Thanks for the commentary, guy who doesn't even know Heath Ledger's real name and thinks Freddy should have played the Joker. It was real enlightening. Thanks for the further commentary, guy who thinks Christian Bale can't act. I get it, we all think The Dark Knight was overrated and Slumdog too and the real cool movies didn't get awarded, but Mr. O'Hehir makes a good point: The Dark Knight was the biggest spectacle of the year and should have at least been nominated for best picture, at least by usual Hollywood standards. Remember a movie called Gladiator from a few years back? No? Well, it won Best Picture by virtue of spectacle. The problem with the Academy is that the voters are generally artists who love "moments" and will award people who are "deserving" regardless of whether the nominee did the best work. Begging for examples? But of course:

1. Halle Berry for Monster's Ball. But maybe I'm still annoyed with her way-over-the-top, this-is-exactly-why-you-shouldn't-have-given-me-the-Oscar acceptance speech. But she made herself marginally less pretty and that is the mark of a great performance! See also Charlize Theron. Did I spell that right? You get the idea.

2. In the same vein, Kate Winslet for The Reader. Remember, she should have gotten the Oscar for Titanic, and she was "good" in two movies this year. It was overdue. Everybody thinks Anne Hathaway will get another shot because she's so young. Meryl Streep doesn't ever need to win another, but she might. I predict her next win is on her 26th nom.

3. The awards for Milk this year, arguably. Sean Penn was tremendous in Milk for the record and deserved his award, but since so many people voting live in California, I'm gonna go ahead and chalk it up to prop. 8 backlash. The award Sean Penn didn't deserve was for Mystic River. The answer we were looking for that year was Benicio Del Toro for 21 Grams. Speaking of which, where was he this year? Did Che come out too late?

4. Every posthumous Oscar ever given. Ledger was good in The Dark Knight, but I'm pretty sure he didn't deserve the win.

5. Has anyone mentioned Crash? Chalk it up to spectacle, I guess.

If you want to know what the right answers were, I'm happy to provide them: Waltz with Bashir, Mickey Rourke, Melissa Leo (keeping in mind I haven't yet seen Frozen River and I am awarding her based on her work in Homicide: Life on the Street), Darren Arronofsky (seriously, the director of The Reader got nominated? Is Arronofsky the least-loved man in Hollywood or what?), and The Class (which didn't beat Waltz with Bashir because they didn't compete - Waltz wins best picture, The Class wins best foreign).

ps - I have noted a contradiction wherein I said Sean Penn deserved to win but still gave best actor to Mickey Rourke. But its not really a contradiction - Mickey just deserved to win a little more.

after my initial post, which i think made the same point as o'hehir was trying to make (big, critically-acclaimed spectacle = best pic win or at least win, so why not this year?), another 20 people or so have chimed in to let us know they don't get it. is it really that hard to understand? but that's not the best part: slamboni arrives on a story about movies and walks into a bunch of people discussing movies to tell us that he never watches movies and we should all do something else! what great advice! why don't you start a music discussion page so i can visit it and waste everybody's time encouraging them not to listen to music!? it'll be tremendous!

...just as the Good Lord intended.

that parenthetical early in the post should read in part "oscar win or at least a nom."

Contrary to Ms. Berman, I agree that her appearance changes on the show, and that it is part of some effort to make her more "palatable," if you will. From what little I've seen of her outside her show, I prefer her normal look, but I guess it would be jarring for a lot of people to get news from her in street clothes, with the glasses and all. I don't find her particularly attractive either way, but I don't find her ugly either. And now here's my short lecture on "butch" versus "fem," keeping in mind that its being delivered by a hetero married dude:

It's all a continuum and of course everybody has his or her own preferences. Men exist on a continuum between "masculinity" and "femininity" and of course women do as well. Likewise, men and women have individual and specific preferences. For instance, I don't consider myself particularly masculine, although I probably fit in more with masculine archetypes than feminine. I like to think of my wife as feminine, but not extremely so. I could also be a masculine male who prefers feminine males, or prefer masculine males, or prefer masculine females. I have an old friend who is "straight" but I swear prefers masculine females. And there's nothing wrong with that. Women are the same way. You can be fem and prefer butch or fem; butch and prefer either; hell even butch and prefer men. So its not by any means necessary to have a "male" and "female" role in every relationship and I don't think this article is trying to do that. But Ms. Maddow is a self-acknowledged "butch" and theres nothing wrong with mentioning that.

is a fairly simple word when you think about it. its just "spear" and "head."

Who, specifically?

Between the column and that comment, in top form tonight. I like it.