Two More Cents

Regarding the Academy Awards presentation on Sunday, I was also particularly gratified that the orchestra this year didn't start playing music 10 seconds after winners started speaking. I have never accepted the 45-second rule (or the one-minute rule or whatever-length-of-time rule) as being necessary. It's an awards show. The whole point is to give people awards, not to showcase production numbers having nothing to do with the nominated films' music or to highlight montages of movies that aren't even nominated. When people win awards, they deserve time to say how they feel. Yes, I realize that too many people read off a laundry list of people they want to thank. However, just think how boring the awards might have been had it not been for Penelope Cruz claiming that she was going to faint or the Ledger family's tribute to Heath and his talent or Kate Winslet telling Meryl Streep to "suck it up" or Sean Penn's self-deprecating humor or, best of all, Dustin Lance Black speaking to all of the gay kids in the audience. Those are the moments that we remember from the Oscars (and other awards shows). More of those, please, and less of the stuff that's meant to be entertaining but usually isn't.