The 97th annual Academy Awards, otherwise known as the Oscars, took place March 2 at the Dolby Theatre, in the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires. The wildfires destroyed over 11,200 homes and businesses, and leveled 40,000 acres of land, displacing thousands of families throughout Southern California. 

Conan O’Brien, the host of this year’s Oscars, mentioned the fires in his opening monologue, emphasizing the need for normalcy in our times of trouble. But his short acknowledgement was not all that was said about the fires. LA firefighters were invited on stage in tribute to the work that they have done, and the lives lost in the devastation of the fires. The official Oscars website also encourages viewers to help donate to relief efforts, linking organizations such as the California Fire Foundation and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. 

Many celebrities have donated to relief efforts themselves, and many have lost their homes alongside the masses. Some have posted on social media trying to relate to their followers, relaying what they have lost to the fires. Yet, those posts were often made from the safety of their second or third homes, far away from the devastation of the fires — a millionaire and an everyday person are not affected the same way by the same disaster.

Watching wealthy celebrities in expensive outfits begs the question of why the Academy is asking everyday people to donate, when they have an entire bank’s worth of money sitting in the Dolby Theatre. The average cost of an outfit worn by an A-list celebrity to attend the Oscars is $1.5 million; enough money for a family to start to rebuild their lives. It seems almost dystopian, watching the elite celebrate themselves while many people in the same city, mere miles away, are struggling to survive after losing their entire livelihoods. 

The fires are just one example of the performative activism that stems from Hollywood. Celebrities will constantly endorse one thing publicly, while privately doing nothing for the cause, or sometimes even actively going against what they have advocated for publicly. They will often use social media to promote social justice or other ideals while not actually taking any action. 

So many celebrities have brought their performance off the screen and into everyday life. They pretend to be activists to appeal to those who need them to stand up and to those whose rights and lives are at stake, while these same celebrities are partying and not worrying about what will happen tomorrow.