Oscar Night: Let's Lose the Beltway Humor
After watching Jon Stewart’s ho-hum opening at the 80th annual Academy Award’s Sunday night, I came close to reaching for the remote, turning off the TV, and cracking open a book. But the nostalgia buff in me took over, and somehow, (don’t ask me how it did it) I soldiered on for the rest of the night.
There wasn’t much to hold my interest this year; I’m ashamed to report, other than Bourne Ultimatum, I didn’t see any of the nominated films. But since this is an election year, I figured Stewart would have some juicy zingers ready to go. Maybe Bill as the country’s next First Gentleman is planning to visit all the Gentleman’s Club’s coast-to-coast; a new You Tube video showing Barack plagiarizing his wedding proposal to Michelle; or how about The New York Times planning an expose in which the paper attributing an anonymous source, ``Sore Throat’’, reports on rumors linking John McCain in a ménage a trois with the Bush twins.
No such luck. I’m not a big believer in political humor anyway on Oscar night, but I thought the whole reason for booking the Daily Show host was to cash in on his sharp political satire during the election season? There were some lame reference to Barack’s middle name (Hussein), a first woman and black president joke, both of which set off nothing more than nervous laughter
Stewart seemed so out of his element, like he was invited to the wrong party and desperately pretended like he belonged.
What’s been lacking on Oscar night, over the last few years, it struck me as I was watching the old clips during the show, is what we consider movie stars today pales compared to the galaxy of stars that used stride down the red carpet; stars like Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, Barbara Streisand, Jane Fonda, Danny Kaye, Julie Andrews, and Jack Lemon. I shudder to think what Oscar night would look like without Jack Nicholson or even Angelina and Brad Britt.
Another thing that struck me over the years is the lack of the big blockbusters like Titanic, Schindler's List, and Forrest Gump monopolizing the awards ceremony. The movies being nominated, it seems to me, are in conflict from what a majority of movie goers are paying to see.
When I asked Sharon Waxman about her reaction to the show, the former New York Times Hollywood reporter emailed me back to say: ``For years now, the Oscars have been dominated by small movies made at independent studios or the indie divisions of big studios (last year's Best Picture, "The Departed," made at Warner Bros, being a noted exception). The studios don't want to make Oscar-worthy films. So here's where things are, at a standoff: Waxman wrote, our annual ritual to celebrate America's passion for going to the movie theaters is confused by the disconnect between audiences and the movies that Oscar celebrates. No wonder we prefer to look at the dresses. And no surprise, then, that the ratings for this year's telecast went from a long-term downhill slide to a precipitous, thudding drop of 20 percent. ‘’
Maybe Waxman is right; they just don’t make movies like they used to anymore. But one aspect of the show still salvageable is booking a song-and-dance man (or woman) as host, who will get back to poking fun at Hollywood again. If Billy doesn’t want to come back, I think Nathan Lane would fit the bill nicely.
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net
There wasn’t much to hold my interest this year; I’m ashamed to report, other than Bourne Ultimatum, I didn’t see any of the nominated films. But since this is an election year, I figured Stewart would have some juicy zingers ready to go. Maybe Bill as the country’s next First Gentleman is planning to visit all the Gentleman’s Club’s coast-to-coast; a new You Tube video showing Barack plagiarizing his wedding proposal to Michelle; or how about The New York Times planning an expose in which the paper attributing an anonymous source, ``Sore Throat’’, reports on rumors linking John McCain in a ménage a trois with the Bush twins.
No such luck. I’m not a big believer in political humor anyway on Oscar night, but I thought the whole reason for booking the Daily Show host was to cash in on his sharp political satire during the election season? There were some lame reference to Barack’s middle name (Hussein), a first woman and black president joke, both of which set off nothing more than nervous laughter
Stewart seemed so out of his element, like he was invited to the wrong party and desperately pretended like he belonged.
What’s been lacking on Oscar night, over the last few years, it struck me as I was watching the old clips during the show, is what we consider movie stars today pales compared to the galaxy of stars that used stride down the red carpet; stars like Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, Barbara Streisand, Jane Fonda, Danny Kaye, Julie Andrews, and Jack Lemon. I shudder to think what Oscar night would look like without Jack Nicholson or even Angelina and Brad Britt.
Another thing that struck me over the years is the lack of the big blockbusters like Titanic, Schindler's List, and Forrest Gump monopolizing the awards ceremony. The movies being nominated, it seems to me, are in conflict from what a majority of movie goers are paying to see.
When I asked Sharon Waxman about her reaction to the show, the former New York Times Hollywood reporter emailed me back to say: ``For years now, the Oscars have been dominated by small movies made at independent studios or the indie divisions of big studios (last year's Best Picture, "The Departed," made at Warner Bros, being a noted exception). The studios don't want to make Oscar-worthy films. So here's where things are, at a standoff: Waxman wrote, our annual ritual to celebrate America's passion for going to the movie theaters is confused by the disconnect between audiences and the movies that Oscar celebrates. No wonder we prefer to look at the dresses. And no surprise, then, that the ratings for this year's telecast went from a long-term downhill slide to a precipitous, thudding drop of 20 percent. ‘’
Maybe Waxman is right; they just don’t make movies like they used to anymore. But one aspect of the show still salvageable is booking a song-and-dance man (or woman) as host, who will get back to poking fun at Hollywood again. If Billy doesn’t want to come back, I think Nathan Lane would fit the bill nicely.
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net
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