"Parasite" Makes Oscar History, And Other Weirdness

In a year when people complained about the lack of women directors and actors of color nominated for the Academy Awards, the 92nd edition Sunday bestowed four of its Oscars to a South Korean film called "Parasite".

"Parasite", a dramatic study of class discrimination between a rich and poor family that critics went nuts over, won Oscars for Best International film, original screenplay, and a directing nod for Bong Joon Ho.  Most importantly, it was the first non-English speaking film to win for Best Picture.

Of the other major categories, Joaquin Phoenix took home the Best Actor Oscar for "Joker".  He was much more interested in talking about animal rights, his late brother River, and other things than his role in yet another R-rated comic book movie in his acceptance speech.

Renee Zellweger won her Best Actress Oscar for channeling Judy Garland in a film depicting the last year of her life, then told the audience that maybe Garland deserved more from the Academy than an honorary statue as a teenager for playing Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz"?

Brad Pitt won a Supporting Actor Oscar for "Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood", remarked that the Academy gave him 45 seconds to say his thank-yous, which is more than John Bolton got during the Senate impeachment trial.  Then Pitt used more than his 45 seconds because he's Brad Pitt.

Like Zellweger, Laura Dern waited a long time to earn an Oscar after years in the business.  She won a Supporting Actress honor for her role in the Netflix movie "Marriage Story".

The second consecutive hostless Oscarcast ran three and a half hours on ABC, which drew 23.6 million viewers, the lowest total ever.  They should have known that following the Golden Globes, Grammys and the Super Bowl on consecutive Sunday nights must have contributed to all that viewer fatigue.  Other insights:

• There must have been a good reason why Eminem was brought out to perform "Lose Yourself", a 2003 song that was included in the film "8 Mile".  ABC bleeped out half the lyrics.  Some audience members were confused, but got into it.  Maybe it's because the nominees for Best Original Song weren't exactly memorable?  Bernie Taupin, Elton John's longtime lyricist, won for "I'm Gonna Love Me Again".  It came from "Rocketman", John's biopic, which he performed on the show.
• The Oscars and other awards shows seem to have contracted the disease of presenters presenting other presenters, which is another outgrowth of not having a host.
• Former President Barack Obama and wife Michelle are also Oscar winners.  Their production company was responsible for "American Factory", which won for best feature-length documentary.