People in the same business slapping one another on the back should hardly be of interest to anyone outside that business, but to paraphrase "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" the business called "show" is an entirely different animal. That's why we display a disproportionate fascination with the Academy Awards, which basically provide an opportunity for certain lucky individuals to congratulate themselves for having secured employment in the movie industry.
They get away with this by pretending that the awards are about merit, when they're actually about image. It's no secret that the producers of last week's Oscar telecast had reconfigured the ceremony to make it more acceptable as TV entertainment. The awards themselves are not enough of a draw because most people are less interested in who wins than in who shows up. As Anthony Lane pointed out at newyorker.com, older stars were effectively marginalized this year — the lifetime achievement awards, which always go to geezers, were not given out during the broadcast — so that more young celebrities could take part and, it was hoped, attract a younger audience.
But younger stars are ubiquitous these days. In the past, the Oscar telecast was the only chance the hoi polloi had to see their movie idols anywhere but on the big screen. Teen stars Miley Cyrus and Taylor Lautner, on the other hand, are everywhere. The only reason their fans tuned in to the Oscars was to see what they looked like in formal wear.