Why do we watch the Oscars every year?

Babsi: Why do we always watch the Oscars? It's a rather seedy annoying event actually, although it depends on the presenter. I was surprised to see John Stewart presenting it for a second time. He was just as rubbish as last time really, although he seems to be a friendly soul.
Brett: What makes you say he was a kind friendly soul?
Babsi: Well he was really sweet, for example when he made sure that Marketa Irglova got to make her acceptance speech. That was extremely sweet and I think he organised that. So why do we bother? That was the question.
Brett: Who knows? What does it even mean? A bunch of people in LA like There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men. What's that got to do with me?
Babsi: Most of it is really, really cheesy but there are always touching moments. A touching moment was when Marion Cottilard won her Oscar, and she deserved it, well deserved it. It was a great film and a fantastic performance. And the second one was of course when the people from Once won. I was very, very happy for them. It is such a beautiful film. There's no violence in it, it doesn't need any action. They just do their thing and it's just beautiful. It really is cute.
Brett: The Oscar was for the song, and it really fits with the mood of the movie.

Babsi: Yeah, the song's genius actually. So there were these two really special moments, even though you think you're just going to see the same old cheesy rubbish and predictable stuff.
Brett: I liked Tilda Swinton as well, when she won. It obviously shocked her very much and she gave a great speech. It was cool.
Babsi: Yes she gave a great speech, it was funny.
Brett: It surprised me actually. She looks a little austere and librarian like but when she got up on stage she was like a mall rat.
Babsi: And then she was talking about the statuette's butt.
Brett: And George Clooney's rubber nipples on his Bat Man outfit.
Babsi: And you know I haven't seen Daniel Day Lewis's performance but I'm sort of pleased for him because I just like him.
Brett: I thought he was weird. Like a peculiar uncle with his long preying mantis arms and legs flailing about.
Babsi: He is a bit weird, but he's interesting. He was really, really good in In The Name of the Father. Awesome, an ancient movie but we know it because we're kind of ancient. So there always some little surprises. It's the same as Lost, just as you've given up there is a little surprise to keep your interest. I would say that Marion Cottilard's performance was great and the film was excellent. It was really sad. A bad performance could have made it a little pathetic or unbelievable, but she didn't. The way she played Edith Piaf when she was old.
Brett: That was very good, it was.
Babsi: For the same actress to play some one fairly young and quite old is amazing. It was the calibre of Bette Davis.
Brett: She looks a bit like Bette Davis to me.
Babsi: You mean in the film?
Brett: Yes, with the old-fashioned plucked eyebrows.
Babsi: How many times can a person be nominated. I mean Johnny Depp has been nominated how many times?
Brett: Well nobody expected him to win.
Babsi: He could have won for Pirates, but then pirates was categorised as a kids film.
Brett: He should have won for pirates, and they will give him an Oscar one day.
Babsi: Yeah, when he's ancient. When he's 80 or something and not hot anymore, for goodness sake.
Brett: He'll be given an Oscar for something quite reserved with a big scene where he cries, but it's really Pirates he'll be getting it for. I think they'll make him turn up five more times before they give it to him, maybe ten.
Babsi: He should have won for Ed Wood, that was a really good performance.
Brett: Films like La Vie En Rose win Oscars, having your lover die, going bonkers in a hotel room, fading and dying, that's what wins Oscars. Not being a slightly cheesy movie director with a permanent grin.
Babsi: (Laughs) You're so cruel.
Brett: That was the acting, it was a permanent grin.
Babsi: There was a lot more to the acting, I don't agree. He was very good.
Brett: I think he should have got it for Hunter S Thompson in...
Babsi: Fear and Loathing.
Brett: Now that was a really good performance.
Babsi: It was an awesome performance. But you know you can't reward somebody with an Oscar for doing lots of drugs and running around saying, “I'm seeing the bats.” You can't do that. The Documentary on the Iraq war winning was interesting. In the past they booed Michael Moor in his acceptance speech and his speech was awesome. I always wanted to write him an email saying, “Dude, respect.” I thought that was good and it takes guts. It's easier not to be confrontational when you accept something. This always reminds me of the funny acceptance speech in living in oblivion. When Steve Buschemi in his dreams gets what's supposed to be an Oscar and at the end he tells everyone to get lost, and then he wakes up. It's funny, really funny. He dreams he has the guts to tell all the people who have been mean to him where to go. But it's a good institution, because in a way it's a huge recognition for what you've done. Though it won't promise you any more parts. Lots of people have just sort of disappeared even though they won an Oscar.
Brett: I think it's just a brand.
Babsi: No there are good people being recognised for good work.
Brett: I'm always a little disappointed every year when I watch it.
Babsi: There was one year when it wasn't disappointing. When Julia Roberts won, and Denzel Washington won, and Halle Berry won.
Brett: I suppose the Oscars represent the power in Hollywood and when you see something like that happening...
Babsi: It seems that the power is still with white men. Directors are men and they're white, and that's a big thing. The director is a very, very important person.
Brett: When an Oscar is given to a black woman, it shows that something is changing.
Babsi: You see you're not even saying black man anymore, it's 2008.
Brett: Just because you said Halle Berry and it reminded me...
Babsi: Sure, her acceptance speech was pretty good, I liked it. There was a bit of crying but it was still...
Brett: It was real, it was a real emotion.
Babsi: And it's easy, by discrimination, to deny people a chance. Talent is a very tricky thing to define. Most of the musical performances nominated for an Oscar were shriekingly terrible. That woman singing the song from Enchanted was terrible, really awful. Mindbogglingly rubbish.
Brett: It was just dull I thought.
Babsi: Apart from Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard, that was great.
Brett: It was the only good song in the whole show.
Babsi: That's not really good enough is it.
Brett: I'll give it one spiral.
Babsi: That's cruel.
Brett: No. I mean it.
Babsi: I like the way Johnny Depp just sat in the audience and chewed gum. That was a way of saying, “I don't care about this whole thing.” I quite liked that, it was funny.
Brett: Why did he even go?
Babsi: If your nominated, you have to.
Brett: You can send someone to pick it up for you.
Babsi: You can do that at the Grammys or the BAFTAs whatever it's called, but you can't do it at the Oscars. Did John Stewart present it because of the writers strike, couldn't they get anyone else in such a short time.
Brett: Why did he do it again? He's good on his own show but this is a whole different kettle of fish.
Babsi: I enjoyed the hosting by Whoopi Goldberg, many, many gazillion years ago. And I liked Chris Rock because he was funny. Still one spiral is too harsh, I'm going to give it two and a half. There were three people who won that made me believe it wasn't just commercial rubbish.