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It's unlikely Vilanch himself would have time to take movie offers. He did much of the writing for the recent Academy Awards telecast and has penned comic material for more than a dozen Oscar-casts, as well a number of Tony, Grammy and Emmy awards.

This year's show, featuring Daily Show host Jon Stewart and so much Brokeback Mountain brouhaha, provided Vilanch with a unique opportunity to showcase his comic chops.

“It was tremendous fun. I knew Jon Stewart a little bit before, but I hadn't really worked with him. He was just delightful. His group was great. They flew in a week early from New York, where they were cranking out The Daily Show every night, and they kind of blended with all the people who work on the Oscar show,“ Vilanch says.

“I think it paid off, because he was very effective. I think he'll be asked back. I think he struck the proper note. The nice thing about that show, and Jon in particular, is he had lots of opportunities to kind of comment on what had just come on. And because (Jon) wasn't around, and we didn't have to work every day, I had more time to focus on some of the presenters, like Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin.”

Brokeback Mountain did end up winning three major awards, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, but it lost Best Picture to aggressive race-relations drama Crash. Vilanch, who has been vocal for several months about his support for Brokeback Mountain, has his own thoughts on the matter.

“Crash is a movie about middle-class, Los Angeles people who are having a struggle with race--and that more or less defines the Academy. They are middle-class, Los Angeles people who are having a struggle with race, so the picture played directly to them, probably more than played to anybody else in the world. I think that was what did it,” he says.

“Certainly, there was a combination of the fact that the Crash people really marketed their movie very, very well. Also, I'm sure there was what they call the Tony Curtis factor, which is that some older Academy members just didn't want to see Brokeback Mountain win, no matter what, because they just didn't want to watch a movie like that.”

For the uninformed, silver-screen legend Tony Curtis announced a few months back that he has not seen Brokeback and had no plans to. He also believed the same was true for other Academy members.

"This picture is not as important as we make it. It's nothing unique. The only thing unique about it is they put it on the screen. And they make 'em cowboys," Curtis was quoted as saying. " Howard Hughes and John Wayne wouldn't like it.”

Even country superstar Alan Jackson let the narrow-mindedness regarding Brokeback spew during a recent show at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. The singer managed a cheap dig during a cover of Hank Williams Jr.'s Texas Women. He inserted the line, "I'm a cowboy fan/Not a Brokeback man," which drew cheers from the crowd of more than 57,000 fans inside Reliant Stadium.

“That's why we did those film clips, making fun of the ‘gay' western icons, to address the criticism of, ‘Oh, they trampled on the American cowboy,'” Vilanch says. “A country singer in a red state is certainly going to get that reaction from his audience. People who are homophobic are typically sexually insecure. It wouldn't matter to them so much.”

Now that winners have been crowned and Brokeback heads to DVD, Vilanch can look forward to other projects. He will host the upcoming GLAAD Media Awards, but homebound hobbies are a bit more difficult to come by.

“I'm so into show business that I wind up reading and writing and going to the movies. I have no particular passion,” he says. “I don't do macrame, and I'm not a NASCAR driver. My life and my work are sort of intertwined, so it's wonderful.”

He does, however, admit to a pooch passion of sorts.

“I've got puppies. I'm spending a lot of time with them. Pugs--I've never had small dogs. I decided if I was going to do puppies at this point in my life it would have to be something slightly less destructive than a 100-lb. German Shepherd,” Vilanch says. “They're incredible. I got two of them so they could amuse each other. They're fabulous.”

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