MPAA
We stayed off the internet as much as possible yesterday and avoided the television news, including the tedious intermittent "updates" so as to avoid any previous notice of winners in the Academy Awards, a television viewing tradition here. Jon Stewart's hosting gig promised more politics than was delivered, although George Clooney's kick-off acceptance speech seemed it would set the tone for the rest. It didn't, although up until late in the evening, when Reese Witherspoon accepted her award, it was the only speech of note in the entire night. We were surprised Brokeback didn't take more awards, or Capote, for that matter, particularly since, while it was a good film, Crash didn't seem to us to be Best Picture(tm) - maybe the idea that being set in L.A. gave it an advantage has more credibility than I would have guessed. Poor Heath, but thank goodness Dion Beebe hit the money, so somebody could take an Oscar back to Australia.