14 DAY TRIAL // Reviewers agree that the 2010 edition of the Academy Awards could have been a much better and more interesting event, and that it was mildly lame at best and excruciatingly tedious at worst. However, as with everything else, it was not completely devoid of good moments, which also included some one-liners from hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, as People magazine can confirm.
We were also telling you yesterday that, though a very somber ceremony, this year’s Oscars did have hilarious moments, from Sandra Bullock asking in her acceptance speech whether she’d been given the award because she had bored Academy members into it, to Ben Stiller taking to the stage dressed up like an alien from James Cameron’s “Avatar” and speaking Na’vi. The two hosts’ one-liners would also fall in the same category of hilarious moments.
“[Best Actress nominee] Gabourey [Sidibe] and I have something in common: In our first movies we were both born a poor black child,” Steve Martin said, referring to his comedy, “The Jerk.” “She was so pleased to be nominated with him, she sent him a beautiful gift basket with a timer,” Martin (again) said about Kathryn Bigelow. Bigelow was nominated for Best Director for “The Hurt Locker,” in the same category as “Avatar,” directed by her ex-husband, James Cameron.
“Take a good look at us guys! This is you in five years,” Steve Martin told young actors Zac Efron and Taylor Lautner. “The moustache Brad Pitt wore in Inglourious Basterds was the same one Salma Hayek wore in Frida,” Alec Baldwin joked. “Now we’d like to introduce two beautiful actresses. Because frankly, we’re sick and tired of bringing out all these ugly actresses,” Martin said by means of introduction for presenters Carey Mulligan and Zoe Saldana, two of the hottest young actors of the moment.
Unfortunately, most of these jokes were not appreciated by audiences, with most reviews saying they were predictable and, because of it, lame. With all this, TV ratings for the broadcast went through the roof, registering a 14 percent spike to about 41 million viewers, as we were also telling you earlier today.