Category Archives: Entertainment

Excellent article on Sunday’s Oscar fiasco…

This is exactly what I was saying during the show…

All the writers and producers of this year’s show should be bared for life from participating in future Oscar telecasts….

James Franco and Anne Hathaway did what they could with what they had where they were, to paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt.

They just didn’t have much to work with….

Last year, I wrote a post-Oscar essay that got me quoted in Time Magazine. This year I have no such profundities to offer. But let me simply say that while this truly was the worst Oscar telecast in at least as long as I’ve been watching (since I was just short of 12-years-old in 1992), the blame lies not with the hosts, but with the material. Many have commented that James Franco all but started the show with a stunning display of apathy and disinterest. While we can all joke about whether he was stoned, or whether he was thinking about one of the 6,000 other activities he is currently involved in, the truth may be much simpler: Franco probably saw the material that had been written for him and Ms. Hathaway, and he damnwell knew he was in for a rough ride. So while Franco seemingly tuned out, Hathaway did the opposite, going absolutely for-broke, refusing to go down without a fight. But while Anne Hathaway and James Franco are excellent actors (and their hosting last night does not change that), not everyone can make lemonade out of lemons.

For whatever reason, the writers of Sunday night’s events seemed to think that everyone’s favorite part of an awards show is the part where two mismatched presenters ramble through poorly-scripted banter and make painful attempts to appear charming and flirtatious. Because, with few exceptions, the entire show was one piece of awkward banter after another. The whole show reeked of older writers attempting to appeal to younger viewers, with little-to-no idea how to do that. Because if there is anything that young kids love, it’s being pandered or condescended to. No, awkward references to smart-phone apps, Auto-Tunes, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, and “the Internet” are not going to appear hip/cool to the young kids. And bringing Halle Berry onstage to memorialize Lena Horne is only to make it that much more noticeable that not a single minority was nominated for a major award last night. And spoiling the finales of several nominated films (True Grit, Toy Story 3, The King’s Speech) doesn’t inspire viewers to check those films out later. You want to try appealing to the young kids, first of all, try not leaving Corey Haim off your “In Memoriam” tribute. Second of all, and this gets me back to my original point, try giving the kids an entertaining show with jokes that were actually clever and reward those who actually followed the movie business with any amount of verve.

MORE:   Scott Mendelson: Oscar 2011: Don’t Blame James Franco and Anne Hathaway, Blame the Writers.