Posted on 03/01/2004 2:55:34 AM PST by RonDog
.
joanne ostrow
Greats of old, decorum reign at the Oscars
By Joanne Ostrow
Denver Post Media CriticChalk it up to the flap over the recent excesses of live television.Hollywood was on its best behavior Sunday night, not even testing the five-minute delay during the Oscar telecast.
Not rowdy, downright respectful. In several ways, it was throwback to years past, a night of honoring Hollywood stalwarts and respecting tradition.
From the eloquence of Blake Edwards, who pretended to make a slapstick entrance, to the clips honoring Katharine Hepburn and Bob Hope (an 18-time Oscar host), the evening paid tribute to greats of old.
In many ways, the 76th annual Academy Awards was a model of decorum.
Even the spare presentations of the original songs contributed to the making it a very grownup night for the film industry.
As for host Billy Crystal, "master and commander" of Hollywood for the night, he killed even before the medley.
At the start of the telecast, Crystal hailed the film nominees in phony film trailers that saw him digitally interjected into each movie. Naked in a three-way scream with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton in "Something's Gotta Give," and suggesting a Massachusetts wedding to Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation," he didn't miss a note.
Next Crystal nailed the song parodies, even while continually clearing his throat. (To the tune of "Ol' Man River," he sang "Mystic River," "as dark and murky as Mom's chopped liver. ...")
Crystal may not be a fresh, radical, envelope-pushing host. Some of his shtick has a Borscht Belt ring to it. But he gets the envelope-opening job done with smart humor that plays well within the industry as well as to the global millions.
With every line, he skewered a pop-culture trend, event or person of the moment. As usual, Crystal made watching the Oscars a short-course in American pop culture circa 2004. In his traditional overblown production-number satire and in bits throughout the evening, he managed digs at DVD pirating, the Disney-Michael Eisner showdown, the second Bush war in Iraq, Arnold Schwarzenegger's accent, questions surrounding President Bush's Texas National Guard duty, Strom Thurmond's black love child, Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" and the fractionalized ethnicities of Los Angeles.
Crystal left to Robin Williams the first reference to Janet Jackson's exposed breast and the resulting five-minute broadcast delay, which ABC adopted in order to give the censors time to avert another live gaffe, indecent or otherwise. You can bet movie fans at the Federal Communications Commission were watching to see how television's next mega-event presented America to the world.
Crystal carried a distinctly patriotic thread through the proceedings, trashing Saddam Hussein, sending a "big hello" to servicemen and women posted around the world, and stomping on Michael Moore's 2003 anti-war speech in digitally enhanced animation. Perhaps this was a way of signaling that famously left-leaning Hollywood would be buttoned-down in this election year.
Of course, Crystal had his moment, translating what was going through the stars' heads. When the camera shot to a dignified-looking Julie Andrews, he observed:
"God this sunburst nipple broach is killing me!"
As producer Joe Roth promised, the performances of the original-song nominees were uncluttered by kicking choruses or break-dancers. Clustered about 70 minutes into the production, the novel treatment of the musical works was appropriate, even if it perhaps drove the under-18 demographic screaming from the television set.
The award show's set - a matrix-like invention with a vanishing horizon in the far distance - was less distracting than in some years.
And the quick replays of "sounds of Oscar" highlights that served as bumpers before commercials were a nice addition in a generally clean, subdued production.
Joanne Ostrow's column appears Sunday in Arts & Entertainment as well as Mondays and Thursdays in The Scene section.
I don't equate getting hooked on Oxycontin for back pain with snorting cocaine ala Whitney Houston and her thug boyfriend.
Only if you believe the liberals that the economy is "tanking" right now. IMHO it's recovering and I take loose use of facts seriously.
It so stank that they decided to restrict the crowds...You got THAT right.
No one arriving after about 1 pm could get anywhere NEAR our location.
ALOHA RONNIE, FIT-AIM-ACT-1 and I got there around 10 am, and even THEN the crowd was already four or five deep at the rail.
We vigorously defended the "alcove" of the large while builing right at the northeast corner of Hollywood and Highland - where Ted set up our base camp last year, and there was room for at least a dozen of us in that area......but the police would not even allow a "hostage exchange" - in which the three of us already on the inside would promise to leave - permanently - so that you and Ted and Outraged could go in to take our places. ;(
There were just TOO MANY other people who also wanted to get in, that they had to adopt this disappointing policy.We really want the folks to see your ELF costume...
...and Ted's new Uncle Sam outfit:
"I first hosted the Oscars 13 years ago. To tell you how much the world has changed since then, back then Bush was president, the economy was tanking, and we'd just finished a war in Iraq."
"One thing that actors know... besides that they were no WMD's... is that (blah blah blah, actors are great artists or some such other crap)
But that was his little swipe at the President.
Amazingly, Tim Robbins was able to restrain himself from any smart-ass comment, so at least he conducted himself with a little grace, and was able to enjoy his moment in the spotlight without a disgraceful, distracting comment.
"40 years ago, this country went to war in Vietnam, and slipped down into a rabbit hole. I think that the current situation is much like that, where we've stepped into another rabbit hole. If this film has made people stop and think about things regarding this war, then we've done a damn bit of good."
Hollywood seems to be mindful of what this week's "Passion" numbers say about the public's perception of them - and for what next year's Oscars may be like.Ted came up with a GREAT idea for a logo for NEXT YEAR's Academy Awards:
the OSCAR statutette bowing down to Jesus on the cross.Paging Mr. REGISTERED...Sort of like THIS:
from
www.everykneeshallbow.com
Idiots like this guy who protested the Vietnam War have the blood of 2 million Cambodians on their hands.
I wonder how they know that.
Here's the video for nostalgia buffs and anyone who missed it :-).
D
What a difference a year makes!THIS YEAR, elements of the "Hollywood Resistance Force" (also known as the Los Angeles Chapter of the Free Republic Network) gathered once more near the corner of Hollywood and Highland - just outside of the Red Carpet area - to counter any potential "anti-war" protests.
The RATs stayed away.
There were NO "bad guys" ANYWHERE outside this year, but MASSIVE crowds of star-struck fans and multiple competing events disrupted our ability to gather and FReep effectively.
Red-carpet duty for Marine at Oscars
Brian and Kayla Aria will be attending the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday.
Like millions, Helen Chambers of Happy Valley will be tuned in with her husband and family to Sunday's glitzy Academy Awards ceremony on TV.
But it won't be the Hollywood stars, or the ceremony itself, that will command her full attention.
For her, the real stars of the night will be her son, Brian Aria, and his wife Kayla, both 20.
Aria, a lance corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps, will be spiffily decked out in his dress blues representing the Marine Corps at the Academy Awards and will be accompanied by his wife, an Enterprise High School graduate.
"Details are still on the vague and secretive side, but Chambers said her son, an Iraq War veteran who was selected by the Marine Corps for the prestigious Oscar night honor, will be stationed somewhere along the red carpet outside the Kodak Theater in full view of the TV cameras and paparazzi...
Great report, RonDog!
Thank you, Hollywood Resistance Force ~ Los Angeles Chapter of the Free Republic Network!
~ God bless America! ~
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.