stryder989 Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 She presented the tribute to film noir. Either the teleprompter was having problems or she needs new contacts because she really stumbled over her lines. Excrutiating to watch. Anyone know what the problem was? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maufrais Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 It looked like a teleprompter problem to me... she's normally very confident and sure-footed with what she has to say. Being one of the few Golden Age stars who actually had a chance to present a tribute to a film genre, I feel bad that it didn't turned out as well as it could have. but then, did you see what happened when the 2 winners to CRASH came up for their speech for Best Screenplay--only one of them got to speak! Considering this was probably one of the first televised Oscar's ceremony that actually under-ran, they could have done a better job with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john32404 Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 Not to continue getting off-track here but I must beg to differ (regarding the moment when the producer of "Crash" was cut off): by that point, I certainly had grown pretty weary of nearly every winner thanking just about every person they known, wished they'd known, crossed paths with on a dark night, you name it. It was a long, rather dull evening (Jon Stewart was right when he pointed out the ONLY winners to look thrilled to win was the rap group!). Why not cap your win for Best Picture (undeserving though it may be) by simply saying, "Thank you." The average viewer tunes out as soon as lawyers and such start getting thanked, and, quite frankly, it only serves to make the winner seem somehow less-than-humble. Using this, I think it was a BLESSING they cut her off. As for Lauren Bacall, is it possible she's had a stroke, even a mini-stroke? Watching her walk out, it seemed like she wasn't entirely sure on her feet. Could just be a teleprompter problem and/or the simple need for glasses but it seemed like there was something else going on, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maufrais Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 I agree on overlong acknowledgments, but considering it's the OSCARS, dimming the lights on a winner who probably has been dreaming of that one defining moment to take to his grave, it was a bit cruel. As for Lauren Bacall, maybe she was nervous... heck, even if she's been up there many times, no guarantee she can't be just as nervous as someone new on that calibre of a setting. If my grandmother can do what she did solo tonight, I'd be mighty proud. that's not to say I'm not proud of my grannie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vallo13 Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 She's still one classy Dame... vallo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyweekes70 Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 She certainly is, problems aside. And did you catch that shot of Mickey Rooney during Sid Gannis' monologue? He looked the same as he did last year during his two-second close-up. He must be getting a few of them confused by now, knowing he's been watching them since the late 1930s! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feaito Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 I think there were problems with the teleprompter and she looks really GREAT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunderful Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 Oops. Let's try this one again. Lauren Bacall, who is now 81 years old, definitely had problems walking (as did Maureen O'Hara, who like Bacall also wore black slacks and flat shoes at the Golden Globes a few years back), Olivia de Havilland at Oscars 75th, and Gregory Peck, who could barely get up the stairs at an awards show I can't recall the name of a few years before he died. In my opinion she looks great (she did have a face lift some years back . . . everybody doesn't age as well as Loretta Young or June Allyson or Lena Horne). That famous voice also sounded great. I wonder if she just needed reading glasses and was too vain to wear them? Remember, in Hollywood gray hair is only acceptable on men (stupid rule!) like George Clooney, Dustin Hoffman, and the guy who played Edward R. Murrow. I guess it's hard to let go of that aging mindset after 60+ years in the business. I enjoyed the clips from old films. I only counted Lauren Bacall and Kirk Douglas as stars I glimpsed who are still alive. I still wish Oscar organizers had brought back the stars from the Golden Era 20 years ago to be presenters along with contemporary stars, before they started dying off. And why couldn't Mickey Rooney present something? The man is 86 years old (of course, maybe he didn't want to.) BLU Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lzcutter Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 She was walking very stiffly. My first thought was that she usually uses a cane and left it back stage when it came time to walk out. Also, the teleprompter appeared not to be working properly but it also looked like Bacall winced a few times as if in pain from standing. Thought she was great though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vecchiolarry Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 Lynn et al, At over 80, she may be having troubles walking, even normally. My mother is now 87, 88 in July; and where once she was a 'dancing fool', now she has trouble manoeuvering and with balance and she's still lucid, no stroke and not drunk..... Her legs and hips have given out on her more and more in the last 3 years.... She won't use a cane though as she's afraid people will think she's 'an old lady'. It was the same with glasses when she was in her 60's. She wears them now but begrudgingly!! Maybe Lauren's the same. Pride goes before a fall, right!! Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lzcutter Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 Larry, I understand completely. My mom is about twenty years younger than yours and I am having some of the same issues with her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwtwbooklover Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 Guys I was thrilled to see Lauren she was a shot in the arm to my TV watching. I did wince with the fumbling of her words but I believe it was a teleprompter problem and possibly she needed her glasses?? I don't know but I was so glad to see her and she was first class and went on with the show even if she was left dangling by the prompter. What was with that damn music while the winners were doing their acceptance speech or atleast the "minor awards" now that was the height of rudeness. They were playing the music even before the people got there and I couldn't hear the speeches. And I know KNOW Witherspoon and Hoofman went over their limit and Clooney. Who's fool idea was it to play this music it was just wrong!