<p>I know he’s the most well-known host, but I always thought Billy Crystal was overrated as a host.</p>
<p>Of the hosts I’ve seen, I thought Steve Martin was the best. Ricky Gervais tried to be edgy, but he came off just mean. MacFarland seemed a little bland, and I wasn’t interested in the musical bits. I liked the sockpuppet version of “Flight,” especially when socks in the drier was used to represent passengers when the plane was rolling over.</p>
<p>Well…I thought Billy Crystal was great. Loved his one man show on Broadway several years ago too. </p>
<p>I didn’t hear the first hour of the Oscars so I may be wrong, but I think Seth has potential to be good.</p>
<p>What was everyone else’s opinion of Michelle Obama introducing the best picture category? I was kind of taken aback considering the political nature of two of the best picture nominees. Had Zero Dark Thirty won, that could have been taken as an endorsement of torture by the administration. God knows it doesn’t take much to inflame the Middle East. Even Argo could be viewed as thumbing its nose at Iran.</p>
<p>I was a little disappointed with the Bond tribute. The song was great but I so would have loved to see all “Bond men” walk out on stage together.</p>
<p>Hated Seth McFarlane as host. DH and I thought many of the jokes were in very poor taste and often just insulting…not funny.</p>
<p>Shirley Bassey was great. She outdid Barbra Streisand. 76 years old…wow.</p>
<p>Had seen all the movies except Life of Pi so DH and I saw it Saturday a.m at the last minute. So glad we did.
It was a beautiful movie and Ang Lee seemed truly moved when he won.</p>
<p>Don’t think I would have picked Argo for best picture. Ben Affleck’s acceptance speech was nice but not as cool as Daniel Day-Lewis’s.</p>
<p>Wasn’t the little girl from Beasts of the Southern Wild adorable?</p>
<p>^^^ Ditto on the adorableness.</p>
<p>Not impressed with the host McFarlane.</p>
<p>I liked many of the acceptance speeches - gracious yet conveyed the excitement of winning an Oscar.</p>
<p>I enjoyed this show more than I thought I would. I like it when the awards are spread around between several contenders. The “In Memoriam” segment was one of the best I can remember. I am not an enormous Streisand fan, but I thought she sang quite well. Shirley Bassey - fantastic!</p>
<p>Catherine Zeta-Jones was very good, as well. Her Tony-winning performance in “A Little Night Music” a few years ago was controversial, but I hope she’ll be back on Broadway as Mame, Mama Rose, Dolly Levi - she could play all those great parts.</p>
<p>I expected there would be some cringe-worthy humor from Seth Macfarlane, and he didn’t disappoint me there. But he didn’t disappoint me as a host, either. He can be so much more tasteless than that Lincoln joke - it was kind of a relief that he only went as far as he did. He was surprisingly smooth and if he blew a line, I missed it. Loved the musical numbers, his and the others. Judging from the reviews this AM, I made the right decision in turning off the TV before his final song with Kristen Chenoweth. I don’t like to say this because I usually like her, but I thought she was obnoxiously fawning during the red carpet segment (though whoever draws that assignment usually is).</p>
<p>Nominees for best speech of the night? I loved the ones from Ang Lee and Daniel Day-Lewis.</p>
<p>I thought it was one of the better Oscar shows and that Seth M did a very good job. I thought the pace of the show was excellent, too. </p>
<p>I also always like it when the awards are spread around instead of one movie piling on. </p>
<p>Jennifer, Shirley, Adele & Barbra were all great and I usually hate the musical numbers. </p>
<p>Loved almost all of the dresses. I couldn’t even find a worst dressed until I looked through all the pics and saw Helena BC who didn’t fail to disappoint. ;)</p>
<p>I agree with the above poster who said they did not like Michelle Obama having a part. Really? Really? Wrong message sent, there, IMO.</p>
<p>With all the issues of over-spending on so many levels, the discourse about needing to spread wealth around, all the swapping of accusations over the rapid approach of the imposition of sequestration, etc, I heard this morning that gift packages worth $45,000 were being sent to all the nominees who LOST. EACH! These packages include things like fancy shoes, slippers, certificates for massages, booze, etc. Anyone else sense a huge ironic twist in what these people SAY (and tell us all to do) and what they actually do??</p>
<p>This year’s swag bags are actually about half the value of those from 2010: [Oscar</a> Gift Bags, 2013 Edition, Cheapest In 5 Years](<a href=“Oscar Gift Bags, 2013 Edition, Cheapest In 5 Years | HuffPost Entertainment”>Oscar Gift Bags, 2013 Edition, Cheapest In 5 Years | HuffPost Entertainment) They contain items that many recipients are unlikely to use, seems to me - Quvenzhane Wallis won’t necessarily want a vampire facelift, and Emmanuelle Riva won’t make use of the circus lessons for her children, probably. (Maybe if she has great-grandchildren?) Didn’t she look beautiful last night, by the way?</p>
