This should’ve been uploaded in real time during last night’s telecast, but my Comcast cable modem was acting up all day.Nevertheless, belatedly (and thus in no particular order), here are random thoughts from last night’s Oscars:
- With nimble use of the Mute button, the tiresome “Can you here me now?” guy can’t be heard at all. HA!
- Still talking about E!’s portion of the night: I really don’t care too much about fashion, but I don’t think anyone looked particularly good last night. Then again, I like plain, old-fashioned evening wear, so I guess the tuxes looked okay; but for the women all the gowns and hairstyles were unappealing.
- Not all the votes are in, but the SFG Award for Best Cleavage might possibly go to Uma Thurman.
- I’ve read comments complimenting Sharon Stone. To me, her gown looked like Mickey Mouse ears.
- Halle Berry’s gown looked like she was imitating Eve in a religious tableau.
- I’m probably the only guy who likes those short films about the movies. It’s fun recognizing the movies in the tribute to NYC or guessing what movies were being discussed in the Errol Morris film.
- That said, the comment from Britney Spears about how the movie that made her “grow as a person” was Pretty Woman is hilarious and telling. Britney’s inspired by the movie about the hooker who makes good. Interesting.
- I am completely shocked that Empire Online gushed over Whoopi Goldberg as host while slamming Steve Martin’s job last year. I cannot understand how they thought Whoopi’s monologue was anywhere close to being as funny as Martin’s. As my friend Joe put it, “At least Whoopi was hardly on screen. I mean, she was just a special guest of Donald Sutherland and Glenn Close, wasn’t she? Weren’t they the hosts? Whoopi makes an “eating with Mike Tyson̶ reference and tells people to “wait a few minutes, it’ll hit you.” Ummmmm, we all got it immediately Whoopi, it’s just that it’s a joke from the 1998 Oscars, so that’s why we didn’t laugh.
- I was shocked to see John Williams was conducting the orchestra. I had no idea he’d be there and I’m surprised I didn’t read about it earlier.
- Anybody else confused when Benicio Del Toro walked out, the screen behind him showed “Best Actor in a Supporting Performance”, and he read the nominees for Best Supporting Actress? It took me a few more awards before I figured out the screen was for the celebrity, not for the category. Speaking of the screen, it was extremely annoying that during John Williams’s suite of movie themes, the cameras did not get close enough to the screen for us to read the titles. (I bet a lot of people were incredibly bored during that musical segment, but I as a big fan of movie music thought it was one of the highpoints.)
- In regards to that, Julia Roberts made a comment on how grateful she was that Tom Conti was not there, in the pit, since he was the one whom she referred to as “Stick man”. Unfortunately, Julia meant conductor/composer Bill Conti.
- Ian McKellen truly looked shocked when his name was not read as Best Supporting Actor. He seemed in a daze, and only started applauding as an afterthought. Poor guy. I can’t be too sore at Jim Broadbent for stealing Gandalf’s just deserts though, just because of Broadbent’s past association with Terry Gilliam.
- I swear Helen Mirren is starting to look like Ian McKellen!
- Cirque du Soleil falling about backstage was stupid; but Cirque du Soleil during the visual effects segment was a lot better than expected.
- The two Lord of the Rings losses that really irk me are costume design and art direction. I’ve come to accept it not getting Best Director, I didn’t expect it to get Best Picture, but I really don’t see how Moulin Rouge could win over Lord of the Rings in costume design and art direction. Moulin Rouge exists! You can look at photographs of it, you can find blueprints of it. The fashions of that time still exist and can be looked at, touched, studied. But how exactly does one rebuild Rivendell or Orthanc or the Mines of Moria? What armor does an army of elves wear? What color or size is a palantír? FOTR‘s art direction was sheer invention. The craftspeople did an amazing job of making this imaginary world look completely believable and real; but the Academy went for colorful flash, and in doing so FOTR got seriously robbed.
- Howard Shore’s win was nice; and Randy Newman was so funny during his acceptance speech that I bet a lot of Academy members regret not giving him anything earlier. (I especially liked how he extorted the orchestra into not playing him off since many of them had performed under him.)
- Thank God they squeezed all the Best Song nominees into one segment. This is a recent and definite improvement. It still goes on too long though.
- Sidney Poitier and Robert Redford certainly have the knack of appearing like they’re making sense. I guess that’s what makes them great actors. I can’t help wondering how come Paul Newman did not make some kind of appearance. Was there some long-standing spat or friction between them?
- Did Whoopi Goldberg really criticize the fact she was not filmed paying tribute to Robert Redford? But then said nothing how only blacks were shown paying tribute to Sidney Poitier? …Gee, that’s funny. I didn’t hear any whites complaining about not being able to compliment Poitier. So why does Whoopi feel it’s her right to show up in every tribute?
- I don’t care how many movies Ron Howard makes or how many awards he might win, I still can’t look at him without picturing him as a little kid singing “Gary, Indiana” in The Music Man.
- It’s amazing how Halle Berry’s emotional acceptance speech had everyone enrapt and in tears one second — and then praying she’d get off the stage the next second. She started off on such a high note but then squandered it away when she ended up bartering for more time so she could turn a page in the phone book and read off more names to thank. (I’ve read that her nominated performance is equally as emotional and out of control.)
- Denzel, on the other hand, was cool and poised.
- I’ve read that Halle and Denzel’s win alongside Sidney Poitier’s win was completely unplanned. Still, it made for a nice sense arc of drama and resolution. With a surprise appearance by Woody Allen after all these years, with deserved awards going belatedly to Randy Newman, Ron Howard, and African American performers, it was like Oscar’s Day of Atonement.
- I really miss Politically Incorrect. They used to have a fun post-Oscar show where they’d argue the choices and debate some of the issues and trends. Now ABC sticks the women from The View on instead. All they did was squabble and squawk about the fashions for an hour! (At least, I assume so. I gave up after fifteen minutes.) ABC should’ve set up a camera in an aviary, they would’ve saved a lot of money and have gotten the same screechy result.
