Fellow Movie Lovers

Fellow Movie Lovers

The global response to the Academy Award Contest was thrilling and kept me fully alert through, at times a tedious telecast. As the ballots dwindled with each awarded Oscar and the realization that my IRA was not threatened, I relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed the

fever of anticipation. Here are the three that triumphed. Congratulations!

Zach Overley

Gerald Rogers

Nicole Steiner

Everyone loves (or loves to hate) Oscar night; Hollywood’s Super Bowl! We watch in our most comfortable clothes, eating pizza, drinking wine, beer or diet coke, all the while critiquing the most recognized people on the planet; their designer attire, jewelry, their weight (or lack of), their hair color or style. This is our right and privilege, we know them, we have created them; they are in our debt; without us where would they be?

So they better be beautiful and this year they were, without exception, magnificent!

The WOW factor was electric, atomic: gowns were resplendent, jewelry sedate and elegant; it was a subdued, gentler Hollywood. (Although I missed the sensational; Bjork, resembling the Purdue Chicken; Barbra Streisand and Cher in their outrageous halcyon days, Sally Field’s “you really like me” or Jack Palance doing a cartwheel). Also, nostalgic for hosts of the past: Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, Billy Crystal. Try as they might these entertainers are irreplaceable.

Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin did the best with what they were given; too many ‘inside jokes’ lost on us outsiders.

The brightest moments of the evening were the acceptance speeches. It has always been irksome and annoying when the winner gets to the podium, speechless or blabbering about their shock at winning; they have known for months that they have a twenty percent chance of victory, they are actors, so prepare a script. 2010, no one disappointed; they were the quintessential stars.

It is always a long evening, doused with too many commercial breaks; but Hyundai garnishes the Oscar for the most innovative advertisement since Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?”

The camera pans the catastrophic bedroom of a teenager while playing “I am sixteen going on seventeen” from “the Sound of Music”; the message unequivocal.

Because of you this Oscar evening will forever be carved in granite. To the winners, I will see you at the movies!

For Now………Peneflix