Even if you don’t like what the Academy Awards represent–those questionable nominees, that PR flackery, all the “industry” sanctimony–it’s more than possible to enjoy the show itself. Didn’t we all kind of grow up with it? I watched it with mom, in college, in Hong Kong, Italy, and San Jose, CA, with my Oscar posse in Manhattan and now in Brooklyn, with my family (not that I kept my infant daughter up).

For me, 2008 stretched from 6:30pm EST and the first red carpet roundup on ABC (Phoebe Cates, in red, was the premiere star sighting, if she and husband Kevin Kline still rate in the firmament), through Barbara Walters’ 28th pre-show special (with Barbara chatting up the Jonas Brothers on purity, Anne Hathaway on her state of mind–”happy”–Mickey Rourke on suicide, and getting a lap dance from show host Hugh Jackman), a second, official red carpet roundelay with the A-listers (tip: Wear Chopard, win an Oscar) and onto the show, a promised “new look” Oscars. Just under midnight, Oscar’s 81st was (finally!) one for the books. I swapped a few thoughts with Scott (Kung Fu Panda) Malchus, who began with this as we move semi-chronologically, Reader-style, through the evening:

Scott Malchus: When I was a child, I loved Academy Awards night (it was a Monday back then). I was one of the many who dreamed of someday holding one of those gold statues and thanking all of the people I knew, etc. (BC: It can still happen, Slumdog. Thank me from the podium.) Something happened in the late ’90s when these awards lost some of their glamor to me. It was probably around the time that Harvey Weinstein was campaigning the shit out of Shakespeare in Love that I realized that these awards weren’t so much about quality, but about marketing. Convince enough people that your movie is the best and they’ll probably vote for it, even if they haven’t seen the movie. Each year since my kids have been born, I take less interest in the awards to the point that I completely forgot when the nominations were announced this year.

Of course, one of the things that existed when I was younger that doesn’t now is the mystery of who might actually win. With so many award shows, anyone can follow the trends and easily predict who will win. That said, there always seems to be one or two upsets in the major categories, usually the Supporting Actor/Actress slot. I hope that holds true this year, too. (BC: There were exactly two upsets, but not there.)

Bob Cashill: Well, we made it through the ABC Red Carpet segment, which you deemed “atrocious.” (Wear Chopard next year and see how you feel.) You’re jazzed about the hard-working Michael Giacchino finding time from Lost to act as musical director. I’ve interviewed David Rockwell a few times about his set design work, and as we move on in I like what he’s done, giving the space a cooler, more intimate nightclub feel–but I’m not sure about what they’ve put up there on center stage. It’s not Hugh Jackman–he’s a consummate pro–but it didn’t quite come off. Not an Allan Carr disaster, but not a slam dunk, either, for the “new look” Oscars. (more…)