peaking of movies and pictures (sort of) the Oscars went off Sunday night, and I saw about the last half of the show. As I blogged about going in, my only real rooting concern was for Peter Jackson to win best director for his monumental achievement in helming Return of the King, though of course he deserved it partially for doing all 3 LotR movies in 3 years. And he got it.  RotK was nominated for 10 other Oscars, and it won them all, 11 in total, the most ever wins for a single film in every award it was nominated for.  RotK also tied the all time record of 11 wins, held by Titanic and Ben Hur, both of which had more nominations, since they got some acting nods also. This actually made for sort of a boring show, oddly enough:

Although "LOTR" piled up 11 Oscars, it was as if the film was such a complex achievement of special effects that the human elements got taken for granted. The result was that the middle of the telecast dragged somewhat as one platoon of "LOTR" technical artists after another marched onstage to thank director Jackson and long lists of their colleagues.

Next Xmas is going to suck without a new LotR movie to look forward to, eh?

To complete my late and basically worthless Oscar coverage, here are a few photos from the event, with my snarky captions added.

Boo yah!

So, cold night, eh Angie? On her, poking nipples are almost a fashion accessory, since she can simply do no wrong.

You can't see it so well in this photo, and I couldn't find any others with larger, clearer views of Tom Cruise's face at the Oscars, but he looked creepy.  Not at first glance, but when you consider that the man is going to be 42 in July... shouldn't he have some wrinkles or something?  He's a smooth as an android, and he looks like the same smirking 20 y/o frat boy he's looked like since Top Gun.  I suppose that's nothing too different than half the actresses in Hollywood, or say Dick Clark, but it's a bit eerie when you think about it.

I wonder if one day cosmetic surgery will have progressed to the point that they can age and un-age a person at will?  Sort of like how Britney's boobies can inflate and deflate by 2 or 3 cup sizes, and stars will routinely put in or take out a forehead's worth of wrinkles, depending on the role.  Need to play a lawyer?  Dye the sideburns white and throw in some crow's feet.  Playing a college kid?  Stretch the wrinkles away and cut it short, and you're there.

Tom Cruise's face... the wave of the future.

As for his appearance, he's obviously career savvy.  He's said to be really pissed that he didn't get a nomination for The Last Samurai, thinking it would be his Braveheart. Or at least Dances with Wolves.  And then it was a modest box office success that was so quickly and completely overshadowed by Lord of the Rings Part III that it's all but totally forgotten already, just two months later. And yet he still shows up for the Oscars and presents an award, though you know it must turn his guts inside out, since he knows the importance of keeping his face on TV and in the public eye.  Regardless of whether or not he got his latest round of botox a week or two too close to the big night.  Perhaps he didn't get the news about the Oscars being a month earlier than usual this year?

And on the other hand, we've got Billy Crystal, who shows weird vanity by having every wrinkle removed from the nose up, while leaving those strange baggy protrusions on the lower cheeks, and sporting unpleasantly-thinning hair on top to go with it.  Whenever he stood in front of a non-black background, he appeared to be wearing some sort of dark brown halo around his bald head.  I found it only slightly less eerie than the lineless, taut skin on this nearly 57 year old man's forehead.

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