Another Barrier Broken at the Oscars

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Once again, the motion picture academy decides to bestow its Oscar on yet another depressing film that almost no one saw, and starring nobody you've ever heard of.  This time it was "The Hurt Locker", the story of a group of American soldiers who defuse bombs during the Iraq war.  It won six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

Kathryn Bigelow made history as the first woman to win an Oscar for directing "Hurt Locker".  Not to begrudge her accomplishment, but would anyone have heard of her if she wasn't once married to James Cameron, who was nominated in the same category for "Avatar"?  By the way, the biggest grossing movie of all time nabbed three technical awards.

Sandra Bullock won Best Actress for her role in "The Blind Side", one of those movies where a rich white person saves a black person from a terrible fate.  Bullock's also the recipient of a Razzie for her role in the future DVD clearance bin classic "All About Steve".  So she's had quite a weekend.

Mo'Nique won for Best Supporting Actress in the pretentiously-titled "Precious:  Based On The Novel 'Push' by Sapphire".  Is there going to be a point where an African-American who wins an Oscar is no longer such a big deal?

Best Actor went to Jeff Bridges for "Crazy Heart", playing a broken-down country singer.

Christoph Walz' role in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds" netted him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

The three-and-a-half hour Academy Award telecast was hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, who appeared with nominee Meryl Streep in the film "It's Complicated".  Their routine wasn't easy to understand, either, as several jokes fell flat.

Other observations:

•  What happened to the phrase "And the Oscar goes to . . . "?  No one used it this year.
•  Finding new ways to test the patience of the audience during an already-long show, the Academy brought back testimonials to the nominated actors and actresses.  They should have taken a cue from Tom Hanks, who simply announced that "Hurt Locker" had won best picture without bothering to read the rest of the nominees.