Hollywood: Cinema's Wake

Once a year, Hollywood tries to kill off TV by driving all gogglebox viewers past he point where boredom becomes catatonia. This year's Oscar awards show succeeded dismally. It was the longest ever televised, and its entertainment value fell somewhere between Jackpot Bowling and the little white blip that appears in the center of the screen after the set has been turned off. Part of the torpor is by now hereditary. What was new was the annual Oscar awards' spectacular morbidity. The night dragged on as a kind of animated obituary, part Beverly...