Red Carpet Ridicule

          Was anyone else as disappointed in the Red Carpet festivities as I was?  Increasingly, we are compelled to watch members of the media blabbing incessantly, as opposed to seeing actual movie stars.  I watched for ninety minutes last night, and I barely saw any stars-except from a distance.  Most of the red carpet shots were like "establishing shots",  with so much space between camera and attendees, that  you knew where the event took place, but the actual players were indiscernible. It was like a media tease: the stars are present-but we're not going to let you actually see them. 

     Tell me-is Bradley Cooper this generation's Leonardo DiCaprio?  You know-always an Oscar groomsman but never a groom?  That's okay.  In some cases, an Oscar win is the career kiss of death.  DiCaprio, while never having won an Oscar, has given numerous outstanding performances, and his career has longevity.  He is an actor for the ages, as I believe Bradley Cooper will be. By the way-where was Leonardo last evening?  I surely didn't see him on the red carpet-although I'm sure he was there.  His view was just obstructed by the spotlight stealing media commentators, who mistakenly believe that they themselves are the stars. Not!

     My MLS (movie loving son) inquired if the title of my last blog post is a takeoff on Birdman.  Unclear as to what he meant, he compared the titles:  Oscar Night or My Own Personal New Year's Eve vs.  Birdman or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance. I cannot tell a lie-it was purely by accident-just don't tell anybody.

     Who out there knows what the "Oscar Grand Slam" is?  I bet some of you didn't even know the Oscars had a Grand Slam!  It is not a phenomenon restricted to baseball.  The Oscar Grand Slam consists of one film winning the top 5 awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Screenplay, Actor, and Actress.  It has only happened three times.  While sharing a pre-Oscar dinner with MLS last evening, I asked him what were the three films that fall into the Grand Slam category.   I was impressed when, without a moment's hesitation, he rattled off, not only the titles, It Happened One Night, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Silence of the Lambs, but also the other pertinent stats-like the winners' names and the corresponding years.  He subsequently engaged me in a conversation about the best picture nominees over the last five years, complete with titles and winners, and his educated opinion on the worthiness of the nominations. Honestly-I think I have spawned the next Robert Osborne or Leonard Maltin. 

     I'm glad that J.K. Simmons won Best Supporting Actor for his outstanding performance in Whiplash, but his acceptance speech was a little bizarre.  I am not a fan of Patricia Arquette, who won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Boyhood, but her acceptance speech was splendid.  Kudos to Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne for taking home the Best Actress and Actor awards for Still Alice and The Theory of Everything.  While I wasn't a fan of the film Birdman, I dd like the unique way in which they shot the film, in that it appeared to be one long take.  That was amazing!

     And now, if you will forgive me, I feel the need to be catty.  Isn't it time, at the ripe old age of 46, for Jennifer Lopez to forego the slutty appearance?  At her age, exposing too much "cantaloupe cleavage" is not  tantalizing.  It just looks cheap.  Elizabeth Taylor, if she were still alive, would put her, and many other actresses in Hollywood, to shame.  Miss Taylor had a figure to die for, but never did she bare it all, which only added to her allure.  What actress in today's Hollywood could ever compare to "Maggie the Cat"?  No one that I can think of.  You can't buy that kind of sex appeal and allure.  You either have it, or you don't.  Not that JLo isn't beautiful-I concede that she is.  However, I believe that dressing to provoke shock is acceptable when you're twenty, but when you're flirting with fifty, less is more.  When you are of a certain age, more often than not, your appearance is not as youthful as you believe it to be.  Remember-you can run-but you can't outrun Father Time.