I thought Chris Rock's opening was good. Tough subject, and he handled it well.

I've seen both Straight Out of Compton and Spotlight. I would have given the screenplay award to Straight Out of Compton.

I liked the showing of text during the video clips of the films up for best original and adapted screenplay. (Maybe they read my post yesterday complaining about this? Doubtful, it was obviously prefilmed well before I wrote that.)

Update: This is a very boring show.

Update: I woke up when Joe Biden showed up to give an anti-sexual assault message, asking people to take a pledge. My least favorite politician. I would have changed channels but I was so surprised, I kept it on.

Biden mentions "the survivors you will see tonight." Are we now going to see victims? What does this have to do with movies? Ah, there is a point to his appearance. He introduces Lady Gaga who sings a song about sexual assault from a movie called the Hunting Ground. Her performance was, to my ear, very unpleasant, overly histrionic and angry in a nasty way.

Then they actually brought in dozens of people to raise their arms in solidarity as sexual assault victims. I thought this entire thing, from Biden through Gaga through the group in solidarity, was inappropriate. Clearly, the audience felt differently, several women were crying and they gave Lady Gaga and the solidarity people a standing ovation. (The song didn't win.)

Joe Biden did have one good line, when people (very belatedly) stood up to welcome him, he motioned for them to sit, saying "I'm the least qualified person here."

The diversity thing was so overworked. By the time Sacha Baron Cohen came on to introduce "Room" and called it a movie about white people, I didn't even laugh.

This was the most non-spontaneous, scripted Oscars ever. The night was devoted to apologies and excuses for lack of diversity in the industry, relegating achievement in film to the back burner.

I thought it was enough for Chris Rock to address it in his opening monologue. I was okay with the President of the Academy (who happens to be an African American female) informing us of the diversity problem (which, by the way, she put on the industry, not the Academy) and recent corrective action of the Academy (which she correctly acknowledged certainly is not a cure, this problem didn't start overnight and won't be cured overnight.) I was even okay with her calling on everyone in the room (as opposed to the viewing audience) to be an ambassador for diversity. But all the rest was overkill and turned the show into a big whine instead of a celebration of film.

I wanted to see an entertaining show celebrating film. I wanted to see happy people accepting their awards.

Leonard DiCaprio won best actor. At first, he had such a happy look on his face. I was glad for him and for finally getting to see happy. Then he launched into a political speech about climate change, big corporations, indigenous people and "people whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed." The audience loved it.

Spotlight (a film about victims) won Best Picture. The first actor accepting the award says he hopes their voice will resonate to the Vatican.

Chris Rock ends with a shout "Black Lives Matter." Yes they do. So do LGBT voices, Mexican voices, New Zealand voices, child voices, female voices and every other voice. I'd just rather not hear about it every ten seconds for two hours, during a celebration of the year's achievement in film.

Ending song: "Fight the Power." I bet the first post-Oscar commercial on my TV is going to be a Bernie Sanders ad. (The Oscars opened here with playing of Bernie's "America" Ad.) Added: it wasn't -- it was Morgan Freeman doing a Hillary Clinton commercial.) [Please keep your comments about the Oscars, not Bernie or Hillary.]

Ending thought: Straight Out of Compton deserved more nominations. I liked Chris Rock, but this was the most boring Oscars ever.

Update: The local ABC affiliate did a segment on the Oscars, going to a place where 300 to 400 people affiliated with the Denver Film Society gathered to watch the show. They interviewed two white women about the diversity problem and the "magic" of allowing Lady Gaga to discuss her victimization and drawing attention to other victims.

Update: Happy places during Oscars weekend included a Film is Great party celebrating British nominees (emceed by James Corden). There were British nominees in 21 of the 24 categories. And a party Sunday night hosted by Elton John (an annual AIDS charity event funded by the City of West Hollywood.) Elton performed a free concert yesterday as thanks -- he was joined by Lady Gaga.

Both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were on Jimmy Kimmel's post-Oscar show. There was also the Vanity Fair party.

Update: For those interested in statistics, there were 12 African American presenters (out of a total of 47. Would anyone besides the UK's Daily Mail keep track?

Among the presenters were Common, Morgan Freeman, Whoopi Goldberg, Louis Gossett, Jr. and Kevin Hart. While other races made up the 47 presenters of the night, the majority - 30 people - were white.

Other ethnicity included two Latin Americans, Benicio del Toro and Sofia Vergara and two people of Indian descent, Dev Patel and Priyanka Chopra. Lee Byung-hun, who is South Korean, and Olivia Munn, who is half Japanese also presented awards.