Ok, so monday after the Academy Awards I took the show to task for the abysmal way they produced the memorial tribute during the show. Apparently they are now taking a “never happened” approach as all links to the way the segment actually appeared have been pulled and the only version that I or my researchers could find is a direct shot of the monitors which simply shows the tribute the way it should have appeared in the first place.

On the flip side, I also took the Academy to task at the time for excluding Heath Ledger from the memorial. I’ve since been reminded that his death actually occurred in January of 2008, so he was in last year’s tribute.

On the third hoof, that doesn’t excuse the incredible number of other performers that were left out such as:
Patrick McGoohan
George Carlin
Eartha Kitt
composer Neal Hefti
Harvey Korman
Mel Ferrer
Alexander Courage
John Phillip Law
George Furth
Beverly Garland
Ellen Corby
Lawrence Tierney
Bernie Brillstein
and many others, including perhaps the most egregious exclusion, Don LaFontaine, who may not have been a household name, but certainly was responsible for putting more “butts in seats” than many of the so-called “superstars” of today.

Well, whether the Academy chooses to recognise these people and their accomplishments or not, we here at moose central salute you all…

I’ll be honest and admit i didn’t see much of the academy awards show last night. Generally, though sometimes i enjoy the glitz and some of the presentations (for instance, I thought Hugh Jackman’s opening number last night was a LOT of fun), I think most of these award shows are rather irrelevant. And I’d submit that even the movie studios agree. After all, think back to the commercials that ran last night. On the one night that’s supposedly all about the movies and when you’d think they might be promoting all of the upcoming new movies - how many of the commercials were previews for upcoming features? Now like I said, I didn’t really watch that much of it, but from my observation and that of the few people I’ve talked to that caught any of the show the answer is ZERO! And again, this is the night that you would think they’d be trying to reach people who go to movies. Except the studios realise that the people who ACTUALLY GO TO MOVIES, Joe Here’sMyTenBucks if you will, are more likely to be watching the Super Bowl (which was full of previews) than the Academy Awards.

Anyway, like I said, I didn’t watch much of the show, but one part that I always try to catch is the memorial section, where they pay tribute to those who have passed in the last year or so since the last show. But last night, OH MY GOD WHAT WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE? Was that a tribute, or the Academy’s attempt to make the viewers seasick? Not only were the images so small that it was impossible to read half of the names being presented, much less what they were being recognised for, but the constant camera motion made it impossible to watch for long at all.

Not only that, but unless I missed it while I was leaning over the rail losing my dinner, there was no mention of Heath Ledger at all during this section, Yes, I realise he was given the posthumous oscar but that should not have been a factor as to whether he should be included in the memorial section. As a matter of fact, presumably they shouldn’t have known that he was a winner when they were putting together the video package. Even more than that, I’d argue if his performance was THAT good, then that’s all the more reason he should have been included instead of being completely snubbed like that.

All of this from the people who are trying to tell us who the Best Director and Best Editor are? Obviously they weren’t the people behind last night’s memorial montage.

Just in case you missed it, you don’t have to take my word for how horrendous it was: just click below… but i’d suggest waiting if you’ve eaten in the past 30 minutes or so…