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeanddaisy666 Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 I thought the same at seeing Bacall. Just think, she was THERE during the period of film that we here all love the best. She was there......and there are darned few actors still alive who were. So, I'm for giving her a pass, whatever the reason for her fumbling. I thought the same, gwtwbooklover. I think their brilliant idea was to start the music immediately on start of the speechmaking, so as not to make it obvious when they were signalling the actor to shut up. Meanwhile, I am not sure what then was the cue to the actor, but it seemed many still went on and on and on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CineSage Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 YOU JUST PUT YOUR EYELIDS TOGETHER AND SQUINT... Give Bacall a script to memorize and she's fine; like many actors, reading lines off TeleprompTers is another matter. The problem is that actors tend to think that anything given to them on cue cards isn't important enough to memorize, so they stumble through it (though I think it was exacerbated by an 80-year-old woman who chose to leave her eyeglasses in her handbag). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grann Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 It was a telepromter problem. Not Bacalls fault at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moviegeek Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 I loved the Film Noir montage so much, I had forgotten she dropped the ball on her intro to it. It was bad, but not really bad. I agree that they should have given her a script or something to memorize beforehand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CineSage Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 It was a telepromter problem. Not Bacalls fault at all. Oh, yeah? Were you there? Standing behind her, perhaps, reading the scrolling words on the TeleprompTer? As I wrote earlier, the woman should've rehearsed a little more, and brought her eyeglasses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeanddaisy666 Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 And I repeat, give her a pass on this. The woman is a classic, she was THERE for cripe's sake...........if for nothing else, she KISSED BOGEY. Holy crap, people, she could have come out in her bathrobe and mumbled gibberish into the camera, this is a person who...........was.........there. And soon there will be NO.........ONE............LEFT........who was there. While Chris Rock thinks he is re-inventing the wheel, Bacall made movies that will be around for 1000 years. So get over it, people. She flubbed her lines. Who cares. Lauren? You go, girl. Oh, yeah, that's right........if it were Brando who had come out and mumbled incoherently, would we all be saying 'wasn't he brilliant?'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 Now stoneyburke, you know as well as I do, everyone kissed Bogie!! He was imminently kissable (he was married four times, you know). A sweetheart of a guy. And Miss Bacall has done alright for herself in that department; she's kissed a few frogs during the years since Bogie has been gone. What is "there?" Everyone knows there is no "there" there. Bacall did appear in movies that will last for some time (I doubt 1,000 years). But they were usually Bogie movies or Peck movies or Marilyn movies - can you name a Bacall movie? If Brando had come out and mumbled incoherently, I would have said, "Hey, I thought that guy was dead." I like Lauren Bacall a lot; maybe not as much as you, but that's o.k. I'll bet you don't think that Meryl Streep can walk on water, do you? Well, I do! I know she can. She's perfect in every way. (Well, until she appears on the Oscars and screws up her lines, that is). Ralph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieT Posted March 12, 2006 Share Posted March 12, 2006 Brando wouldn't have been there. He would have sent Sasheen Littlefeather or Woman Who Stands With Fist or someone. And just for the record, Ralph, I for one NEVER kissed Bogey... it was just a rumor. Charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted March 12, 2006 Share Posted March 12, 2006 Sure, that's what they all say. But I have pictures!! I think Sasheen is alive and well and working in a casino in Northern Michigan. Again, just a rumor. Ralph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeanddaisy666 Posted March 12, 2006 Share Posted March 12, 2006 You're right, Ralph, he was quite eminently kissable, one of the sexiest men of his day. And after Warren William, I would have most assuredly kissed Bogey... There? There was then, there was the place to be and the time to be. The 1930s and the 1940s, the likes of which moviedom will never, ever, not ever see again. No, sorry, I meant Bacall and Bogie movies, their heat melted the celluloid. Witness To Have and Have Not, for one. Meryl Streep, you mean she of the Beeg Trouble for Moose and Squirrel accents? No, there are very few performances of hers that I can stomach, you hit the nail on the scenery-chewing head. You tink she valks on vater? Vell, as my father says, salsiccia his own. That's what makes it horse racing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted March 12, 2006 Share Posted March 12, 2006 Stoneyburke - I am ashamed to admit it, but you got me. Good! Lauren and Bogie were magic together, no doubt about it. And I now know where "there" is, thanks to you. And you're right, like the song says, "it'll never come again." But, my dear, that paragraph on Meryl Streep is pure blasphemy. I cannot tolerate that. No way. You will go to your room immediately without any supper and read Robert Waller's "Bridges of Madison County" until you learn to appreciate great art and great artists. Now!! Remember, I'll be listening. Ralph (Mr. Taylor to you). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeanddaisy666 Posted March 12, 2006 Share Posted March 12, 2006 Well, thanks, Mr. Taylor! Ahh......she was in that? Okay, here's my defense, judge......Clint Eastwood was in it, see? And the old (well, old-ish) Clint Eastwood? Well, he has the same effect on me as Warren William.......never even noticed her. Seriously, there were a few of her movies that I liked, but when she does accents, it usually makes me ill. Kinda like she's channeling Nick Nolte and his Lorenzo's Oil, ya know? Meanwhile, his performance in Affliction knocked my socks off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maufrais Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 > Brando wouldn't have been there. He would have sent > Sasheen Littlefeather or Woman Who Stands With Fist > or someone. > reading that really cracked me up, and with no disrespect at all for Native Americans. Just one question, why just one "fist" when you can double the omph factor with a set of "fists"? I too wish they would have brought the Golden Age stars earlier as presenters at the Academy Awards in the 80's... which brings to mind the scene in Yankee Doodle Dandy where a retired George Cohan meets teenagers who didn't have any idea who the music legend was, and didn't seem to care--probably less an issue of apathy, but more due to lack of exposure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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