Of Tongue And Penn

I was less involved by this year's Oscars than ever before. Part of that might have been I wasn't in an Oscar pool, but even if I had been, there wasn't much to get excited about. Mostly predictable nominations and almost no unexpected winners.

Best Foreign Film--Japan's Departures--was a bit surprising, until you remember that Academy members can't vote on this category unless they've seen all the films.

The only true suspense was over Best Actor. Would it be Sean Penn or Mickey Rourke? Unfortunately, it was Penn. Otherwise, we might have gotten the most memorable acceptance speech in Oscar history, if Saturday's Spirit Awards were any indication.



PS Also disappointing was Jerry Lewis's lackluster acceptance speech. He must have been pretty tired.