Worst Oscars Ever!

....and Ann Rutherford (Gone With the Wind, Andy Hardy movies at MGM).

Oh, yes, I forgot to include Lauren Bacall (85 or 86 years old).

The Academy Awards program needs to bring back stars of the golden age of Hollywood. The producers got off to a good start with Kirk Douglas, who is 94 years old, but it would have been nice to have a special presentation devoted to other glamorous stars of yesterday...and the days before yesterday. There are plenty of celebrities still around.....Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine, Olivia de Havilland, Luise Rainer (101 years old), Maureen O'Hara, Joan Leslie, Eleanor Parker, Mickey Rooney, Shirley Temple, Michele Morgan, Deanna Durbin, Danielle Darrieux, Jane Powell, Coleen Gray, Dorothy Malone, Esther Williams, Martha Hyer, Audrey Totter, Denise Darcel, Terry Moore, Rhonda Fleming, Jane Withers, Leslie Caron, Eva Marie Saint, Paula Prentiss. Ali McGraw, Ursula Andress, Brigette Bardot, Diane McBain, Tab Hunter, Steve Forrest, Sally Forrest, Mary Murphy (of The Wild One), Anita Ekberg, Gina Lollabrigida, Carroll Baker, Sophia Loren, Tony Martin (97 years old), Ernest Borgnine, Barbara Hale (Della Street on Perry Mason), Racquel Welch, Susan Kohner, Colette Marchand, Elaine Stewart, Turhan Bey, Alain Delon, Julie Harris, and Shirley MacLaine. Haven't included Jane Fonda, who has been quite visible lately. Hey, Academy! Paying Attention?

I'm still bitter that the winners of the Thalberg Award, etc., are no longer televised. I guess the powers that be figure we would rather listen to James Franco than Francis Ford Coppola?? Anne gave 110% percent, which was about 100% more than what was required. The best line of the night was when Seidler said his father said he'd be a late bloomer.

This Academy Award show gave a whole new meaning to "Death Warmed Over" except this time they used a Volcano. They need to bury this one, loose it or just plain act like it never happened. Cause you know what, it didn't!

Maybe the problem is they don't know what they want the show to be exactly. They want to give themselves awards, and it has to be funny, but also serious, but not like they're taking themselves too seriously, but also convey that it's an important award. And it ends up being everything but fun.

Like watching a bad high-school play version of "Chorus Line" or some such. Franco was practically inert, but for the life of me I CANNOT figure out why anyone finds him remotely interesting or attractive, they must be really desperate; how far things have sunk... and its going to get worse!

Did Christian Bale forget his wife and daughter's names? he said "My wife..." and then stopped. Then he said "Our daughter..." and then stopped. It was weird.

Agree with the poster about Christian Bale's accent. Is he a chimneysweep?

Kirk Douglas saved the show.

Michael: Y9u are so superficial to have noticed Kirk's ear lobes. Weren't they AMAZING! It could have been worse. Micahel Douglass might have been up there.It is a constant source of wonderment to me that with all the talent in Hollywood, they can't piut on a good trade show. The material is consistentlya wful from year to year. Martina nd Baldwin were pretty good. Steve Martin is the best host they have had soince Carson. Billy Crysatl was totally overrated imho. Alas; I remember a time whent he Academy Awards mattered.

Amen

Um, I could not care less what anybody did or said after James Franco did the Black Swan bit in a white Danskin showing off that SWEET SWEET butt of his and his swinging junk. I just smiled for the rest of the evening. Still smiling thinkin' 'bout it.

I thought Kirk Douglass looked embalmed. But his ego is alive and well and getting huger every minute. What nerve taking the center of attention away from the nominees. And those earlobes. Has someone been swinging from them? Kirk and Dick Clark should get together and host a show: it would all be about them.Finally decided that Christian Bale is an affected a-hole. What's with the phony Cockney accent. Totally put on,

The whole thing was embarrassing. Horsey Anne Hathaway was ridiculous; not funny, not particularly talented - Franco was even worse. And why did ABC feel it was necessary to announce that they had won the right to televise the Oscars for the next eight years? Who cares?I had to turn it off. This was truly the worst Oscars ever.

The show was so boring I had to re-adjust my Tempur-Pedic so many times. The only think that could have jolted that bloated piece of horse pookie alive would be if they hadn't bleeped Melissa Leo. It was the best part of her speech. Hosts for next year should be Sarah Palin, Michael Moore and Lady GaGa!

if you live to be 94, i think you can be allowed to be hammy.Over 9 decades and a stroke, and Douglas was still more charismatic than Franco.

and earlobes, Musto? Getting kind of kinky in your old age, apparently...

They should have nominated Cher for Best Song and the Joan rivers doc--that would have given it a little punch!

The problem isn't with the hosts, it's with the writers. Love Bruce Vilanche, but stick a fork in him.

Another Franco did get a big laugh, though.

James' grandmother was cute saying, "I just saw Marky Mark!"

PS; The banter between Downey Jr and Jude Law was at least a little spicy, in the manner of Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes. But for the most part, the telecast refused to roast anyone and that made it dull, considering the primary state of standup comedy today is insult humor.

Next year get Joan Rivers!!

Yeah, the six degrees joke felt old, as did the thing about Morgan Freeman narrating. Tired material.

I think everyone stood up for Billy Crystal because they were thinking, "You now how to do this! Save us!" But alas, he didn't.

This was young and hip in name only. Franco in drag a la Marilyn and Anne singing Les Miz with the PS Staten Island chorus singing from The Wizard of Oz is just about as old-fashioned as possible. 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon is still a joke?

