Shockingly bad production numbers, a glad-handing host, parodies that were outright offensive … three and a half hours felt like 10 The 81st Academy Awards suggested how, as an annual TV event, the Oscars could become extinct — and frankly, it doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. And it wasn’t just that, from Hugh Jackman’s opening number, to the interminable tributes by past winners that preceded every acting award, to the shockingly bad production numbers, nothing — nothing — on this telecast worked. The real...

Just five years ago it was unthinkable. Even one year ago no one could have conceived of it. Even last summer this kind of earth-shattering upset would have been labeled a pipe dream. But several years after all but being completely out of the business and all but forgotten someone out there thought he was worth one more shot. Now, shaggy hair and all, this natural and supremely gifted talent has come all the way back to the top to  claim the ultimate honor in a profession he almost threw away. Sound like Mickey Rourke? Actually I was talking about the...