She was supposed to be the friendly, easy-listening Oscar host, but, gosh, could Ellen Degeneres have done any less with her big moment in the Hollywood spotlight? Dressed in a too-casual velvet pantsuit, she could rouse no more than a few lazy jokes on tired tinseltown subjects — long acceptance speeches, the large number of British nominees, Peter O'Toole's eight nominations ("You know, third time's a charm"). Most pointless politically correct zinger: "If there weren't blacks, Jews and gays, there would be no Oscars." Even Whoopi did better.