| Since they are avid readers of this blog, let me first congratulate all of last night's Oscar winners. While I was watching primarily at the urgent suggestion of my wife, I watched - and, with the rest of America, celebrated the Best Picture win by Not Avatar. As has been noted elsewhere (Oscar pundits beat stories to death more than ESPN pre-Super Bowl) (but nowhere near NBC at the Olympics), it was a big night for firsts. Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Best Director award; Geoffrey Fletcher, the first African-American to win for adapted screenplay. Oh, and of course - Christoph Waltz was the first father of a rabbi to win an Oscar for playing a Nazi. Yes, that's right - the Austrian-born polyglot has a son who, according to Wikipedia, is a Haredi rabbi living in Israel. His reaction to his father's win is unknown. Waltz was also the inspiration for one of the more amusing gags during the introduction by hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin: In all seriousness, Waltz's Hans Landa was a brutal, compelling character that absolutely deserved the Oscar. The rumors of Eli Roth mailing baseball bats to Academy members is likely untrue. |