<p>The swag bags seem like good old-fashioned American marketing, to me. The vendors want to get their names in front of successful Hollywood types, to say nothing of the press. It’s my understanding that much of the stuff - the usable stuff, at any rate - is donated to various charities.</p>
<p>So now I am supposed to be outraged at a bunch of actors because a bunch of companies give them expensive stuff in their goody bags?</p>
<p>Thought I might watch the awards, but H and I ended up watching a great movie called “Monsieur Lazhar” which was nominated for best foreign language film. I was able to watch some of the acceptance speeches online this morning, plus Barbra’s performance of “Memories.”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>She was awful. Truly awful. Not only the fawning but she asked really ridiculous questions. I don’t usually watch the red carpet stuff because it’s always annoying, and I confirmed it last night why I don’t! I felt embarrassed for all of the ‘interviewers’, and I use that term very loosely, they made themselves look incredibly foolish.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>My thoughts exactly, emilybee!</p>
<p>I don’t know why people get so annoyed by this kind of thing. Same with Michelle Obama appearing via video. I thought it was a little unusual but, really, what difference does it make? And I have no idea what ‘message’ it sent, good or bad! And as far as her appearance meaning an endorsement of torture had Zero Dark Thirty won?! Really? Good grief.</p>
<p>I enjoyed most everything about last night’s Oscars. It is refreshing to see not only the women dressing with such good taste, but also the MEN. The classic tuxedo look is back!! Bow ties, which all but disappeared a few years ago, outnumbered long ties by 3 or 4 to 1. </p>
<p>The couple of exceptions: I didn’t like Jennifer Garner’s dress-- very unflattering with all that hoopla going on in back-- and also the hair/makeup award winner in the pink tights.</p>
<p>It was about the same as every year, a bunch of women in dresses from another era and a mix of relatively lame jokes and bits of good entertainment. </p>
<p>I find it funny each year that women are empowered at the Oscars but dress in things with long trains and corsets as though they’re dolls to be played with.</p>
<p>The weirdness was that no picture won much, that awards were spread all over. Not a big deal. I don’t care about best picture or any of that. About 6500 people can vote and we have no idea whether a picture or an actor or an editor won by 3000 votes or by 1. It’s entirely possible that 3 pictures finished within 20 votes and that if a few more eligible members had voted the winners would have been different. (I know that for some awards, the pool of voters is restricted to people in that field so the margins could be tiny across all the nominees.)</p>
<p>I was kind of turned off by Anne Hathaway. She’s supremely talented but the little stage whisper meant to be heard by the audience was fake sounding and I’m sick of hearing her talk about her stylists and picking the dress and all that crap. Makes me feel like her head has become one giant ball of egotism.</p>
<p>I’m also highly amused by the process. You can’t dress yourself. You need a stylist or a team of them to pick out clothes and then jewelry and a makeup artist or team of them to do makeup. And now they can’t even get out of their cars and walk by themselves but are managed up the entrance by paid handlers who direct them to this but not that interviewer and who pull them away if a question maybe touches on something which might be bad PR. What hilarity.</p>
<p>Lergnom I agree with you about Anne Hathaway – she’s talented but annoying. OTOH, I’m always struck by how down to earth Adele seems… despite her huge and almost instant success, she always seems genuinely touched and surprised by the accolades… that great accent doesn’t hurt, either ;)</p>
<p>The beginning was boring for all the appearances talks. They would have been better off, showing us more and talking about it less, I do not care about Kelly O’s opinion (who hah lavender hair herself, setting a trend in what - “what not to wear”?). I would not mind to check everybody myself though, while panel may have their comments on a backgraound for those who care about panel’s opinion. Then some announcers were better than others, but overall, nothing was catchy and served usual purpose of TV - no side effect sleeping pill. I usually do not like movies that are nominated / received awards (with very few exceptions, like “Blind Side”), so I never pay attention too much to the names of the movies.</p>
<p>…Yes, loved Adele, great talent, happy that I actually got to see/hear her before I fell asleep…</p>
<p>OK – what did people think of the boob song? And the gay men’s chorus singing? Whenever stuff like that is televised internationally, I giggle at the probable reaction in, say Afghanistan or conservative Indonesia, or even stuff-shirt Russia :)</p>
<p>These shows are an exercise in self-indulgence, but it’s fun to watch anyway!</p>
<p>I liked the musical numbers, and that they included some from previous winners. I read this morning that there was supposed to be an appearance onstage of all of the actors who had been James Bond in the film versions but that Pierce Brosnan declined to attend so they scrapped it.</p>