Winslet? Oui! ... Penn? Oui, oui! ... Lewis? Non!!The decision-makers behind The Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Scientists were so transparently embarrassed about giving an award to Jerry Lewis (even a token, arbitrary one) that they couldn't even bother to document his not unimpressive accomplishments in film - both in front of and behind the camera. So why did they bother honoring him at all?
Last night's brief, anti-climatic treatment of the veteran star at the Academy's annual giveaway-and-barbeque hoedown - The Oscars - was embarrassing and awkward, actually topping the decision to have Jennifer Aniston on stage for several agonizingly endless minutes while Brad Pitt and Anjelina Jolie gawked from front row center. The best word to describe this insincere tribute is "rushed." A better word: Disgusting.
Yes, I realize that Lewis, one of film's more misunderstood commodities, was honored last night with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award - and that his Muscular Dystrophy activism was the real driving force behind this award - but here was a rare, fleeting opportunity when Hollywood could have stepped up and re-evaluated and redefined his career for those obtuse critics who just never "got" him. It could have echoed what The New York Times' Mahohla Dargis expressed in her Times' piece, "Hey, Laaaaady! It’s the King of Comedy" (2/22/09). But, surprisingly, even Dargis gives Lewis' directing accomplishments short shrift.
Besides, past Hersholt winners have been lavished with career praise.
So, why not Jer?
As for the rest of the show, the less said, the better - the self-loathing of Hollywood much in evidence.
You have a serious problem when the set (designed by New York architect David Rockwell) is the chief attraction of the night and when the producing team of Laurence Mark and Bill Condon makes the dubious decision to allot more time to a pointless production number celebrating the "return of the movie musical" (a naked fabrication here - the genre is still struggling, mightily, to rebound), while offering severely truncated versions of the year's three Oscar-nominated songs. Yeesh.
Adding insult to injury, the movie-musical extravaganza was the brianchild of the dreadful Baz Luhrmann, who operates as if he's a department-store window decorator who somehow stumbled into filmmaking. Forget about the movie musical making a comeback.
When is the Oscarcast going to bounce back?
Or is it just plain hopeless?
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