The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, The ???: 2012 Oscars Rewind

In case you opted for the NBA All-Star Game, “The Walking Dead”, sleep or just to be productive with your life on Sunday night instead of watching the Academy Awards, here’s a quick rundown of what you may have missed:  

The Excellent

• I coulda done without the body glitter, but GMA’s Robin Roberts body and dress were both outstanding. She made me wanna do 653 squats ASAP. A+, Robyn! 
•  Ladies in white or silver – J. Lo, Octavia Spencer, Gwyneth Paltrow, Milla Jovovich  Stunning!
• Chris Rock. Especially because he clearly pissed off voice over actors that have no sense of humor, while simultaneously reiterating the lack of diversity/unfairness in Hollywood.
• Cirque du Soliel – Thank Heavens there wasn’t an accident. It would’ve ruined the rest of the night!
• Honorary Oscars to Oprah and James Earl Jones.
• Esperanza Spalding singing “What a Wonderful World” during the “In Memoriam” segment. Exceptional.  
• Not having to debate the merits of “The Help” anymore. 

The Good

• Octavia Spencer winning Best Supporting Actress. Black Girls Rock! – I can respect her skill and not the role. Someone was gonna do it, might as well be someone who is talented. Plus, most of us have taken a paycheck from someone, for something we didn't want to do or like to do.
•  Woody Allen for Best Screenplay – I liked “Midnight in Paris”.  But I don’t think he cares about the Oscars. I like that too. Take notes, Chris Brown!
  Emma Stone and Robert Downey Jr. were entertaining!
• Hugo racked up. Who knew?
• Courtesy of the ladies from “Bridesmaids”, a Martin Scorsese drinking game! Wish I had known about this earlier.
• Captain Von Trapp (a.k.a Christopher Plummer) winning his first Academy Award at 82.
• Jean Dujardin and Meryl Streep (Viola Davis was unfortunate to be nominated in the same year that The Iron Lady was! Although she didn’t win, I think everyone agrees that she deserved to win. Hopefully she will get offered a wide variety of scripts henceforth and another opportunity. One can dream.)        Thoughts from Black Twitter:

§  @ReaganGomez: Maybe it's good Viola didn't win this one? She's better than the "She won 4 playing a maid" talk. IDK. [good point.]

§  @UnculturedPearl : “1st they complained Viola Davis was nominated, now they're mad she didn't win...I don't understand yall black ppl at all” [true.]

The Bad

•  I’m missing “The Amazing Race” and “The Walking Dead” for this. Meh.
• The pre-show red carpet. Roshumba’s neck. What’s up, boo? Not a good look. I was kinda scared.
• 8:55 p.m. first montage of films doesn’t include any Black films. Meh.
• Um, not liking Sandra Bullock's new nose? face? Something ain't right.
• Billy Crystal’s joke about having to drive 45 minutes from Beverly Hills to find a Black woman to hug after watching “The Help”. Maybe it was funny, I just didn’t get it.

The Ugly 

• Gabourey Sidibe's hair which spawned the following TT on Twitter #GabbysWig (which was kinda funny.)

The ???

• Octavia Spencer’s standing ovation. What was that about Academy? You are aware that you are still kinda racist and minorities are underrepresented in front of and behind the cameras, right? Let that standing ovation mean that you are committing to do better in terms of the types of roles that you offer. I’m not entirely hopeful.