devised. There’s a good reason why the Oscar statuette is gold; there are no silver medals here, just winners and losers.

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