Academy not so Web-savvy

If the point was to make the Academy Awards a “two-screen experience,” as Laura Ziskin, who produced Sunday night’s broadcast, had said, Oscar will have to try harder next year.

This was to be the year the Oscars broke out with a hip website that would encourage those young, ADD-ridden YouTube types to multitask between the tube and their laptops, catching Ellen DeGeneres’ jokes and fun “behind the scenes” stuff as well.

But while Oscar.com included a lot of, er, content -- and lots of ads from Olay and Saturn -- it was far from urgent or exciting. For much of the broadcast, the only element that seemed to be updated live was the “Thank You Cam,” designed to allow the winners to keep their acceptance speeches short on TV and really go to town online.

It makes you wonder if Oscar.com was trying to make the show look sassy by comparison.

-- Scott Timberg