I feel the same way about Ben Stiller, and was happy that he was actually funny. Ferrell and Carrell had the potential to be either very funny or horribly unfunny, and the look on Steve’s face as he blinked repeatedly had me rolling.
I think everybody at home thought he was marvelous, everybody in the theater (except Jamie Foxx and maybe George Clooney) just wasn’t ready for his kind of humor. Nicholson looked amused–I think he was getting a kick out of the fact that Jon was just a little too satirical for Hollywood’s Big Night. Everyone I’ve talked to thought he was a bona-fide hoot.
From what I’m seeing on the net, the Hollywood buzz is that he bomed, while the non-Hollywood buzz is mostly that he did alright and people, like yourself, are confused as to where this “he bombed” buzz is coming from.
I think it’s a case of Hollywood taking itself waaaaay too seriously.
I wouldn’t say ‘everybody at home’ thought he was marvelous. Most people I’ve spoken to said he was decent, but in no way a stand out. Kind of ‘meh’. Another one show host.
I’ve never ever heard that. The “Top six” have always been Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, and Supporting Actress. Original and Adapted Screenplay included are the “Top eight.”
I loved Jon Stewart. I hope he comes back every year.
Jon was a big hit at my house too. My husband kept commenting on how no one in the audience was laughing. “Shouldn’t they be used to getting joked on by now?” He wondered aloud.
When the rap group whooped it up when they won and Jon came back and said something like, “Now that’s how you should react when you win an Oscar.” and the audience just. . . sat. That, I think, epitomized the difference between home and audience.
I think you nailed it right there. I think Stewart came over more as “one of us” (meaning the at-home audience) than “one of them” (meaning the rich and famous who whine about things such as “why aren’t you paying to see my movies in the theater” and “pirating movies is wrong because it means I have to spend a million dollars less on my summer home.”) So it doesn’t surprise me that Hollywood didn’t warm to him, or that people at home got him. His whole shtick came off to me as “You guys think you’re God’s gift to humanity? Whatever!” Which is what many of us at home have been saying for years about these shows, that have basically become Hollywood having a big boner-fest over itself. Which is why I watch: so I can make fun of them. Except this year, about two seconds after I said it, Stewart said the same thing in so many words.
That’s a good point. And it’s true- he’s not one of them. Unless you count Doogal, he hasn’t been in a movie in years. Even if you do, he’s not a star on the level of Martin, Crystal or Rock. Maybe none of it worked for Hollywood, but oh well. It was still Jon Stewart’s style of humor - some of the jokes would have fit right into the Daily Show - and that’s what I was watching for. I don’t care if Russell Crowe gets bored.
Has any picture ever won the “top six” as so defined?
The most prestigious sweep I’ve ever heard discussed has been Top 5 – Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, Actress – which has happened 3 times: It *Happened One Night, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Next * and Silence of the Lambs.
I have a question for just such a thread. I saw the Oscars for about the first 30 minutes and I saw them from “Best Actor” and beyond but missed most of what came between due to constant phone calls. I do have it on tape. What’s worth watching sketchwise and what can I hit the FFW on without missing anything?
IMHO, there weren’t any acceptance speeches or presenter banter (with the possible exception of Ben Stiller; Jennifer Garner’s near-slip & fall; and Will Ferrell/Steve Carell) worth re-watching, or any of the nominated songs worth re-hearing. So I would just watch the film clip montages, the attack ads, and Jon Stewart.
Filmmaker Leni Riefnstahl died in September 2003; she was included in the memorial sequence in 2004. She was not a member of the Nazi Party (this was established by Allied investigation after the war), and had resisted Hitler’s entreaties to join. She was hired to make a record of the Nazi rally in Nuremburg in 1934. This was after the party had consolidated its power into an authoritarian regime in Germany, but before it passed its notorious racial laws.
Her other well-known film was the two-part documentary feature Olympia about the 1936 Olympics, which was made for the International Olympic Committee (not for Germany or the Nazi Party). With its scenes celebrating the victories of black and asian athletes, and its general theme of the international brotherhood of man, it hardly fit into Nazi supremicist ideology.
That John Canemaker, winner for Best Animated Short Subject, thanked his male “life partner” seemed to get no comment in the media. Does anyone know if any Oscar winner before him ever thanked a same-sex partner during the acceptance speech?
Also, did anyone else think Jake Gyllenhaal looked distraught, even teary-eyed about losing the Best Supporting Actor award through the rest of the night? And was anyone else floored that they chose to give out that award first?
So I guess I was the only one, then. FTR, this is the first Oscar ceremony I’ve ever watched from beginning to end, and the first time I’ve ever been interested in the best supporting actor category.
