Oscar Hails "The King's Speech"

Image via WikipediaTo no one's surprise, a film about a stuttering king who was trained to speak flawlessly on the wireless at a time when his country needed him the most was the big winner at the 83rd Academy Awards.  "The King's Speech" won four Oscars out of 12 nominations for director Tom Hooper, actor Colin Firth's portrayal of George VI, original screenplay and for best picture.

Natalie Portman got her Best Actress trophy for "Black Swan", while "The Fighter" won supporting actor awards for Melissa Leo and Christian Bale.  If Leo almost sank her chances because of the way she handled her voting campaign, she became known for dropping the proverbial f-bomb during her acceptance speech (which ABC mercifully bleeped), then apologized for backstage.

Considering all the stories we've been hearing about the mysterious artist Banksy, whose work can be seen in various Los Angeles locales and has attracted considerable attention with law enforcement and copyright attorneys.  His film was nominated for Best Documentary, and everyone was wondering if he'd reveal himself to accept the award.  The Academy avoided embarrassment by awarding the prize to the film "Inside Job", which chronicled Wall Street's role in the financial meltdown of 2008.

The Oscar telecast was co-hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway, who did their darndest to become a 21st century version of Donny and Marie Osmond without quite succeeding.  One wonders how the Academy came up with this pairing until you consider how it all benefits Disney and ABC, the TV network it owns.   Franco used to be on the ABC soap "General Hospital", while Hathaway was introduced to movie audiences in Disney's "The Princess Diaries".  They were no match for Billy Crystal, who was on hand to introduce a hologram of Bob Hope introducing a special effects category.  Both were missed.

There were some things that the Oscar telecast improved on this time.  There were no boring montages of Great Movies of the Past.  The "In Memoriam" segment, sung by Celine Dion, was tastefully done with no camera pans of the giant screen onstage and no applause until the end, when Halle Berry saluted Lena Horne (which only served to remind folks that no black performers were nominated this year).  The embarrassing testimonials for the Best Actor and Actress nominees were limited to Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges, respectively, from the stage.  And the show ran just over three hours, not "127 Hours" as some had feared.

It was officially announced during the show that ABC will continue to televise the Academy Awards through 2020.  By then, the network will have been Oscar's TV home for over 40 years.  Who knows what TV--or the movies--will look like by then?