I wasn’t going to post anything about last night’s Oscar awards, but then my friend Matt wrote to tell me that one of my favorite actors, Patrick McGoohan, hadn’t been included in the In Memoriam section. And, now, I feel obligated to say something, if only to further ingratiate myself to the ghost of the man who gave us The Prisoner… Seriously, how do you leave out one of the greatest actors to have ever spoken the English language? No offense to Rudy Ray Moore, but I can see snubbing Dolemite. How do you leave out Patrick McGoohan, though, especially after he tossed that fancy lad out the castle window Braveheart?
In the defense of the Academy, they did include Vampira in their montage, though, which was great, but it’s hard for me to believe that they could forget someone of McGoohan’s importance.
So as not to leave on a bad note, here are two interesting clips from last night’s ceremony. The first is of Ben Stiller doing an impression of Joaquin Phoenix 3.0. And the second is of Steve Martin and Tina Fey poking fun at Scientology… Which of the two was your favorite?
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Mark,
I turned off the tv during the In Memoriam section not because of the McGoohan snub (although I’ll revision the history to say that, yes, that’s why I turned it off, uh, at the end of the In Memoriam section… they failed to pay homage to Patrcik McGoohan)…
… I turned it off because the frickin’ production value of the ceremony was poor. The whole thing felt cheap(er) and (more) poorly produced (than in other years). So, I DVR’d the first half-hour and fast-forwarded through a lot of it to catch up to real time, then as usual I found the musical numbers lame and overlong. And then, then… the In Memoriam section. Maybe it was the two whole beers talking, but the pan-and-scan they were doing while Latifah sang just really rubbed me the wrong way. I have yet to be initiated into the world of flat-panel HD, and maybe those displays would have done the In mem. justice, but my god… I couldn’t see tbe names of many of the people who’d died, and it was only through my ability to read a pixellated font at twenty yards that I could sometimes make out some of the affiliations of those whose contributions or titles I could actually read. I mean, shit. Come the F7*k on.
Really.
I don’t know if your link above is to the In Memoriam as it was shown last night (I’m not doing my necessary research before commenting on your threads…sorry to show you such disrepeckt), but if that’s what I saw last night, take some Dramamine before watching.
Dolemite would have done a better job than the Ausie song and dance man. And I vote for less Scientology bashing and more Scientology. I’d love to see Moore doing kung-fu and yelling about lord Xenu and the body thetans in the audience.
And Natalie Portman is the hottest alien ever.
The correct answer was Video #2. Scientology is a better target than an individual fucked up actor who thinks he’s inherited the mantle of Andys Kaufmann and Warhol.
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In case you don’t post anything about this year’s Oscars, I’m camping out here.