James, Anne, The King's Speech

Another Oscar ceremony come and gone.  A year from now who will remember.  Most hope they can forget sooner.

In an attempt to appeal to younger viewers, the Academy hired James Franco and Anne Hathaway to host.  Let's say they did a muted job.  After one of those Billy Crystal opening where they put themselves in nominated films, we got the real thing, live, on stage.  Franco brought all the charisma he's demonstrated in the Spider-Man movies.  Maybe if they'd forced him to perform the entire show with his arm stuck under a rock it would have been better. Hathaway changed dresses numerous times and did an odd number about how Hugh Jackman didn't want to do a number with her.  Franco put on a dress. Funny they weren't, but at least they didn't try too hard to make us laugh, and kept things moving.  (Halfway through the show, Billy Crystal came out and did a tribute to Bob Hope--they didn't need to remind us what we were missing.)

For the most part, the night seemed pretty low on classic Hollywood wattage.  Early on, Kirk Douglas, a stroke victim well into his 90s, came out and livened things up, but there wasn't too much after that.

While the production wasn't much, worse were the awards.   There was not a single real surprise, and all the major Oscars went to the favorites.  During the early technical awards, when The King's Speech was skunked, it looked like maybe there'd be a race, but no, it cleaned up as expected on the big ones--screenplay, director, actor, picture.  (For the two awards it deserved most, supporting actor and actress, nothing.)

Maybe the most annoying award was for Best Documentary.  They had a delightful and different work--Exit Through The Gift Shop--made by a mysterious figure who might or might not show up to accept.  But screw it--let's give the award to a predictable documentary about the financial crash.  Charles Ferguson figured since he won, obviously the whole world wanted to hear his opinion, so he started by asking why hasn't anyone on Wall Street gone to jail yet for "massive fraud." It's like this, Charles: in the real world, it's not just enough to fling accusations--prosecutors have to name the actual crime broken and prove the elements beyond a reasonable doubt.  Amazingly, some in the audience applauded.  People in Hollywood.  A town built on fraudulent bookkeeping.

Meanwhile, in a show of solidarity, a number of winners noted they work with union crews.  That'll sure impress taxpayers in the Midwest.

Then there was Randy Newman, beating an amazingly undistinguished group, and winning another Oscar for another second-hand song for Pixar.

Christian Bale and Melissa Leo won acting honors for their supporting work in The Fighter.  Bale seemed to forget his wife's name.  Hey, it's not like she's his agent.  But the undeniable highlight of the show came early when, during Leo's acceptance speech, the F-word slipped out.  I was highly offended that it was censored.  I thought we were watching a live show, but it was on delay.  That takes all the fun out of it.

All this happened a mile from where I live.  So the good news is tomorrow traffic returns to normal.