From Studio Briefing:

CRITICS GROUCH OVER OSCAR

Sunday night's Oscar telecast received about a B-minus grade from TV critics. The Associated Press's Frazier Moore called host Ellen DeGeneres "pleasant company" and the telecast itself "easygoing, comfortable and reliably unsurprising. That is, when it wasn't just dull." Tom Shales in the Washington Post applauded DeGeneres for "doing a crisp and unpretentious job" but remarked, "Virtually everything about the Oscarcast, except for a few mercifully brief features, was entirely, punishingly too long." Robert Bianco in USA Today also faulted the production for being "exceedingly pokey," but added, "A general aura of good feeling pervaded the evening, and much of it stemmed from the night's unfailingly sunny host, Ellen DeGeneres." Likewise, David Bianculli commented in the New York Daily News: "Ellen DeGeneres brought an easy, breezy informality to the show that turned out to be one of its biggest assets. When pacing seemed slow and every good new element was offset by a bad one, DeGeneres was a reliable, likable constant." Alessandra Stanley wrote in the New York Times: "The Academy Awards are the one night when Hollywood struts and preens as if nothing is bigger or more powerful than the movie business. Yet the selection of Ms. DeGeneres, the first daytime talk-show host to serve as the master of ceremonies, was a reaffirmation of television as the dominant water-cooler medium."

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OSCAR RATINGS ARE HUGE, BUT CAN'T MATCH IDOL'S

ABC's telecast of the Academy Awards presentations, which usually is second only to the Super Bowl in attracting viewers, averaged a 20.1 rating and a 30 share during the primetime hours Sunday night -- or 33.7 million viewers, about what it recorded a year ago, according to preliminary overnight Nielsen figures. However, the return of Fox's American Idol in January drew more viewers this year -- 37 million. Earlier in the evening, ABC also scored strongly with the Barbara Walters Oscar night interview special, which drew a 12.0/19, representing 19.7 million viewers. (The show aired following the Oscar telecast on the West Coast.)

One thing that bugged me.... Why didn't Academy Award honor Steve Irwin when they showed memorial moment? I understand that they limited to people who involved in film industry, Steve did one film.

James Brown's been in movies too.

Uh, Al Gore didn't direct An Inconvenient Truth.

Ratings are 3rd lowest (behind last year's and 2003).

There's your answer. They honor people whose career was the film industry, not people who made only 1 film.

That's not NEARLY the joke that giving Babel Best Original Score is. That music in Babel has been used in about half a dozen TV shows before Babel was ever released (most notably, HBO's Deadwood).

But the BIGGEST joke of the night was Arkin beating Murphy out for Best Supporting Actor. Arkin's performance in LMS was, at best, okay. Murphy was downright fantastic. It shouldn't have even been a contest.

i'm glad the departed won and marty won, but other than that the show was alright.

when i went to sleep last night, this thread was on page 24 or 25

Glad to see someone else say that about Babel's score. That's what I was thinking, but since I don't have any recordings I couldn't be sure.

Wasn't The Godfather II score ineliquable for an Oscar because it included motifs from the first movie?

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)

I was hoping, he'd get up there and do his crazy eye thing where the eyeballs go in opposite directions and say "VIC MACKEY IM GOING TO GET YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!" Then smash something.

It looked like he was heading that way when he was leaving the stage..

And I 100% agree with you (I know, big surprise). Seriously. I saw "Babel" for the first time last week when it came out on DVD. It was just o.k. IMO. And I think "Notes on a Scandal" should have received a Best Picture nomination over this.

Still pissed "Pan's Labyrinth" lost though.

Oh....PerezHilton reports Eddie Murphy was so pissed he lost, he and his girl left the auditorium soon afterwards. But I haven't seen this reported anywhere else. True?

Actually, I think The Prestige should have been nominated for best picture instead of Babel or LMS. And Christian Bale should have gotten an actor nom instead of Will Smith.

Babel out. Last King of Scotland in.

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Happy that Scorsese won.
Glad Whitaker got his obvious win.
Glad to see that Jack went to support TD.
Glad Arkin and Arndt won.
Would've liked LMS to prevail (out of the picture nominees).
Hated that Children of Men went home empty handed.

That's pretty much it, I believe.

Hmm. I think Edward Norton deserved a nomination for "The Illusionist" over CB. But thought he was great too.

This was mentioned on the post-Oscar show too. Wouldn't surprise me..

What is it with comedians who get nominated and then pull a shit fit when they don't win? I remember hearing Bill Murray said some nasty things when he lost his nomination.

Why is he so pissed? He'll have other Oscar nominations in his career. Maybe for "Beverly Hills Cop 4" (?)

Norbit III.

DEFINITELY.

And he'll present it to himself too. As well as be the model that'll bring the Oscar to himself to present to himself.

I was pretty happy with the winners. EXCEPT I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT PAN'S LABYRINTH DIDN'T WIN BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM!!!!!!! IT WAS THE BEST PICTURE OUT OF ALL THE FILMS THAT WERE NOMINATED FOR BEST PICTURE!!!!!!! Ok, I'm done shouting.

Where have you been for the past few months?

Don't forget that he will also be the oscar statue, the band leader, and everyone in the audience that is applauding for him.

I wasn't too impressed with Ellen as the host. I've had a person in mind to host the oscars for the past few years. I think he is such an obvious host that the academy would be stupid to never offer it to him. CONAN O'BRIEN! He is taking over for Jay Leno's/Johnny Carson's show, so he has more than enough career credit, not to mention he is the funniest talk show host on T.V. Ellen's show bombed.

As for the winners, I've seen fewer films this year than any before, though i did see Little Miss Sunshine and loved it; it had A LOT of heart. And I saw An Inconvenient Truth, which I'm glad (and not surprised at all) won.

I have not seen a movie in a theater since my son was born- since the Jennifer Hudson scene had not been shown on TV since before last night where else would I have seen it before now?