Oscar from the pulpit

Someone dressed up like The Joker -- Heath Ledger's version -- and another did a Richard Nixon impression of sorts, but with the "Frost/Nixon" character played as a winged monkey. You see, it was a "Wizard of Oz"/Oscar tribute/mashup at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Burbank on Sunday dubbed "Oscar Extravaganza."

Say, does the Academy know about this. No, really. Or do next year's producers need a head start on ideas?

Because so many industry folks live in the area, home to and frequent butt of "The Tonight Show" jokes going back decades, the church has had an annual ritual of putting on a live show Oscar morning. The goal is to acknowledge Burbank as a company town and, at the same time, put the whole awards grab in perspective, pastor Paul Clairville told The Burbank Leader.

It's also to honor the most-thanked individual in Oscar history -- God. (Hey, isn't that an Aussie drinking game?)

This was the seventh year for the Oscar-centric service. Quick question: does the studio exec involved, identified in the paper as working in "rights and clearance," not know just how picky Oscar is about his trademark? Seems odd. And ironic. And hilarious. 

If we'd been there ourselves, and we so wish we had, we couldn't have come up with a scene setter like this:

"The performance ended with a song in honor of Jesus, before the congregation stood and sang along as the church's garage band played a punk rock song about God that had attendees tapping their feet and bobbing their heads to the sounds of drums and electric guitars."

Not sure what's better here, the actual event or the description of it. Ah, community journalism (at a paper that's owned by the Los Angeles Times).

Check here for the full story -- with photos! -- here for a video of the sermon (but not the show) and here for a local columnist's observations. Now go in peace.