Did we watch the same show? Jon Stewart brought exactly what you would expect of him--a detached, self-mocking attitude and some hilarious jokes. I laughed through his entire monologue and thought that a lot of the bits, which I imagine he had a lot of say in, were really good, such as Tom Hanks getting beaten with a violin, and the mock-political ads. I feel like you just couldn't wait to get to your computer and declare that the whole thing sucked, including Jon Stewart. I am not sure what you were expecting from him though. That was pretty much our guy from the Daily Show beat for beat.

I have read every one of Cintra WIlson's Oscar reviews for the past few years or so; I used to look forward to them more than the Oscars. But this year she gets everything wrong -- maybe she needs more time to revise the piece and smooth it out (the transitions, by the way, are horrible -- totally unlike her). The Oscars this year were bad, but not in the way she claims -- I think this was one case where they were so bad, they were good.

I mean: "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp" gets BEST SONG? Where is Wilson's comment on that embarrassing (but hilarious and wonderful -- the high point of the evening) moment? Jon Stewart's joke afterwards - "Martin Scorcese 0, Three-Six Mafia 1" -- so great. His segments where Stephen Colbert did the voiceovers about the Best Actress and Sound Editing nominees -- so funny. Jon couldn't be completely "irreverent," as Gil Cates tried to call him in an effort to please all the boring Academy members, but he was still ten times better than previous hosts ("I want to send some love out to our troops overseas," etc. You had none of that.)

So I can't believe that Wilson only comments on the most ridiculous part of the evening -- a "Pimp" song winning -- in a boring, "why censorship?" tone. I mean, those guys with their crazy teeth and incoherent shout-outs ("thank you Jesus!" I think one of them yelled, and another followed with "Thank you George Clooney!") And Crash, a pitiful movie -- Wilson should comment more on that.

I've read her two books, I read all her articles. I am so disappointed.

His joke about pulling down the statue and letting democracy reign in Hollywood was great, as was his joke about pirating videos. "These are the people you are stealing from!" The problem was the audience's inability to laugh at itself. They wanted someone cutting edge and funny, but the joke was never to be on them. Can't have it both ways. That they laughed at Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep just proved they really don't know funny when they see it. I found that whole bit very uncomfortable. I don't like it when people say Jon Stewart sucked. How funny could he be anyway? His political ads and film montages (loved the gay cowboy montage) were stepping stones through a long and boring show. I really enjoyed them. You're right about the stars though. We used to have some tough people who were not afraid to say what they thought. Who will fill their shoes? No one, I guess. About Reese Witherspoon and P. S. Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix was better than both of them. Her performance was totally unremarkable compared to JP's.

The Oscars have never, ever, lauded, accepted and/or embraced bad behavior (at least not for more than a couple of seconds), which appears to be Ms. Wilson's raison d'etre. Fine, to each their own. Go watch the MTV Movie Awards for the kind of celebration you desire.

As for Stewart, he did fine. Not fabulous, but fine. To be fair, his material was about 15 minutes out of a mercifully short 3 and a half hour broadcast. What he and his colleagues from TDS wrote was good. What the presenters had to utter? There was the dullness.

I thought Jon was hilarious, and wouldn't be surprised if he is invited back to host again. But seriously, has Cintra ever seen an Oscar night she didn't loathe? As far back as I can remember she's said how this Oscars was the worst ever. Its becoming a tad predictiable so I'm wondering if next time around Salon might choose to bring on someone a little less inclined to hate the whole thing before it even begins? That way Cintra can go back to doing whatever it is she does when she's not talking about how unimportant/boring/self indulgent/etc. the Oscars are, and we can get a more balanced review of the evening.

Is this a joke? Is free speech really so narrowly defined? Wilson said it herself: "bitch" has been a television staple since the 1970s. It's not going anywhere. On a night when Hollywood gets to play mass dress-up, I'm not surprised that the means of discourse was maintained as strictly as the acceptance speech times.

Sometimes, free speech isn't seeing what words you can get away with on an awards show. Sometimes, it's really as simple as mainstream films taking a look at political censorship, underlying racialism, sexual orientation &c, even if some of the results were a mite heavy-handed. Jon Stewart, or George Clooney, or even Reese Witherspoon letting a "fuck" loose on live television is no victory at all, and the absence of such language (again, on an industry awards show) is not the indication that the thought police are on the beat. People dressed classy, and they mostly talked classy. Clooney's somewhat defensive acceptance speech still defended the concept of free speech better than any stray expletive that's lost its meaning from decades of "edgy" overuse.

Also, Wilson was really, really, Reed Richards-stretching with her Witherspoon critique. Would it have been better if she'd announced she was leaving Ryan Phillipe to adopt a baby with Brad and Angelina? For which are we to fault her: being from the South? A (fingers crossed) stable marriage? Nice kids? Morals? This digression had to be a joke, as did the tired "bleak states" put-down. Congratulations, 100 million Americans have been completely pegged. It's that kind of attitude Wilson decries when it comes from the likes of Clooney.

If every year were Sacheen Littlefeather, the Oscars would devolve into an MTV awards show, all hellbent on committee-stitching together another zany watercooler moment. Honestly, that's what this piece reeked of to me: passive viewership demanding a spectacle even more empty than industry back-patting. Wilson seems to want flash and smoke, some semblance of shock that she can connect tangentially to the pro- Roe camp. What she had to settle for was an earnestly expressed desire to depict social progress. A shame, really.

Also, I'm with nearly everyone else on Jon Stewart as host. His material was grade-A, bringing a Daily Show sensibility to the proceedings. Hell, even Ben Stiller worked for me. For what it was, it was a dynamite Oscars. And Three 6 Mafia's reactions were the highlight of my night.