Has Jon Stewart got his hands on compromising photos of Gil Cates, the organizer of the Oscars? I can’t think of any other explanation for his recent lock on presenting. He was dire last night, his material was so poor one would have thought there was a writers’ strike on.
Letterman, Rock, DeGeneres, Stewart - and they wonder why the Oscar viewing figures are dropping like a stone? The days of Billy Crystal and Steve Martin, when the Oscar compering was actually funny, are a distant memory.
But honestly, they could have dug up Bob Hope, propped him up against the mike, and he would still have been funnier than Stewart last night.
I am a long-time Julie Christie fan and I saw Away From Her. It was a tremendous performance and a powerful movie. I thought she would win.
I liked all of the nominees. But I did have a favorite that I thought was a long shot.
For I am also an Edith Piaf fan. The young French woman knocked my polka dot heels off with her performance. She was Piaf! I never dreamed that the actress was such a pretty young woman under the makeup. Piaf ages quite a bit during the film and it all looks for real. I haven’t been so pleased with a win in a long time!
I liked Stewart’s hosting but I was curious if he was going to go over as well as he did last time: generally people at home kind of enjoying him (the highest level of praise any Oscar host will get) and people in the entertainment industry loathing him.
Re: Stewart’s performance. Started off strong, faded late in the first hour. It is really hard for someone used to short-format comedy to keep it going for 3+ hours. And once some jokes fall flat, the air goes out of the sails and the flop sweat takes over. Hard to recover from that. Also, the crowd is always horrible. E.g., he started telling a joke and they started applauding after the set up. Folks, it’s a joke, not an applause line. Let him finish it without interuption.
By the end of the 2nd hour you could tell he just didn’t care anymore and was mentally on the plane back to NY.
Tilda Swinton winning wasn’t a surprise, after the BAFTAs, I figured her chances went up quite a bit in what was considered an open field. (The BAFTAs turned out to be quite good predictors this year.) But: Ugly hair and gown. And you can’t really give your Oscar to someone. It belongs to the Academy and you more or less are borrowing it.
I was really surprised that they showed such a late scene from Michael Clayon for her clip. Talk about spoilers.
As for Valenti. First rate jerk. No morals whatsoever. In addition to turning Congress against the legal rights of consumers, he also set up this sham rating system. Go see “This Film is Not Yet Rated” to get an brief idea of what a mess he created.
Yeah, pretty weak year for the Death Montage. I guess that is a good thing? (Nice to see a big hand for Bergman.)
I might be misremembering, but wasn’t that the clip of her talking with the title character about what to do with Arthur? Isn’t that within the first 30 minutes? I don’t remember it really illuminating a whole lot that will ruin the film and I just saw it for the first time on Friday night.
I thought that line was to demonstrate Clooney’s skills, not Tilda’s. Could be wrong.
I’ll look into those Coen movies (not real high on my list of priorities). Glad to know they have done some work that is not drenched in blood and anger.
I liked Jon Stewart’s hosting. Why does he have to be funny all the time? Oscar night should not be at all similar to stand up.
He was more like Johnny Carson last night, IMO: a few good jokes, mostly mild ones, but smooth, courteous control of the show. When he got Marketa back on stage for her thank yous–that was the high point of the show for me.
That was Clooney’s clip during the Best Actor category.
They showed that line in the trailers, though. I guess it is a spoiler, but if you haven’t seen the movie you don’t really know that and it isn’t obvious that it’s the climax of the film.
That was nothing compared to them showing the car crash scene from No Country For Old Men. Way to spoil a out-of-left field moment for everyone who hasn;t seen it Oscar!
Not true. You can give it to anyone you want for any reason whatsoever.
What you can’t do is sell it. There is a stipulation that the Academy has the right to first purchase for any Oscar that goes on sale, and they’ll only give you $1 for it.
So yeah, she can give it to her agent. But he (or his heirs, etc.) can never sell it without AMPAS jumping in first.
But what’s to stop a cash-strapped Oscar winner from selling someone a handful of lint for say, 10 grand and throwing in the Oscar for free? t seems like it would be pretty easy to get around that.
Disabled World War II veteran, Harold Russell, winner of a best supporting actor Oscar for “The Best Years Of Our Lives” (1946) sold his Oscar in 1992 to a private collector to pay his wife’s medical bills.
I remember at the time that the Academy wasn’t very happy about this but they didn’t force the issue. Maybe because
It was paying for medical bills.
He wasn’t a genuine Hollywood celebrity. (He made his second film in 1980.)
The guy lost both hands in 1944 due to “a defective fuse detonated an explosive he was handling while making a training film”. (from the Wikipedia article referenced above).
Since people have been discussing “The Big Lebowski”, add my name to the list of fans for this movie. (Yes, it must be viewed many times to comprehend its cinematic perspicacity).
Actually, they tried, but there was very little they could do as he was awarded his before you had to sign an agreement saying that you’d “sell” the statue back to them. The Academy offered him several thousand dollars for it (I forget the exact amount), but he turned them down, believing (correctly, as it turned out) that it would bring more money at auction.
Yeah, thanks Tuckerfan. I didn’t stipulate that the contractual component I mentioned was begun in 1950, after Harold Russell won his (although in fact, Russell won 2–an Honorary Oscar and the Supporting award; that probably made it easier selling one). Periodically, a pre-agreement Oscar will go up on auction, and the AMPAS will do their best to disuade the seller to follow through with the sale, or in some instances, make whatever legal maneuvers they can. But usually, they cross their fingers and hope someone else will intervene.
Let’s say I’m Daniel Day-Lewis, and I know I’m far and away the frontrunner for the award, and I tell the Academy to go hang when they show up with the form. What are they going to do, not give me the award?
Good question. I know at the Grammy’s the awards the actors are handed on stage are props, with them being given the real one backstage after they walk off. Whoopi Goldberg apparently didn’t understand this and insisted on keeping the prop statue, and the folks who do the Grammy’s haven’t bothered to sue her to get it back.