VeeshanVault

The Oscars are puzzling to me. I don't give a shit about them in the slightest, nor do I understand why anyone does. I actually resent them, because it feels like 'the establishment' is saying "here, we've put together this glorious masturbatory event, now consume it so our self-fellatio will be profitable." I might care a little if the judging seemed even half as objective as what you get in figure skating.

That said, the presence of Jon Stewart almost convinced me to watch them. Almost.

I watched them, because some of the stars of Hollywood I actually enjoy. Plus, after seeing Capote, I was going to be fuming if Philip Seymour Hoffman didn't win. So that was why I watched it. Oh, and for Jon Stewart. Most of the audience didn't appreciate his comedy, from what I saw. In fact, he didn't seem very on the ball that night. Maybe he was nervous, or maybe it's just too different a venue for him. That was my perception, anyway.

My wife was watching it. Does hearing it as background noise while I play EQ2 count?

I watched the opening because of Jon Stewart which is saying something since I normally would never waste my time with it. My wife seems to like watching it though. I just never personally cared about watching people not working in my company, rewarding and patting themselves on the back for doing their jobs well. I also do not like to block that much time sitting doing nothing but watching tv.

The Oscars is another show geared for women and gay men to see what horrible shit people are wearing.

Award shows are like sports. Just read who won the next day and don't waste time actually watching.

It was on but like most things we really don't have time to watch anything with 2 small children. I did watch the into with Stewart but not much else...

Marb

I caught about 30 min or so but from what I saw I thought it was hilarious. John Stewart was great. "It's hard out there for a pimp" was great material for him to work with. Some of the chicks were really hot in their outfits. I noticed that when they did the In Memoriam I didn't see Bob Denver. I liked the Lauren Bacall bit as well on the Film Noir.

Didn't watch it, although it would have been a good opportunity to drool at Naomi watts every now and again.

Watched the beginning, it was fun!

As soon as i saw Kong winning his first Oscar (effects) was enough for me and i turned it off after that!

I watched it this year, but really only because Stewart was hosting.

I do think that in this town (LA and the surrounding areas), there were a lot of people that watched it. There are a large number of people in the LA area that work in the entertainment industry, and I'm sure a lot of them had a vested interest in watching to see if a project they were involved in or a business acquaintance they know was involved with did well at the Academy Awards. There were a lot of Oscar parties last night that weren't attended by celebrities, but were attended by the low level Hollywood grunts or aspiring actors.

I don't look at it as elitism. Plenty of industries have awards at the end of the year for Top Salesmen, Top Research (Nobel Prize anyone?), AVNs etc. The main difference is that this one is televised, and there's a lot of hype surrounding it because it's movie stars. The same crowd that buys US magazine and Premiere will be very interested in this. This year there also seemed to be some added interest from the gay community due to Brokeback's nomination status.

Either way, when an industry has a black-tie awards ceremony, I don't think that's elitism. If anything, with all the media coverage (which obviously plays to the entertainment industry's needs) I'd argue that this is all about accessibility instead of elitism.

You're right that there's nothing wrong with having an awards ceremony. I get pissed off by the fact that it's such a television event-- second highest advertising prices of the year and all that. It's very important for whatever channel airs them that it go off well, and it's moderately important for the actual hollywood types, as it will build excitement for their industry (and we all have been seeing how upset they get when revenues are down). When I see pundits gravely lamenting the lack of buzz for the event (the same holds true for the Grammys and Miss America and all that), I feel like the powers-that-be are attempting to tell society "look how ungrateful you are. we arranged this nice event for you and you are disdainful of us. after we worked so hard to entertain you! don't you want to join in on the back-slapping?" and the answer is "no, you work for greed, not my entertainment, and us out here in society aren't interested anymore, now fuck off." I guess I feel like 'the academy' expects us to be entertained and excited by the Oscars by virtue of their mere existence, while sensibly we should be expecting the academy to do something which gets us excited and will leave us entertained. It's not a rational reaction, just a visceral one.

i watched because of jon stewart, and i wanted to see naomi watts and eric bana. beyond that, i didn't really give a shit.

what really gets me is the stars compalining about how taxing it is to wear all the expensive clothing and jewelry and have people take pictures of them on the red carpet.

Edit: Let's concentrate on whats important here.

The Oscars are a Hollywood circle-jerk. I'm sorry, but you not only expect us to give a shit, but you expect to turn a profit? I haven't gone to a mainstream movie since RotK, because Hollywood has churned out more shit recently than all the pig farms in Arkansas combined.

p.s. Comparing them to the Nobel Prize, noel? That's like comparing the contributions of Einstein to Bozo the fucking clown.

masteen wrote:p.s. Comparing them to the Nobel Prize, noel? That's like comparing the contributions of Einstein to Bozo the fucking clown.

TEHY ARE THE SAME IF YOU ONLY COUNT THE HAIR!! I WINNAR!

Niffoni wrote:

masteen wrote:p.s. Comparing them to the Nobel Prize, noel? That's like comparing the contributions of Einstein to Bozo the fucking clown.

TEHY ARE THE SAME IF YOU ONLY COUNT THE HAIR!! I WINNAR!

I think Bozo had less hair than Einstein

I recorded it and just finished watching today, it's a bit too long to watch it all at once, plus cutting out commercials shortens the whole deal by a good 44 minutes
I watch it mainly to see the people live, Jon Stewart was very funny, there was a bit too many montages, I didn't get the whole film noir bit and poor Lauren Bacall seemed to forget her glasses or contacts and the teleprompter was a challenge for her

I loved Jennifer Garner slip that almost landed her on her butt, she recovered nicely and with a huge smile said 'I do my own stunts' hehe it was cute

The only comparison that I was drawing was award show in field X to award show in field Y. I was also stating that though I didn't give a shit, I was pretty sure there were lots of people who did.

I watched the last 10 minutes of it only exoecting to catch my local news .. so it was by mistake.

Did Jack Nicholson actually read the card or did he just say Crash and nobody double checked what the card said.

Jack rocks.