Oscar's 80th!

Oscar's 80th went off smoothly last night finishing only 20 minutes past it's scheduled time. Although it's too soon to see any real numbers as far as ratings go, I would be surprised to see any increase in viewer ship. On the whole the show was entertaining, thanks mostly to Jon Stewart's edgy yet still classy performance as the evenings host. His opening monologue was short and right on target. His best joke of the evening... "Democrats have an historic race going. Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama. Normally when you see a black man or woman president, an asteroid is about to hit the Statue of Liberty." He remained funny all evening. His relaxed style and mostly topical humor grew great laughs from the Hollywood A-list audience. Although their tepid response was clearly visible during Stewart's most controversial joke of the evening when mocking both the box-office failures of the Iraq War-themed films and Presidential candidate John McCain in saying...""I am telling you, if we stay the course and keep these movies in the theaters, we can turn this around. I don't care if it takes 100 years! Withdrawing the Iraq movies would only embolden the audience. We cannot let the audience win." It was a great joke and one I'm sure the audience completely agreed with, but it was not surprising that most were too hypocritical to respond.
My predictions about endless montages was not realized, most were short and to the point and Stewart's alternate writer strike montages were especially funny. I only wish he and his Daily Show crew had supplied more of the extremely funny faux acting award campaign ads like they did during his last outing as Oscar host.
I cared little about who wore what, fashion was never a concern to me. It was good to see all of the acting nominees present this year. The two upsets in both actress categories were unexpected and supplied the evenings only surprises.
All five of the Oscar nominated songs proved once again that the song-writing branch of the Academy is in disrepair. All three of the nominated songs from "Enchanted" were uninspired and unmemorable. Why couldn't the Academy bring back the Best Music, Original Musical or Comedy Score award which has been given from time-to-time over the years to honor one of this year's crop of musical adaptations. "Across the Universe", "Hairspray", "Once" and the brilliantly orchestrated "Sweeney Todd" were all deserving of this award.
In the end despite hosts Stewart's noble attempts, I thought the show lacked anything special for an 80th celebration. I suppose the writer's strike was settled too close to air-time to allow any great thought to be put into commemorating the occasion properly.