Analysis: Phoning in the Oscars?

LOS ANGELES, March 1 (UPI) -- It's probably an overstatement to say there were no surprises at the 76th Academy Awards, but there is little question that Oscar voters generally fulfilled expectations and winners mostly avoided controversy in their acceptance speeches.

Although the smart money was always on "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" to take the Oscar for Best Picture and generally dominate the proceedings, few were smart enough to predict a perfect night for producer-writer-director Peter Jackson's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's literary epic. The picture came into the awards ceremony with 11 nominations -- and promptly ran table, to tie "Ben-Hur" and "Titanic" as the biggest winners in Oscars history.

The first two of Jackson's "Rings" installments managed six Oscars between them. Sunday night's telecast was just about 40 minutes old -- half of that time given to Billy Crystal's opening comedy film and monologue -- when "Return of the King" took its second statuette of the evening. One began to get the sense that Jackson's epic was headed for an epic night.

As "Return of the King's" trophy collection grew, so did the suspense: Was there a movie out there somewhere that might stand between Jackson's crew and a perfect night? Possibly the strongest chance of that happening was for Best Adapted Screenplay -- which featured exemplary work by Brian Helgeland on "Mystic River" and Gary Ross on "Seabiscuit," as well as the highly regarded "American Splendor" and "City of God."

While it is rare to see a movie this thoroughly in control on Oscar night, the biggest surprise of all concerning "The Lord of the Rings" might be the fact that it was made at all -- considering Hollywood's historically risk-averse nature. Jackson acknowledged as much when he thanked New Line Cinema executives from the stage of the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.

"Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, God, you did the most risky thing that I think anyone has ever done in this industry," he said, "and I'm so happy for you that it paid off."

Conventional wisdom holds that the Best Picture Oscar for a fantasy is a first. Jackson suggested that the presence of goblins, trolls, wizards and orcs in his movie probably made it hard for some people to take it seriously, but he said all movies are by nature fantasies.

"Films are fantastic, no matter what the dressings and trappings are, whether it's drama or so-called real life, it's not real life," he said. "They're pretend. They're make believe."

Still, Jackson acknowledged that his movie is overtly fantastic -- in one of several references from the stage to ABC's decision to televise the Academy Awards on a 5-second delay, to guard against running afoul of the FCC and tender viewer sensibilities.

"Fantasy is an f-word that hopefully the 5-second delay won't do anything with," he said.

It was impossible to tell from the backstage press area whether any parts of the telecast actually got bleeped, since reporters received a "clean feed" of the show -- before the signal entered the tape-delay system. Apparently, there was a bleep during an appearance by presenters Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, but there seems to be some doubt whether it was intentional.

The tape-delay may well have functioned as a de facto bleep -- reinforcing a sense among presenters and winners that they had better watch what they say. Crystal, sharing the stage at one point with the notoriously unruly Robin Williams, called Williams "the reason for the 5-second delay."

Williams got off one of the evening's topical jokes, referring to himself and Crystal -- standing together in their tuxedos -- as a "San Francisco wedding cake." But that was fairly tame stuff for the usually out-of-control Williams, and it was in keeping with the overall tone of the show.

Crystal cracked a few jokes about Janet Jackson's Super Bowl peep show. He even had a few jokes about Mel Gibson's new movie "The Passion of the Christ" -- telling the audience that this was the first Oscars telecast to be simulcast in Aramaic, and that the movie "opened on Ash Wednesday and had a good Friday."

When last year's Best Actor winner Adrien Brody came onstage to present the Oscar for Best Actress, he provided a light moment that was probably emblematic of the evening. Known for planting a deep kiss on presenter Halle Berry last year, Brody got a laugh when he preceded his remarks at the podium by giving himself a schpritz of breath freshener.

Speaking with reporters backstage, Best Actress winner Charlize Theron said she appreciated the gag.

"Well, I love Adrien for cracking a joke right before with the Binaca," she said, "because that kind of just relieved a lot of pressure."

Whatever spontaneity the telecast provided tended toward the gentle and reserved, probably a result of a combination of factors -- including a lack of suspense about the outcomes, the imposition of the filtering technology of a tape-delay and the public's current impatience with televised displays of even borderline indecency.