Grownups Rule the Academy Awards

Traditional movies, veteran stars are Oscar winners

by: Bill Newcott, from: AARP, February 28, 2011

Actress Melissa Leo, winner of the award for Best Supporting Actress for 'The Fighter', poses in the press room during the 83rd Annual Academy Awards held at the Kodak Theatre on February 27, 2011 in Hollywood, California.

Melissa Leo at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards — Jason Merritt/Getty Images

So, how did your Oscar night predictions go? I'm happy to say I set a new personal record this year: I got fewer winners correct than ever.

But I'm also pleased to report that grownups — and The King's Speech in particular — won the night. The King's Speech was AARP The Magazine's Movies for Grownups trifecta winner: Best Movie, Readers' Choice and Best Actor (Colin Firth). Glad to see the Academy agreed.

A few more thoughts about how the Oscar show went:

Hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway: It looked like a high school prom just let out, and the Homecoming Queen and her Smug Date accidentally wandered onto the stage.

Best Supporting Actress Melissa Leo: She's the one I wanted to win, but I expected the award would go to the kid from True Grit. The good news: Leo is 50. The bad news: She dropped the f-bomb on live television. So she's one of those rare performers who combine the elegance and panache of middle age with the gutter mouth of an acting-out sixth-grader.

Best Screenplay Writer David Seidler: He gave a moving and thoughtful speech while picking up his Oscar for The King's Speech. Best of all, he started his speech with the very same anecdote he told from the podium at our Movies for Grownups Awards Gala in Hollywood earlier this month. So the MFG Awards are, more than ever, a warm-up for the Oscars.

Randy Newman: He seemed genuinely surprised that he won Best Song for Toy Story 3. He shouldn't have been — virtually the same song won him his first Oscar a couple of years ago for Toy Story 2.

Billy Crystal: The actor was a welcome diversion from the mind-numbing banter of the youthful hosts. He just walked onstage, and the audience sprang to its feet applauding. If you listened carefully, you could hear them yelling, "Save us, Billy, save us!" But he cruelly rubbed salt into the wound by showing a kinescope of Bob Hope, Oscar's first TV host, actually being funny. What a concept.

Just how wrong were Bill's Oscar predictions? Spectacularly wrong! Read his blog post from Oscar night — and compare your picks with his — at http://blog.aarp.org/2011/02/28/oscar-night.