Oscar’s very weird night

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 04:30:00 +0000

As Academy Award nominee Abraham Lincoln once said, "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." The Oscars are our annual endurance test of both. It's the Olympics of show-business power — a cage match whose outcome determines future development deals and stratospheric salaries. For the viewer at home, however, somewhere around the third hour/fifth ill-advised musical number, it tends to deteriorate into a trial of audience stamina and fortitude.

The show's organizers have in recent years flailed about before our eyes to make the evening's proceedings a less grim broadcast – bringing James Franco and Anne Hathaway in hopes of making it a dewy, youthful affair, then turning around and trotting out Billy Crystal with the promise of the balm of the reassuringly familiar. This year, the spaghetti it threw at the wall of television viewers was Seth MacFarlane, and the pitch was basically, "Let's try making the show saucy and fun -- like the 2012 Golden Globes, but without a British person." And now we know how well that idea works.

Herewith, then, are our most memorable moments of a show that will go down in history as the time the awards gave over its power to Stewie Griffin, and the adversity that followed.

Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta are releasing a Christmas album

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 20:02:00 +0000

This Christmas, "Grease" stars Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta are giving you the gift of the 1970s, whether you want the decade back or not. After nearly 35 years, the pair has reunited to record a Christmas album with guests Kenny G (yes) and Barbra Streisand ("Yentl"?), among others. All proceeds from "This Christmas" (not to be mistaken for the 98 degrees album) will go to charities selected by Travolta and Newton-John. "We want to make a lot of people smile and happy. It's a project that we're hoping turns into a perennial, one that can continue to raise money for these causes year after year, a gift that keeps on giving," said Newton-John in a statement.

You know what else is the gift that keeps on giving? Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta, whom I'll now dub "Olivolta." The album will be released Nov. 13.

Salon.com > Barbra Streisand

Oscar’s very weird night

Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta are releasing a Christmas album