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The Spectacle Blog
Jim: You may enjoy the “In Memoriam” segment of the annual Oscar show, but last night even that didn’t go right. For instance, where was the tribute to Edie Adams? She was the ultimate Hollywood trooper, yet nothing, nada, zilch — which is the way it is in that increasingly empty world. The host Hugh Jackman was fine — if you didn’t mind that he disappeared for the longest stretches. There were more commercial interruptions than I can recall — desperate efforts to shake out some cash while it still has some value. The tributes from five previous winners to the evening five nominees in the best acting categories gave new meaning to overkill and mutual adoration. The show managed to accomplish a paradox — pack too much while seeming to be going nowhere with nothing going on. Sensory overload and attention deficit where everyone’s a zombie. Oh well, there was blessed little politics, notwithstanding the comments of Milk’s winners (Sean Penn suddently appreciating elegance?) and Bill Maher reminding everyone what makes him a perpetual jerk. Luckily the children and larger cast of Slumdog Millionaire rose above their surroundings, and who can forget the East German born winner in the short film category who in his happy acceptance remarks expressed the delight of someone who had been born “behind” the Berlin Wall but was now standing in center of his childhood dreams. At least one person had a good time.
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More Blog Posts by Wlady Pleszczynski
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/02/23/edie-adams-rip
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Doug N| 2.23.09 @ 9:22PM
If no one knew that Cyd Charisse and Ricardo Montalban had died this year, would we have been able to tell from that awkward, unnecessarily distracting moving camera during the "in memoriam" segment? The cameras kept pulling back, reducing the screens with the deceased stars to postage stamp-size. It was tacky. Also, I am so tired of the juvenile applause for some, but not all, of the deceased. Again, it is just adolescent. The producers should have had a prerecorded Queen Latifah sing over the photos, with the volume turned down in the theater, so we could be spared their differing levels of applause. These Hollywood bozos are so classless.
Michael Dooley| 2.24.09 @ 7:47AM
My eyes roll to the ceiling whenever actors wax poetic about their "craft". If it doesn't serve the storytelling, I don't care which actor is standing in the character's shoes. Serving the storytelling and "excellence" in the actor's craft do not necessarily go one with the other. Hollywood is too much the over-rated over the over-rated.
On the other hand, it is a tragedy that so many actors and actresses who put in years of enjoyable work are not remembered just a few years after the end of their careers by their fellow brothers and sisters in the "craft".
By the way, the problem with the Academy Awards show is that it is not about what the public cares about. Years ago, the Grammys realized that, to the audience, it was about the music; thus musical performances became the highlights of the show. The Academy Awards is just an endless list of people in the industry thanking each other, Mom and the Lord. (Giving thanks to the Lord is never too much of a good thing; but shouldn’t He come first?) The movies just seem to be an afterthought—vehicles that got the actors, directors, producers and makeup artists up to the podium. There are times I think the show would be better served by a presentation of the original previews of that year’s popular hits. Of course, being about the movies people actually cared enough to go out to see wouldn’t hurt either.
Wall-E kicked Sean Penn's ass.