A couple of notes on the Oscars

I concurr with every other pundit out there regarding the tameness of last night's Oscar ceremony. However, there were a couple things that went down which I have not seen mentioned in any of today's monday morning quarterbacking. Thing number one: Erroll Morris is a jerk. This guy has made several well-recognized, award-winning, and influential documentary films. He makes wheelbarrows full of money for directing TV commercials for Apple, Nike, and Miller Beer. He is a man of considerable stature in the film community who's made it farther in this business than most people can dream of. Yet he gets up on stage and gives a speech that basically amounts to this: "Thanks for the Oscar. What took you so long." I stomped around my apartment for 10 minutes before finally being able to sit down and resume watching. They should make every Oscar nominee watch the clip of Joe Pesci accepting his supporting actor award for "Goodfellas" - he walked up to the microphone, quietly said "thank you", and walked off the stage.

Ok I'm moving on. Right now I'd like you to take a deep breath and just clear your head. Last night we were trudging through the cumbersome middle portion of the show where they give away best short-subject documentary and best sound editing. LOTR was still cleaning house and my eyes were slowly glazing over as they began to read the nominees for best Live-Action short film. All of a sudden I awoke as if under hypnosis when they read the name "William Zabka". No? Not ringing a bell? How about this: "You're dead LaRusso", or "Sweep the leg Johnny!" Seriously. Nothing? Well perhaps you've heard of Billy Zabka, aka "Johnny" from The Karate Kid. In case you were wondering: HE WAS NOMINATED FOR AN ACADEMY AWARD. Evidently the man wrote and produced "Most", which was some short film about who cares because Johnny got nominated for a freaking OSCAR! Why didn't they stop the show right then and there? Couldn't there have been a short tribute to the KK trilogy, with special appearances by Elizabeth Shue and Pat Morita? We didn't even get a cut away to Zabka. He was there, wasn't he? The theatre would have gone bezerk if they'd showed him on the jumbotron. It would have saved the telecast. As they opened the envelope to announce the winner, I actually prayed. I prayed to God that this man who once shown so brightly in Hollywood would again walk amongst the elite. Sadly it was not to be, but hopefully somebody with way more readership than me will give some publicity to last night's most overlooked moment.