[Billthedrill]

'03 was a disaster primarily because Chicago had been out the bare minimum of time for the nomination and nobody outside the critics had seen it yet. Awful weak field that year but I thought The Two Towers had a chance. Gangs Of New York was up as well.

It was actually quite a bit stronger a field this year I thought, but the insistent drumbeat that you will watch Bareback Mountin' and you will enjoy it, you homophobic swine, detracted from the Oscars as a whole. The artistes want to turn Hollywood into the Sundance Festival writ large but they don't want to take the corresponding cut in paycheck. And so we get a coterie of pretenders who own private jets and show up at the big show in Priuses. And so it goes.

[cubreporter]

Going, going....GONE! And...good riddance

[GOPJ]

Only 10%?

[jpl]

It's definitely getting harder and harder for people to plausibly throw out that old canard that all they're interested in is making as much money as possible. They've probably never been more out of touch with America than they are now.

[cubreporter]

Here I come...look at me, look at my gown...look at my hair...look at my jewels that were BORROWED...look at my shoes..look at my beautiful skin...got it at Botox...look at the limo I came in...don't I look beautiful? Look at how low my dress is in the back and front? Daring isn't it? Look at how much I have exposed of myself. Look at how we pump each other up. Look at how I stand on the red carpet and let the dufus's in the press photograph me. I am turning now...look at my back and my sides and my front...ooops, sometimes I slip out of my front...tee hee, it's sooo cute isn't it? Like I left the house not knowing that I could slip out of my dress anytime but...that's who I am. Look at me, look at me and oh yes, don't forget to look at me.

That's boring I know folks but...that's WHO they are and WHAT they are and...they ARE self centered, talentless and...BORING.

[MamaTexan]

Crash," an Oscar rarity that was shot outside the studio system on a meager $6.5 million budget, became a solid box-office hit, grossing $55 million domestically.

$55 million? That's it?

I didn't think that was even a weekend gross for a 'hit' movie.

The spin never ends.

[manwiththehands]

Boo flippin' hoo.

[Wolfie]

The Oscars would get huge ratings if they formatted the show for the average viewer. They take 2 hours to give out two of the 6 to 8 awards people are actually interested in. Cut it down to an hour, lose the schtick, and cut out the "Best Editing By A Left-Handed Foreigner" type awards.

[jordan8]

40 percent of the TVs in use last night were tuned to the awards? I don't believe it. All of these propaganda films will now go to premium cable (subsidized by your dollars) where they will reach the audience they didn't get in the theaters. There is no dichotomy between Hollywood and television anymore. Here is an article on the funder of a lot of these films. In the age of mass media democracy is dominated by the media barons.

[CougarGA7]

The Oscars were last night?

Who won best new country artist?

[onevoter]

Gotta love that fact that Clooney likes to do "issue pictures" so that what he does will matter. Must be difficult to realize that you're opinionated but not overly bright . . .

[JoeGar]

If The Dukes Of Hazzard had been nominated for best picture, I would have tuned-in.