Last week, Doug and I did our annual TWERPcast dedicated to the
Academy Awards with OscarCast 2009 at www.twerponline.net/twerpcast

As per tradition, we made our Oscar picks and we managed a tie with
5 out of 7 correct (we both missed on Best Supporting Actress and
split the difference on the two categories we disagreed in -- I got
Sean Penn right, but Doug was on the money with it being Kate
Winslet's turn to win). Now that the show is over, though, I feel
the need to comment on the the best and worst moments the production
had to offer.

Best Moments:

The Opening Number - The Oscars returned to Billy Crystal glory as
Hugh Jackman opened the show with a musical tribute to the Best
Picture nominees, as well as the one that SHOULD have. Especially
funny was the tribute to "The Reader" in which he talks about having
wanted to see it, but just couldn't find the time. Jackman managed
to bring a comedic spice to the presentation and all that was
missing was saying goodbye using a toothbrush as a microphone.

Heath Ledger winning Best Supporting Actor - This was a foregone
conclusion for everyone, but the crowd in the Kodak Theatre were
still taken to tears as Ledger's father, mother and sister accepted
his Oscar. Everyone with a half-a-heart was moved by a father's
pride, a mother's sorrow and a sister's spirit.

Worst Moments:

Could We Have One More Dress Rehearsal? - The evening with filled
with minor mistakes that became seriously noticeable the longer they
lasted. It started with a curtain that didn't open on cue and a
voice cutting into the broadcast yelling to get it open. The
evening seemed filled with production errors that seemed amateurish
and more fitting for a high school play than the premiere awards
ceremony.

Disrespectful "In Memoriam" - One of the traditions of the Academy
Awards Ceremony is the honoring of those who have passed away during
the proceeding year. This year, though, the directors decided to
appease the ADD-inflicted masses by having Queen Latifah sing "I'll
Be Seeing You" while the presentation flashed on several screens
behind her. The problem? The director's decided that it was far
better to feature Latifah singing and giving the audience motion
sickness with unnecessary panning rather than show the artists
honored. As such, several honorees were unrecognizable and
unreadable, completely dishonoring the people they were supposed to
be honoring.

Cutting Out The Wrong Sequences - In the Academy's constant attempt
to cut broadcast time, they decided that they didn't need to show
clips from the nominated actor's performances and give Best Original
Song nominees individual performances, instead favoring longwinded
praise-fests and a "musical melody" combining all three songs into
one ill-fated performance. Instead, they chose to keep such entrees
as "Romance in 2008," "Action in 2008" (etc.) and a tribute to the
return of musicals (because "MaMa Mia" was SUCH a success). You
want to cut things? How about removing the fluff and leave in the
things that feature the nominees. Or better yet, just accept the
fact that the show is 4+ hours and plan accordingly. After all, the
NFL doesn't worry if the Super Bowl goes into overtime.

Let's Use Some Common Sense In Planning The Order Of Awards - For
the first time in years, the Academy put the awards in some
semblance of order by taking the process of making a movie from the
beginning stages of preproduction through applying music to the film
(often the last stage in postproduction) and giving out the awards
according to this process. It seemed to work well until the very
end, where they decided to give out the awards for Best Director,
Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Picture .... in that order. In
years past, Best Director is always the second-to-last award because
most of the time it is the same film as the Best Picture winner.
This year was no different and viewers learned that "Slumdog
Millionaire" won Best Picture a full half hour before it was
announced. This was very poor follow-through for an otherwise
beautiful concept.