here to discuss the politics of the oscars, alex wagner and ann hornaday. ing us, ann. you're the expert. every time when i think about it, a decade, i try to think about what was going on at the time. the south in the late '30s was sort of vaguely english to make the english look good. the 1950s movies about biblical times and the way we treated slaves. it's really about the way we treat black people in america in those days. it's always about the present. i think "argo" is about the need of the country to win one of these damn things overseas for once. >> i think that's a point very well taken. movies are always allegories. we've talked about this before, too. this is an amazing year for washington process being the star of these movies. we had "argo." we had "lincoln" and "zero dark thirty," all of which really lifted the veil on these processes, and in the case of "lincoln" a process we're mired in in a dysfunctional way showing them working. what's different with last year's movies is there was this lack of cynicism in all of them. even though they were

that's his vision that he had. >> it is sunday night. >> good point. >> ann hornaday. me. >> bill: follow ann at the washington post, of course at washingtonpost.com. from the sublime to the ridiculous life of politics where brad woodhouse and i spend most of our time. >> that's right. >> this is "the bill press show." agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. the bar harbor bake is really worth trying. [ male announcer ] get more during red lobster's lobsterfest. with the year's largest selection of mouth-watering lobster entrees. like our delicious lobster lover's dream, featuring two kinds of succulent lobster tails. or our savory, new grilled maine lobster and lobster tacos. it's back, but not for long. [ woman ] our guests go crazy for lobsterfest. my favorite entree is the lobster lover's dream. what's yours? come celeb

ann hornaday from "the washington post."whether "zero dark thirty" is being swift voted. debate of torture in that movie, but are you suggesting in this proxy campaign against the movie that other studios might be buying it? >> that would be pure speculation and i think it's events. there was a spontaneous disen n disengenen with criticism of the movie that came out when it started being screened in washington especially when journalists started watching it and weighed in. >> gave it a lot of attention. >> you're exactly right. so, that was, you know, i don't think there was anything conspiratorial about that. i think there was a convenient confluence of timing when the movie was released here and senator feinstein and mccain and leaven fired off their letter to sony criticizing the depiction of torture and the timing of that event with the release of their 6,000 page report, convenient. >> so washington. i mean, it's an important, legitimate debate of torture but talking about whether catherine bigalow should win an award.