By Lee Pfeiffer
It's become an annual ritual to smear the Oscar telecast. To keep one's
credentials as as a smug entertainment journalist, it's vital to indulge in the pack mentality that
mandates one is compelely unimpressed with virtually every aspect of the show. In fairness, those who
produce the telecasts have often been masters of forming circular firing squads and providing plenty of
red meat for the wolves in the entertainment press. Despite almost universally negative reviews, this
year's ceremony may have been one of the longest, but was far from the worst. Here's a round-up of
random observations: