No awards earned for Oscar night thank-yous

This year’s Oscar winners were long on elegance and short on eloquence. Most of them should have hired speechwriters. With free gowns, free gems and free goodie bags, guess no one wants to pay for just words.

Barbara D.M. Harris

Encino

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The Academy Award speeches would be more enjoyable and moving if the winners said something about themselves, the people they work with or the movies themselves rather than thanking a list of people unknown to me and the millions of other viewers.

David Burkenroad

Los Angeles

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On NPR the morning after the Oscars, Peter Jackson was speaking about J.R.R. Tolkien’s reaction to war and how important it was for him as a filmmaker to portray Frodo not as a winner but as a survivor, utterly changed by his quest. Why can’t the millions who tune in to the Oscar show hear more about the work and less about the laundry list of managers and accountants?

Piper Adelman

Arroyo Grande

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The academy should be congratulated for having the courage to choose the world’s first non-interactive video game as the best picture of the year. Will somebody please wake me when the farewells are over?

Dennis White

Pacific Palisades

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Overall, this year’s Academy Award show was entertaining and a pleasure to watch, but I cannot help but be stunned by one moment in the presentation: the reaction to the tribute to Katharine Hepburn.

Does the industry have such a short memory? This was a lady who defined all that is best in Hollywood history. Yet after the moving montage of her performances, I watched in disbelief as the current crop of Hollywood “legends” sat and clapped politely. No standing ovation. No burst of appreciation. Many were chatting or gave a few cursory claps.

Shame on you all. The “Great Kate” deserves better.

Melodee M. Spevack

Burbank

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Just finished reading about the gifts given to Oscar presenters and recipients. Considering the excess in conferring these goodies upon people who, for the most part, can generally afford the contents, shouldn’t “swag” really be an acronym for “silly, wasteful and greedy”?

Phillip Hain

Glendale