Oscar night

When Hubby finishes watching his quota of sporting events, I plan to plop down in front of the tv and watch the Oscars. I have no vested interests this year, so I have no idea how long I will actually last. Oscar is interesting because everyone in the industry seems to take themselves so seriously and there is always a little drama. Sometimes the drama is in the fashion (or lack thereof). Sometimes it's in who did and didn't get an award.

Knowing what a kick I get out of the whole shindig, Hubby forwarded this link from ESPN, which discusses various Oscar injustices. I definitely agree with the assessment of Haley Joel Osmet's loss to Michael Caine and Russell Crowe's loss to Kevin Spacey. The commentary on Robert Downey Jr.'s loss is quite funny. I always assumed that Russell Crowe's Oscar was for his work in the Insider and for not even receiving a nomination for LA Confidential (but I certainly didn't want the Oscar to go to Tom Hanks for Castaway). And I thought that Denzel Washington's Oscar for Training Day was for any of a vast number of movies for which he should have won. I think that Oscar's actor picks go for career, rather than the film for which the actor is actually nominated.

And I have to say I agree with most of the travesties in the Best Picture column:

Gladiator (much as I loved it) won over Crouching Tiger? Seriously?
The Insider lost to American Beauty (which made me weep and was the first DVD I ever received but still....)
Worst of all: LA Confidential lost to Titanic. LA Confidential is simply one of the finest movies ever. Hubby will probably say it is too early to tell, but I really believe that LAC will be a classic. The Titanic simply looked pretty, and was a great recreation of the ship itself, but LAC had style and substance.

Which leads me to my hope for this year: I really want the Return of the King to win best picture. And since evil hobbit Michael Moore won last year for a documentary that wasn't actually a documentary, I think good hobbit Peter Jackson should win this year for the final installment of a classic series. But as I said before, Oscar will probably go for some arty piece . In the end, it doesn't matter because ROTK is a beautiful, moving film.