Franco looked stone which has been his disposition for a while. I am surprised people are shocked by that. Making him the straight man to Anne was a poor choice. Learn from Cheech and Chong, Bruce Vilanch.

PS If I hear another person remark on Billy Crystal hosting again, I will lose it. His last hosting gig was awful and his little segment was simple bizarre with Bob Hope.

I did like Zachary Levi and Mandy Moore singing. Who knew the two people you would least expect to be there were the most charming.

Two strange moments for me: the award(s) that Marisa Tomei presented for technical achievements or whatever it was and afterward James Franco said something about 'nerds'. I'm sure everyone was thinking it, but it seemed so rude and disrespectful. Should they have had someone host who thinks he's superior to his chosen profession? Yet the 'audience' seemed to love every moment. Jon Stewart poked fun at Hollywood in an intelligent way when he was host and they sat stony faced. 2) Finally the Best Picture award arrived, the King's Speech won surprise, surprise and then they tried to stop the third guy from saying anything, but he did it anyway. So we could hear the children's chorus sing Over the Rainbow.It was one of the most bizarre Oscars ever which made it kind of worth watching.

In between this and his awkward hosting of SNL, this does not bode well for Sweet Bird of Youth.

Yes, it was painfully boring. As mentioned, absolutely no suspense. The other 2,000 award ceremonies that are held before the Oscars pretty much provides a roadmap as to who will win, really diluting the whole thing. I will likely not be watching next year, the first time in probably 20+ years.

Bingo. There's the answer. It was like sitting at the kids' table all night. Where were the adults? You know when Jack and Meryl skip it, it's going to be a dog. We've got time for the grade school choir but not for Coppola's Thalberg speech. As Stritchy would say, "Wrong!"

I really didn't think Franco and Hathaway were that bad. The intro was great. Kirk Douglas was funny and charming. I do agree everyone knew who was going to win so there was no suspensBut they should get a comic next year. I would love to see Robin Williams host next year.

I had high hopes for James and Anne. If I had had trouble sleeping, all I needed to do was to watch the Oscar telecast. It was that snooze inducing. Early on, I knew it was trouble with Kirk Douglas. You couldn't really understand what he was saying. The only ham I'm interested in is between two slices of bread. Loved that Anne musical moment, but then what? I wondered why James dressed as Marilyn... because he could? He could've done something with it. The writing AND producing of the show sucked rotten eggs. James and Anne did what they could, with the material they were given. As punishment, the producer should be made to watch consecutive Pauly Shore (or Will Farrell for that matter) movies in a 24 hour period.

1. Kirk Douglas: If I didn't know that was him (and at moments I kept wondering) I thought it was in terribly bad taste to drag him out like that.2. James Franco: Maybe "live" isn't his thing (unless he's doing drag at Sundance). I never saw a host more perturbed at being a host than James Franco. 15 minutes in, he was already sneering. 16 minutes in, he redefined Snarkiness.

If this was young and hip society is in trouble when the hipsters take over. Hosts we unbearble. Boring is an understatement. Seriously could not find anyone better to host this snoozefest? Hathaway's attempt at humour was ridiculous. Franco either had too many downers or has no personality.

PS:

I've seen Melissa Leo and Colin Firth give amazing speches. Tonight they didn't. I think it was a combination of the deadening proceedings and the fact that they'd been asked to get up there and sparkle one too many times. As I've written before, the Oscars have become an anticlimax. We know exactly who'll win--no surprises, no horse races.

And as I said, the Kirk Douglas thing was astonishingly bad and sucked the energy out of the room.

Sorkin's speech was as chatty, talky, and blabby as the movie he won for. He just wouldn't shut up.

I think Kirk Douglas's self-serving shtick--which put five nominees through torture--threw Leo off.

I have to agree with your take on the show tonight. Franco seemed tranquilized and Hathaway (while I've always been a huge fan) seemed to have the opposite problem, 'hooting' many times like she was at a basketball game. I wish she sang a real song or montage, as opposed to a short Les Miz moment that was just a weird inside joke/ribbing aimed at Jackman for an audience of 1 billion. Also shocked that Leo - after winning awards non stop and being so heavily favored tonight - couldn't put 3 sentences together without sounding like a complete idiot.

I laughed out loud when I read your comment about the Kirks ear lobes. I said he could have at least 20 rings in each one of those suckers. Aaron Sorkin's speech was terrible. Rambling anonymous names no one cares about. Stale humor. Justin Timberlake was a travesty. I could go one. Who is Hugh Jackman again? Oh, that dude on HBO's the Hitchhiker. NEXT!

Ok, give us Whoopi already!

Franco was embarrassing in the pre show! Even worse than on the actual show. he was out of it and inarticulate and sans energy. Scary!

I must have seen a different show...Hathaway was beautiful and glamorous but fun while Franco was laid-back,low-keyed and yet elegant...Kirk was (very)Old Hollywood,Beatty and Coppola were New Hollywood(circa 1970) and the various New Faces were Young Hollywood...a nice blending of the old and new...yes,there were no surprises...I wanted "Winter's Bone",Eisenberg,Portman,Hawkes and Steinfeld but other than that the show was real nice...

It was painfully hard to watch. Franco was interviewed in the live pre-show and he seemed out of it, I thought he may be high, and he stayed that way throughout. I thought Anne did the best she could with what she was given and who she was working with, but ultimately she was reduced to little more than Miss-America-beauty-queen-esque enthusiasm.

He's cute but seemed to be coasting on his cuteness the whole night (though the opening montage was fun).

i'm so smitten with franco, i can't judge him objectively.

as for the show, it seemed more than boring. awful.