Every year,  I say I won’t  watch the Academy Awards Ceremony–and yet when my husband turns on the television, I find I’m sitting there with him.  This year promised to be better because they made some changes in the overall format.  The show was less boring than usual, but not great. The way it looks from here:  Oscars 2019: The Good,  Bad, and Strange.

The Good:

Winners were advised they could only use up 90 seconds in their acceptance speeches.  I think a lot of them exceeded the limit, but they did get off the stage pretty quickly.

No Master of Ceremonies.  Hooray!  I can remember so many cringe worthy moments from past shows. Like the time David Letterman kept repeating Uma, Uma, over and over again.  Worse yet, they turned it into a forum to spout  their political beliefs.  Who wants to hear about politics when you’re watching movie stars?

Clips of nominated movies.  This is the best part of the show, and helps you decide which movies you want to see in the next few months.

The Bad:

I held my breath each time a woman with a long, flowing gown and  stiletto heels managed to make it up those stairs  to the stage without teetering over.  Safety Issue: guard rails needed.

Award winner read her acceptance speech from an i phone..  We had to wait for her to find the app.  After a few fumbles, she rattled  off a bunch of thank yous to numerous people whose names I couldn’t decipher, and had never heard of.

What do they have against Glenn Close?  Awards  are puzzling, and seem to be based on biases and internal politics rather than talent.

The Strange:

Male winners wearing stocking caps on stage.

Female presenters with big shoulder pads.  This fashion has been in an out of style every ten years since I can remember.  Is it supposed the make a woman look more powerful?  I think this just makes them look weird.

Stiff female hairdos that looked like they’d been painted  with shellac.  Hit them with a hammer and they might crack. Whatever happened to soft , fluffy  tresses?

Bill Porter in his tuxedo/gown.

Finally, There is still a huge difference in dress standards for men and women.  Except for Bill Porter, most men can  get away with  any old tuxedo, and look  like every  other man in the place.  Black, white, ho mum.  But ye gads.  Women must spend thousands of dollars to appear in a designer dress.  Glenn Close confided that her gown weighed 42 pounds! In comparison,  how much does a man’s tuxedo weigh?  Yep, there’s definitely a double standard for the men and the women.

But that’s Hollywood.