Today in the Journal News
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- February
- 26
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Ron Villone opens up about his decision to return to the Yankees.
Carl Pavano went for tests on his left foot. But Humberto Sanchez overcame his little issue at least.
My Oscar picks yesterday weren’t half-bad. But the show on ABC was beyond tedious. I stayed up to see Martin Scorsese win and it was worth it to hear his speech and the genuine response from the crowd. But the producers need to trim back the extraneous junk in that show.
And why is Ellen DeGeneres the host? She’s a daytime TV talk show host who has never made a movie as far as I can recall. Can’t they get somebody with a little more juice? Billy Crystal? Will Ferrell? Jon Stewart even.
It’s also weird that after seeing so many stars all night, the Best Picture award is claimed by a producer nobody knows and he gives the final speech. You so wanted Jack to represent “The Departed” and say a few words.
Back in a bit. If you missed them, plenty of posts over the weekend to check out.
This entry was posted
on Monday, February 26th, 2007 at 7:29 am by Peter Abraham.
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Chad Jennings
Sam Borden
Josh Thomson
Damn it Pete. I taped the awards and now you ruined it for me. Thanks a lot.
*wink wink*
Pete, I couldn’t agree with you more about having to cut back the junk in the telecast! And Ellen DeGeneres was about as ‘white bread’ as you could get — I guess she’s inoffensive, and that’s what they’re going for in a host these days. It was annoying that the first hour (more or less) had no “important” awards. I slept through the middle part, but thankfully woke in time for the last 15 or 20 minutes when they finally presented the 4 major awards (actor, actress, director and picture). It occurs to me that except for people in the industry, there’s less than 10 awards that anyone is really watching to see the result for. How annoying. At least I could fall asleep; those “poor celebrities” in the audience (especially the non-winners) had to stay awake and sitting in those seats for almost 4 hours!
Nice article on Villone.
Agreed – good article on Villone. He looks like a yankee fan, haha.
Thanks Doreen and Scott
Ellen did voice work in Finding Nemo and Dr. Doolittle, and co-starred in Mr. Wrong.
Which is still a more distinguished movie career than some.
Billy Crystal??! The fake Yankees fan? How can you even suggest someone who talks all about how big of a super fan he is, and then wears a Diamondback Hat to the Yankees/D’Back world series? You shouldn’t even suggest him based on principle.
Ellen did a good job.
i liked ellen a lot. her delivery was gentle (almost loving) and she has a natural humor and grace which is always refreshing. as to her weak movie credentials…john stewart has a less than stellar resume…as does a little known/remembered host named johnny carson…
Pat — hold grudges much?
Also, I disagree with you Pete, about having the producer speak. What if you wrote a prize-winning article about Derek Jeter and then when they gave out the award, they had Derek come up and thank his mom and dad and all of the coaches he has had through the years, instead of you?
Ellen DeGeneres was completely wrong for this show because her humor is based on the irony that an “average guy” like her, with such mundane thoughts and apparent insecurities, is at the center of attention. This leads to lame bits where we see her getting her picture taken with Clint Eastwood or vacuuming the carpet in front of the stage — stuff that had nothing to do with the movies. The humor SHOULD be focused on the Hollywood culture, the bizarre pageantry, the egos, the false modesty of the nominees, etc. Billy Crystal understood this and was constantly wisecracking about the nominated movies and actors, the acceptance speeches, the losing nominees, etc. By contrast, DeGeneres barely commented on what was taking place. Her humor was centered on her and not on the Oscars.
Ellen was the safe choice. Boring, unfunny, but safe. The days of Chris Rock coming out and ranking on everyone are over.
The only tolerable way to watch the Oscars involves a drinking game.
Now I have no excuse not to see The Departed.
When John Stewart hosted and injected some humor into the ceremony all of the Hollywood folks bristled at his jokes b/c he was viewed as a failed actor who got lucky with The Daily Show (tremendous show) and not accomplished enough to make fun of Hollywood. Chris Rock pulled no punches as host and he was not asked back b/c he didn’t ‘repect’ the Academy enough. So it seems, the equation of make fun of the Hollywood elites, the pageantry and the winners/losers gets you the boot. Ellen promised to check her politics at the door when she hosted (she actually is very outspoken) and the end result was a very ‘pleasant’(and boring) ceremony. Seems like a no-win situation to me.
Ellen asking Spielberg to take her her picture…and then retake it…was great.
I thought she was a good host.
I liked her a lot more than most hosts in previous years.
When Stewart and Rock hosted the show (I enjoyed both) they were littered with awkward pauses for laughter that didn’t come from the audience.
Nothing was more awkward than Ellen with the tamborine, and that goofy choir going up the aisle. And the global warming hysteria is a real hoot.
The only real laughs came when Jerry Seinfeld did his little bit before announcing all the “depressing” nominees for documentary.
Now, let’s be fair, rainbowtrout, I thought there were also real laughters when Ellen talked about how America did vote for Al Gore…
I think Billy Crystal was asked to host every year for the past 5 years and he refused each time. I remember him saying in an interview that hosting Oscars is a no-win situation and extremely time/energy consuming. Oh, and that he somehow always had schedule conflicts…(I personally think that he purposely makes sure that he has something to do every late Feb.)