Anyone who saw or read about the Golden Globes knows that many of the honored films and TV shows are hardly "family fare".  There’s "Brokeback Mountain" (the so-called "gay cowboy" movie), "Weeds" (a very funny show on Showtime about a Mom who deals in dope in an upscale California suburb), and "Syriana" (a George Clooney movie which depicts Middle Eastern people as, you know, people like you and me), "Munich" (a Spielberg epic which discusses the futility of spiraling violence), and "Transexual" (Felicity Huffman, one of my favorite actresses, won the Golden Globe, protraying a man becoming a woman).  And another great actor, Phillip Seymore Hoffman won the Golden Globe for the very gay, capital punishment-hating, author Truman Capote (in "Capote", of course).

Obviously, this "trend" — if one can call it that — is displeasing to the social conservative set:

"Once again, the media elites are proving that their pet projects are more important than profit," Janice Crouse, of Concerned Women for America, said.

"None of the three movies – Capote, Transamerica or Brokeback Mountain – is a box office hit. Brokeback Mountain has barely topped $25 million in ticket sales."

"If America isn’t watching these films, why are they winning the awards?"

I think she has a point.  Artistic merit should be based solely on popularity.  Which means that, in 2004, the following can be said without fear of contradiction:

• Million Dollar Baby was not the Best Movie Of 2004; Shrek 2 was.
• Garfield: The Movie was better than Ray (the Ray Charles biopic which received 6 Academy Award nominations)
• Shrek 2  is a better movie than Passion Of The Christ
• Fahrenheit 451 is a better movie than the following "family" pictures: The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Garfield: The Movie, Christmas With The Kranks, Miracle, King Arthur, A Cinderella Story, Fat Albert, and Around The World In 80 Days

Well, you get the idea.

But what stop there?!?  Why limit this to artistic merit??  Perhaps physical merit should be judged on popularity, too.  Scrap the Super Bowl, I say!  Let’s just vote on the champion!