God, I would have given anything to have this kind ^^ of moment on the Oscars red carpet this year. There was no big controversy, no huge moment like The Leg, also known as Angelina Jolie’s terrible Versace dress at the 2012 Oscars. Oscar ratings were way down this year too – partly because Neil Patrick Harris wasn’t a very good host, partly because there were very few surprises (three of the four acting categories were sure-things weeks ago), partly because there was no huge movie that people rallied around (that could have been American Sniper, but AS was almost completely shut out).

I believe the low ratings were also because the Oscar producers didn’t really try to bring some big name people to the telecast, and the Academy voters seemed to not want any race to be a big fight. While Ava DuVernay and David Oyelowo probably wouldn’t have won anything, the Best Director and Best Actor races would have been so much more interesting if they had been nominated. And there were so few huge-name celebrities, you know? I realize Angelina Jolie wouldn’t be everybody’s cup of tea, but wouldn’t you have enjoyed seeing her as a presenter this year? Or Brad Pitt? Or George Clooney? Or Julia Roberts? And what about Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, or Kristen Stewart or even Tom Cruise, you know? People like Gwyneth Paltrow tried to bring the drama and it just kind of felt lukewarm.

Anyway, Jon Voight is still disappointed that Angelina wasn’t nominated for Best Director. He attended the VF Oscar party and he told E! News:

“I think the nominations were mostly right. They don’t get everybody. I’d like to have seen my daughter’s film get a few more nominations. But we were very well represented. I think Hollywood did very well with the films this year especially towards the last couple of months.”

[From E! News]

Voight seems to be a lot calmer about Angelina these days, have you noticed that? I wonder if she’s letting him spend any time with his grandkids. Anyway, I don’t really have a strong opinion about whether Jolie should have been nominated for Best Director. I thought her direction was adequate, which is how I would also describe Morten Tyldum’s direction of The Imitation Game, and Tyldum got nominated. So… yeah. The Academy voters need to regroup and think about how they nominate and award films.

Photos courtesy of WENN.