The Oscars. Most of the banter Monday was about Melissa Leo dropping the F bomb during her lengthy acceptance speech for best supporting actress in “The Fighter,” Kirk Douglas’ appearance as a presenter, and Charlie Sheen … who was not nominated for an Academy Award, but was interviewed on the Today Show Monday morning, and his outlandish behavior is upstaging Oscar talk, unfortunately.
SHEEN
To catch you up, CBS canceled Sheen’s TV show, “Two and a Half Men,” due to his recent public behavior, which included calling out the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre. Sheen is now demanding CBS publicly apologize “while licking his feet.”
When asked how long he’s been clean, Sheen simply stated “drugs tests don’t lie.” This was also his answer to the interviewer’s question: “When was the last time you did drugs?” Sheen replied: “I don’t know. I don’t care. Drug tests don’t lie. Score boards don’t lie.” It’s my understanding that recovering addicts know to the hour how long they’ve been clean, but you can make up your own mind. He seemed to be high on something, but according to Charlie Sheen, he was high on a drug called … Charlie Sheen. (Comedian Patton Oswalt posted this on Twitter: David Simon needs to do a 6th season of THE WIRE, where Marlo and his crew start selling Charlie Sheen on the corners.)
So enough about Charlie, his rant and his alleged sobriety. The Oscars were sort of ho-hum. I watched the awards show with several who loved James Franco’s dead-pan humor. It didn’t work for me, and Anne Hathaway was really endearing, cute and sweet, but that didn’t work for me either despite her many wardrobe changes. Oscar hosts should be more commanding. Let’s get Alec Baldwin back. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate these actors and look forward to their work. In fact, I wondered if Franco was drafted to play the “dumb stoner,” which is a shame because he is anything but. He’s working on his MFA at Columbia University and recently finished filming his directorial debut movie.
FIRTH
The King’s Speech swept the big Oscar categories with wins for Best Picture, Best Director (Tom Hooper) and Best Actor (Colin Firth). I wondered if the Academy didn’t tip the scales for Firth as a compensation for last year’s loss for his role in “A Single Man.” (Jeff Bridges snagged it in 2009 for playing an over-the-hill country star battling alcoholism in “Crazy Heart.” If there was a time to split the gold statuette, last year would have been one of them.)
Many were surprised at Trent Reznor’s win for Best Original Score for “The Social Network” over Hans Zimmer for “Inception.” Christian Bale plugged Dick Ecklund’s website during his acceptance speech for best supporting actor in “The Fighter.” Some boos were heard in the crowd. Natalie Portman’s fiancee, Brian Millipied, helped her up the stairs to accept the Best Actress Oscar, a sweet assistance considering she’s pregnant. Her speech started beautifully and genuine, and I almost teared when she said she’s training for her most important role, as a mother.
PALTROW
Jennifer Hudson presented the award for Best Song, and the whole time she was on stage, I wanted her to tear it up with her power-house talent, but alas, she wasn’t there to sing. Randy Newman won his Nth Oscar for Best Song. And later, I felt tense and empathetic during Gwyneth Paltrow’s performance of “Coming Home” from her movie, “Country Strong.” What an audience to perform for.
Here’s a list of winners at the 83rd Academy Awards, and here’s a photo gallery.
Let’s talk about the show, the winners, losers, hosts. What did you think about the event?
