Thoughts on the Oscars

Casyn over at the Slayer Library bemoans the recent Oscar ceremony and finds herself agreeing with Harry over at "Ain't It Cool?" - something of a rarity perhaps? Now, I have many problems with Harry and his site, but on this issue I agree with her that most of his comments make sense. Where I differ from Casyn is that I don't think I can lay claim to any great commitment to the Oscars. In the UK coverage has always been erratic and the time difference makes it a nightmare to watch live, even if it is being shown. Moreover, I can't think of many years where I have had much emotional interest invested in more than a couple of films/persons. Okay, there was the room 319 incident with its joyous shrieks of 'yes!' back in March 2001 (and yep, I think I just deliberately got that room number wrong Helen Lisette...!) when fate decreed that we were in New York on Oscars weekend to see Russell Crowe pick up the Best Actor gong. Sure, LA Confidential and The Insider were both much more deserving performances, but that's the populist Academy for you. And out of the duty of friendship, I carefully sat up the following year when HLW was away in Sussex to tape the full awards ceremony - with some judicious editing - when Rusty was up for Best Actor in A Beautiful Mind, when he lost out on the "awh-disability" vote to the "about-time-we-pretended-we're-not-racist" vote. But, if I am honest, I'm rarely that impressed with the nominations or the winners. As I said previously, the only categories that I ever seem remotely regularly impressed with regarding awards/nominations for in the writing categories.