I didn’t see the show this year. Were there any great moments? Inspiration?
Usually the biggest scandal is who was left out of the In Memoriam. It would be nice to hear some good things. How did the hosts do?
I thought the speeches by Ariana DeBose and Troy Kotsur were both articulate and inspiring, as they were at the British Academy Film Awards a couple if weeks ago.
The Twitterverse is up in arms by the omission of Bob Saget and, to a lesser extent, Ed Asner and Norm Macdonald. Although I mostly agree with AMPAS on this, since they were primarily TV actors. However, Asner was also once president of SAG and Ken Howard, also a past president of SAG-AFTRA, was included the year he died.
I’m never a fan of multiple hosts at the Oscars; they rarely work well. This year was better than James Franco / Anne Hathaway. But that was a very low bar
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There was a very sweet few minutes with Lady Gaga and Liza Minelli. Clearly Liza is dealing with some serious health issues, she was in a wheelchair, seemed a bit befuddled, but was darling all the same - Gaga took several moments to assure Liza that she had her back, once even saying “I got you” when Liza seemed to be lost, and Liza looked at her adoringly and said “I know” - oh my! It was something. And frankly I found it inspirational.
Unfortunately (to me) the In Memoriam segment was overshadowed this year by singers and dancers - the songs were fine (appropriate), that wasn’t the issue (for me), the issue was the camera was continuing to focus on the dancers and chorus with the photos of those who had passed on a (by comparison) tiny screen in the background - so tiny that it was nearly impossible to read the names and their field(s) of expertise. Then they had 3 very interesting moments where a famous person joined the stage and gave a 2-5 line speech about why that person who was on the screen at the time was important to them. It was strange as there had to have been close to 50 individuals memorialized, and only 3 talked about. Very odd to my sensibilities.
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The funny thing to me was that I only watched 10-15 minutes of the show. It happened to be when Troy Kotsur won for Coda. I commented elsewhere that it was 10 of the most touching moments I ever saw on the Oscars - his acceptance was just a warmhearted delight.
Worth watching both his moment and the Lady Gaga/Liza moment.
If you didn’t see it….
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That seems like a different discussion/potential new thread.
Lots of good things happened at The Oscars. When CODA won for best supporting actor and Best Picture the whole crowd did the sign for clapping and it was incredibly moving. They brought back a lot of actors from classic movies to present (Pulp a fiction, God Father, White Men Can’t Jump) I liked Amy, Wanda and Regina as hosts. Wanda was hilarious when she came out as Richard Williams. Beyoncé was spectacular singing from a tennis court in Compton, the Encanto cast performance of We Don’t Talk About Bruno with Megan Thee Stallion was great. Lady Gaga with Liza Minelli, etc…
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About the Oscar slap-
From the New York Times article - “A Slap Could Sting the Smith Family Brand.”
Will Smith was known for his pubic image, his “likability.” He said in his memoir that he has a more private side, the “General”, a punisher. And that when the General shows up, “people are shocked and confused.”
Unfortunately, the General seems to have shown up at a terrible time, and on an international stage. I still can’t believe how shocking this incident was.
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Still not convinced it’s real versus something the two arranged. It looks to me like Rock positions himself to be slapped.
Well, I guess anything is possible, but it would seem even crazier to me if they had staged it and then didn’t immediately admit they had when obviously people were not laughing. And the audience was in shock.
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Sony and Netflix have both paused greenlighting projects that Will Smith was attached to. The whole thing is just so troubling. A person at the top of their game, poised to win the top award after 30 years in the business, and he gets out of his seat and slaps Chris Rock in front of the whole world. It truly is mind boggling.
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Upthread, I too thought it was staged. Something seems odd about all this; but, in reality, enough time has passed.
I raised it, but I kinda’ don’t see that it was a hoax now. What it is is a shameful episode, regardless if it is true (which it now seems to me to be) or not.
Interestingly Chris Rock had a talk show in the late 90s and she was a guest.
Just seems odd. Close or not there are so many tie ins amongst the trio.
SNL is dealing with this, as expected.
Saw an interview with the producer of the Oscars (Will Packer) who said he initially thought it was a bit. Wasn’t until Chris came off the stage and told him that Chris had actually been hit that he realized it wasn’t a bit.
If you didn’t catch SNL last night, here’s “The Slap”…I have tears running down my eyes. Figure out why! 
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“I deleted my phone” and “What’s your name?” “They didn’t give me one.” 
(mynameiswhatever!)
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I watched the show live last night and thought all the Will Smith stuff was funny. Chris Redd as Will Smith was absolutely hilarious!
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Chris Redd is a wonderful comedian!
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I know it’s bad CC form to praise your own post, but I just have to mention this.
I was taking my daughter to school this morning and had to stop by the local hardware store. On the way back home in the car alone, I started thinking about this video and burst out laughing several times on the drive back home. It got so bad that I wound up putting my mask on so that people wouldn’t think I was going insane in my car alone! 
I guess why I like this so much is how Chris Redd goes from being normal to raging to normal to raging etc etc.
Kinda’ like me my drive home just now!
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