Oscars: Hollywood gets political

Daniel Day-Lewis won the best actor Academy Award for playing the 16th U.S. president in "Lincoln," which also took home the production design Oscar. The Steven Spielberg-directed drama also stars British actor Jared Harris as Ulysses S. Grant.

Bill Murray plays Franklin D. Roosevelt in "Hyde Park on Hudson." The dramedy focuses on FDR's relationship with Margaret Suckley, better known as Daisy (Laura Linney). British actress Olivia Williams plays Eleanor Roosevelt in the film, set in 1939.

Robin Williams was photographed on the New Orleans set of "The Butler" last year. The movie tells the story of a longtime White House butler. Williams, who sports a bald cap for his role as Dwight Eisenhower, is one of many actors who'll portray a president in the film. This isn't the 61-year-old's first time playing commander-in-chief. He played Theodore Roosevelt in the "Night at the Museum" franchise.

Greg Kinnear was nominated for an Emmy for his role as John F. Kennedy in "The Kennedys." Katie Holmes plays Jackie Kennedy. The 2011 miniseries was met with mixed reviews. The Washington Post's Hank Stuever wrote that it "sketches its characters with the precision of a fat Sharpie marker."

Dennis Quaid plays Bill Clinton, opposite Michael Sheen's Tony Blair, in the 2010 TV movie "The Special Relationship." Slant Magazine's Chris Cabin wrote, "This middling look at the stormy relationship between Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bill Clinton features both expert mimicry from Dennis Quaid and Hope Davis and Peter Morgan's most unfocused, overly ambitious script to date."

Josh Brolin and Richard Dreyfuss play George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, respectively, in Oliver Stone's "W." The drama chronicles the life of the president from his years at Yale University to his time in the White House. "A powerful set of people skills and a gift for gab are about the only things Brolin has in common with George W. Bush," Donna Freydkin wrote in a 2008 in USA Today.

Frank Langella was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance as Richard Nixon in 2008's "Frost/Nixon." The Ron Howard drama revisits Nixon's interviews with British talk show host David Frost, who is played by Michael Sheen.

Paul Giamatti plays the title character in 2008's "John Adams." The Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning miniseries also features David Morse as George Washington and Stephen Dillane as Thomas Jefferson.

Tom Selleck ditched his mustache for 2004's "Ike: Countdown to D-Day." In the Robert Harmon-directed TV movie, about the months leading up to Operation Neptune, Selleck plays Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower before becoming the 34th president of the United States. "A&E's comprehensive production is anything but dull," Variety's Laura Fries wrote of the film, which was nominated for six Emmy Awards.

Dan Hedaya plays Richard Nixon in 1999's "Dick." Two young girls (Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst) act as Deep Throat in this parody of the Watergate scandal.

Anthony Hopkins plays John Quincy Adams in 1997's "Amistad," directed by Steven Spielberg. Hopkins' portrayal earned him an Academy Award nomination for best actor in a supporting role. The actor also played Richard M. Nixon in 1995's "Nixon."

Gary Sinise plays Harry S. Truman in the 1995 TV movie "Truman." Sinise's role as the president known for utilizing the atomic bomb was well received. "Superb production with memorable Sinise performance in title role," wrote reviewer Steve Crum, of Dispatch-Tribune Newspapers.

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If you're anything like us, you immediately wondered what the significance could be, especially since she was announcing the award from the White House.

But when you think about it, having Obama help draw the Oscars ceremony to a close was a fitting way to end this politically saturated awards season.

The real-life drama of D.C. politics can be absorbing enough on its own, but mix in Hollywood machinations and you could create a must-see movie. Political themes have been popular at the Academy Awards in the past, but this year's list of best picture contenders was rife with them.

There was "Zero Dark Thirty," which was nominated in a number of big categories on Sunday and ended up in a tie for the best sound editing Oscar.

Regardless of its lack of statues, Kathryn Bigelow's project remains one of the most talked-about movies of 2012 thanks to its plot centered on the hunt for Osama bin Laden. The script, written by Mark Boal, lit the match for fiery debates on torture.

Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," a recounting of how the 16th president brought the Civil War to an end and passed the 13th amendment, was a giant in the walk-up to the Oscars. Daniel Day-Lewis' portrayal of Abraham Lincoln won him the best actor Oscar, and Day-Lewis was sure to thank the man who inspired his role. (His beard in the film, by the way, was real.)

And of course there was "Argo," the year's best picture winner, which followed a secret CIA operation to rescue six American diplomats during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1980.

The film was not only a critical success, but it was thought-provoking, too. Since its release last fall, its historical accuracy has been called into question and its depiction of Jimmy Carter's term has been picked apart. (The Los Angeles Times' ran a cartoon of a shocked Lincoln memorial after the Oscars ceremony. "Argo?!" the cartoon read. "You mean I lost to the Carter administration?!") That's not to mention "Argo's" international reach, as it sparked criticism from Iranian authorities.

We know Hollywood's version of politics well -- which celebrity said what, when, and to whom -- but it seems this awards season shifted our focus somewhat to grander themes.

These "best picture contenders," wrote CNN contributor John Avlon, "have managed to pay off at the box office even as they brought politics and history to the big screen -- proof that we'll take smart over stupid as long as we're entertained while educated."