But they also drew more attention than the Oscars have seen since. Those spawned an online movement and triggered changes in Academy membership and rules that are unfolding to this day. (Producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan were hired for a third year, to deliver Neil Patrick Harris in his underwear, another tasteless moment with pretty good ratings.)Īs for nominations-day disasters, nothing can match the back-to-back all-white acting rosters of 20. Yet the audience popped past the 40 million mark, and stayed there the next year when host Ellen DeGeneres made good with a woman-friendly show but shamelessly pandered to a sponsor with her famous Samsung selfie. Then again, take a look at 2013, when Seth MacFarlane led the chorus in an unthinkably tawdry production number, taunting actresses by name with the refrain, “We saw your boobs.” It was wrong. In audience terms, it was neither here nor there. What more could you want? (Academy officials actually asked Jackman back this year but got a turn-down.) But the broadcast, during which virtually nothing went wrong, drew lower ratings than the next six in a row. It was a beautiful show, like a cozy evening in Hollywood’s parlor, with relatively gentle humor and a warm-hearted picture, Slumdog Millionaire, in the winner’s circle. Perhaps the best-behaved Oscar show in recent memory was the Hugh Jackman ceremony of 2009. Pratfalls are fun, especially when they catch the glamor crowd taking itself too seriously. Rather, they want to see idols leveled –embarrassed, caught out behaving badly, dressing in poor taste or ranting like Joaquin Phoenix at a West Texas barbeque. By and large, average people don’t spend three hours gawking at celebrities in order to admire or be instructed by their betters. The Academy is never so interesting as when it is just, plain, obviously wrong.
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