Monday, February 28, 2011

How the Oscars failed to catch fire - apart from Melissa Leo


I know some people get rather excited about the Oscars. I noticed the breathless updates on Facebook.


“Oh I thought xx, should have won. Did you see her outfit?”

I found it more difficult to get into the mood this year. Maybe it’s not easy to do glamour after returning from a kids birthday party in North Carolina.

Difficult too when you only possess a batty old TV without even the luxury of a remote control. You thumb through the channels on a tiny button but are likely to miss the Oscars because there seems to be a 50 percent chance of hitting commercials at any given time on American TV.

Then when I did hit on the Oscars it was half way through Achievement in Sound Editing. Excuse me but when did sound editing become an achievement? Achievement in Pressing the Off Switch on the Tape Recorder.

Although maybe sound has moved on a bit since I last tried to edit it., fleetingly and fumblingly.

My tardiness in arriving at the ceremony meant I missed the apparent highlight and what appeared to have been an Oscars first; Melissa Leo using the f word at the ceremony.

You would have thought in more than a century of Academy awards somebody would have inadvertently used the f word. I often find myself inadvertently swearing. Fortunately my daughter is usually around to reprimand me.

Apparently Leo also lowered the tone by flirting with 94-year-old Kirk Douglas who managed to upstage hosts Anna Hathaway and James Franco. I have a mahogany cabinet that could have upstaged the hosts, but at least Hathaway made up for it with her dress at the end of the ceremony.

Leo said Douglas calmed her mood, although not to the extent that she was able to suppress the pesky f word.

Douglas, told her. "You're much more beautiful than you were in The Fighter,". Leo's quick-witted reply was: "You're pretty good looking yourself. What are you doing later on?"

Going back to the home probably.

I wonder if Douglas made it until the end of the night. The Oscars can drag because of all the nerd awards that are given out before the awards people really care about. Last night’s ceremony really seemed to drag.

And while I was glad to see The King’s Speech win best movie and to see Colin Firth win his first Oscar, the element of suspense certainly seemed to be missing last night.

Fortunately there were plenty of fine frocks to keep the commentators going. Very few of them appeared to stand out to me apart from the outfit wore by Cate Blanchett.

Although I’m a big fan of Cate as an actress I had real reservations about this one. Maybe she expected a rather wild post Oscar party. Certainly if somebody had chucked up on the back of her frock, she probably wouldn’t have noticed.

10 comments:

  1. I can't remember how many years it's been since I watched the Oscars ceremony. I understand that this make me seem like grumpy old person, but I just don't feel like modern actors are of the same caliber as those from "back in the day". I prefer to spend this time reading books or doing outdoor activities.

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  2. The Oscar's were a complete snooze fest. Flipping to commercials was more enjoyable than listening to that boring drivel. Did I mention that I did not find this year's Oscar show enjoyable? ; )

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  3. You are so right. This year's Oscars was such a disappointment. I think it was way too over-hyped. Plus, James Franco looked like he didn't even care about hosting. Anne would have done better with a much more comedic and outgoing host, such as Billy Crystal or Alec Baldwin. Because while she wasn't hilarious, I thought she had good energy and enthusiasm, plus a marvelous singing voice. Not to mention gorgeous in all her costumes. :)

    And yes, ironically the one year the Oscars try so hard to be "young and hip" the coolest person at the show ended up being a 94-year-old man. Go figure. The Oscar producers need to look beyond YOUNG and just look at who is most INTERESTING.

    Great post!

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  4. PS. For some reason my computer won't open up the link for your e-mail. I was going to answer the question you left on my blog over the weekend, but didn't want to answer it on blogger. Will you e-mail me? I'm jenniferb02@gmail.com

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  5. I was disappointed I had to miss it this year, but now I am glad so thank you very much for letting me know. It has been very dramatic here in Reading with gas cannisters blowing up causing train chaos and evacuations and air amulance helicopters landing on streets at another incident. Quite enough excitement in reality at the moment over here without the added drama of the oscars.

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  6. i like that you said it's fortunate that your daughter is usually around to reprimand you for swearing. i do enjoy a different view on life than the traditional.

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  7. Another humdrum event then? Lets hopre for better next year.

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  8. I only saw about ten minutes of the show close to the end, but everything I've read about it, it sounds like my time was better spent doing something else.

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  9. you grumpy old person Olga. I agree, though. Hmm, do I get the slight impression you didn't enjoy them Empress? Good point Jennifer, I can forgive Anne but James was ugh. So what's been going down in Reading, Frog? I know Sherlilin, even words like God and Damn that I don't see as real swear words. For sure Mo, thanx for visiting. I'd agree with you there, Daisy

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  10. Oscars are boring ...I don't remember when I last sat down to watch it...maybe a decade ago....the gowns and tuxedos are the only thing worth seeing...

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On Blog PTSD

Now then. What the heck. It seems I had forgotten about my blog completely rather than just neglecting it this time. To return after so long...