Penelope Cruz reflects class and elegance |
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Earlier this year, MatchFlickers saw the Golden Globes Gala felled by the Writers Guild of America strike. For a while, we wondered if the Oscarcast might suffer a similar fate. An Eleventh Hour Settlement put to rest "the media question read and heard around the world," to "Will the Oscars Happen?"
This question answered, a follow-up query instantly replaced it: With the strike settled less than two weeks before the Oscarcast, will the hastily-written gala measure up to the best in Oscar's past, or will the show suffer from its written "on the fly" circumstances?
Let's face it, the Academy Awards are known as much for their technical gaffes, political incorrectness, and stupefying long acceptance speeches, as for their ability to honor achievement. Nonetheless, the brighter Oscar smiles upon a motion picture, the more likely it is to earn bonus bucks at the box office.
Did last Sunday's 80th Annual Academy Awards have the golden glow that translates into those post-New Year extra dollars at the box office?
What we do know for certain is that Sunday's Oscar telecast was its lowest-rated television broadcast in 
Funny Jon Stewart lost his groove but kept his iPhone. |
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history. The Academy Awards have been televised since the March 1953 Congrats Fest that honored the flicks of 1952. On the West Coast, Bob Hope, Oscar's all-time most frequent host, kicked off his still-unequaled hosting reign.
Hollywood pundits attribute Oscar's All-Time low ratings to the fact that the Academy Awards shunned the $100 million plus blockbusters that Match-Flickers embraced, in favor of artier fare that few of them saw, or cared to see.
Ratings aside, did the show measure up? Will Match-Flickers now flock to see the flicks upon which Oscar smiled?
Beginning with their Red Carpet entrances and continuing throughout the evening, the stars have rarely looked more beautiful, dapper, and handsome than they did last Sunday. From Moment One, it was obvious that the minions who dress and groom the rich, famous, and pampered had no strike within their industries.
Outside Hollywood's Kodak Theatre the weather was dark, gloomy. On the Red Carpet, the stars were light and bright. Anne Hathaway was radiant in red. Brilliant yellows, greens, and blues made other luminaries "pop" as they made their entrances. 
Post Strike Oscar Scribes Strike Out |
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In Basic Black, Penelope Cruz was a testiment to class and elegance.
As for the telecast itself, an Oscar-worthy, visually spectacular opening, incorporating images from Oscar's 80-year-history was the creative apex of the evening. My Oscar Party guest, Charles Miller, described this visually exciting high-tech ride through Hollywood as "looking just like my commute to work."
Jon Stewart's monologue, written by his DAILY SHOW scribes, was funny, if lacking in teeth and claws. The rest of the writing was unfunny, sometimes embarrassingly so, most notably the "I look more like Halle Berry than you do," routine.
In my family room, on the 46-inch High def Screen, my party guests watch the proceedings as they enjoyed champagne and Oscar-nominee inspired food. We served No Casserole for Old Men. Dick Lewis created a delectable Atonement Salad, a vegetarian mélange so rich in Guilty Pleasures that we spent Monday atoning for our indulgence. Charles and his lovely Tina brought THERE WILL BE GUACAMOLE and, also inspired by the Daniel day-Lewis film, "I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!" in multiple flavors. Ingrid's Pinot Noir is 
This Year, Oscar is irrelevent to the Box Office |
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always stylish, and Molly and Doug's GONE CRABBY GONE appetizers scored a homer.
Regrettably, on screen, what the Oscars writers served up wasn't as tasty as our Family Room fare. The scribes batted 0, not 1000, with their banal banter.
Judging for the excessive number of film clips shown throughout the program, viewers may have believed that the Writers' Strike had not been settled. When the clips stopped and the writers words sprang forth from the presenters mouths, viewers were probably wishing that the WGA strike had continued. Remember Hollywood's recently departed, Oscar acknowledged the gone way too soon Heath Ledger, but failed to mention the remarkable Roy Scheider.
To answer the question posed at the top of this pillar is no, this written-on-the-fly Oscarcast did not measure up to the best of its predecessors. And, no, the results will not send Match-Flickers scurrying to plunk down their hard-earned dollars to inflate the grosses of those flicks that went home with Oscar Gold.
Furthermore, if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences doesn't get back in step with its audience, even fewer will tune in next year.
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| The Business of Show |
Every other Friday
Does advertising, public taste, or overindulged stars determine a movie's box office fate? Christoper Stone explores what's going on behind the box office.
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| Christopher Stone |
Christopher Stone is the author of the international best seller Re-Creating Your Self. With Mary Sheldon, he co-authored three highly successful hardcover books of guided meditations.
He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
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