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| Christian Bale (r) Mark Wahlberg |
I cannot recall a time I didn't watch the Oscars. My earliest memories are with my mother. She loved them. It was a chance to see all the great studio stars come out. Of course, in those days you still had the great stars attending. By "great" I mean the studio system glammed-up stars of old: Bette Davis, Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, James Stewart, Burt Lancaster, etc. My favorite star of that era was Katharine Hepburn. Mother and I would wait to see if she'd show. She never did (well, one year, she finally did).
The Awards show became a controversial place to make political statements. I remember Marlon Brando sending Sacheen Little Feather to accept his Oscar and make a plea for the plight of the Native Americans. As co-presenters, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins made at least one major political statement about the war in Iraq.
Mostly it's about "Who are you wearing?" or not as in the case of the infamous streaker on stage with David Niven. I remember Barbra Streisand winning for "Funny Girl" in her awful see through pant suit. Boy, was that an embarrassment. I remember a number of Cher get ups, not just the one that gets shown all the time. Most of all, I remember Bob Hope as emcee. He was always funny. He always remarked on his never being nominated for an Oscar.
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| Amy Adams |
Last night, I watched the show. It was tediously long with very few highlights. My husband kept saying, "Can't we watch a movie instead?" But, I waded through an hour of pre-show fashion (my favorite part) and the entire 3hr 40min ordeal with long-winded acceptance speeches by people nobody really knows or cares about (harsh but true) and the over-the-top decision to have beautiful Anne Hathaway change seven times. (Seven times!) and the always painful habit of focusing on every nominee in the audience when the winner is about to be announced and the worst part of all, a leering and insensitive Kirk Douglas who cruelly made the Best Supporting Actress nominees wait while he made a spectacle of himself and then wouldn't get off the fucking stage.
Seriously, what an asshole! Unfortunately, he's lauded as "old Hollywood" and the "old Lion" so he is forgiven.
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| Awesome Helen Mirren |
I haven't seen most of the movies that were nominated, nor the performances. I will say, Colin Firth gave a lovely acceptance speech. Let's just celebrate the red carpet. It's more fun.
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A 50+ Sharon Stone
Wow!
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Justin Timberlake, his mom
I love the boys who brought their mothers. |
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| Nathalie Portman |
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| Mila Kunis |
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| Halle Berry |
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Russell Brand sans Katy Perry
He also brought his mother. |
I've seldom had as much trouble arranging photos as I have this particular post. If they are haphazard it's because I give up. It's probably the Blogger template. I've read other complaints about it. I should switch to Word Press but then I'll have to re-learn everything. waaaah!
