<\/p>\n
\n\tTwo months ago, Julia Roberts held the Golden Globes audience captive as she presented the best musical or comedy trophy. In a couple of minutes of screen time<\/a>, Roberts accepted the audience\u2019s spontaneous standing ovation, laughed that famous laugh and poked self-deprecating fun at her own ego, and semi-randomly shouted out both Emma Stone and the film \u201cSorry, Baby.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWhere was this energy at the Oscars? Not the discursiveness, maybe \u2014 the Globes are, notoriously, a loose evening. But the star power. Excepting a couple of brief moments, the Oscars\u2019 cohort of presenters tended to lack both wattage and eagerness to lean into making a moment. Producing the marquee awards show of the year, the Academy\u2019s team would seem to have the opportunity to draw from a bevy of legends. Instead, though, the broadcast felt at times\u2026 small.<\/p>\n \n\tAn awards ceremony is made or broken by its winners, and in this, the Oscars did all right for themselves: Despite the unfortunate absence of Sean Penn, who really was missed<\/a>, the three acting winners present gave lovely and thoughtful speeches, as did Paul Thomas Anderson (three times over) and Ryan Coogler. But, on the margins, star power helps. When, at ceremony\u2019s end, Nicole Kidman<\/a> uncorked her \u201cMoulin Rouge\u201d chemistry with Ewan McGregor, the room seemed to light up. There was a similar energy when Barbra Streisand<\/a> read a lovably intimate tribute to Robert Redford, then \u2014 surprise \u2014 found a handheld mic, and began to sing.<\/p>\n \n\tThese moments felt scattered throughout a ceremony that could feel surprisingly budget, though. Conan O\u2019Brien is a sharp and game host, but sketches featuring Josh Groban and Jane Lynch seemed more than a bit dated. (Sterling K. Brown, a recent Oscar nominee, fared better.) Missed opportunities studded the evening: As novel as it was to see Anna Wintour on the Oscars stage, and to see her without her sunglasses on, why do a \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada 2\u201d promotional stunt without Meryl Streep \u2014 who hasn\u2019t acted in a live-action film in five years, and whose appearance would have been a true event? Why do a tribute to the stars made by Rob Reiner without Tom Cruise, who got one of his signature roles as an emergent leading man in \u201cA Few Good Men\u201d? Could Leonardo DiCaprio, Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, Jacob Elordi, or Emma Stone, all in the house, not have been induced to present?<\/p>\n \n\tWell, probably not, just as Cruise, who didn\u2019t even show up to the Oscars when \u201cTop Gun: Maverick\u201d was up for best picture, is likely holding himself in reserve until his Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez I\u00f1\u00e1rritu collaboration drops. This isn\u2019t really a just-this-year problem, although one could point to various missed opportunities with easy-ish fixes at this ceremony. (Convincing Streep to promote her new film is one; forgoing a moment of ABC synergy and replacing \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d judge Lionel Richie with Billie Eilish to present best original song might have been another.) The Oscars of my youth featured a front row of stars who were there just to be there, and marquee categories presented by genuine-article living legends.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThose few major stars who were there tended to be working in service of promotion: Sigourney Weaver, dropping a reference to \u201cAliens,\u201d and Robert Downey Jr. both seemed diminished by the fact that they were booked in order to unsubtly promote new entries in the \u201cStar Wars\u201d and Marvel franchises. It\u2019s true that Streep, had she been present, would have been doing the same \u2014 but Oscar fans might have been willing to take what they could get.<\/p>\n \n\tThe season lags on too long<\/a> and with far too many associated events nowadays; I\u2019ve been struck to encounter, in Variety\u2019s recent cover interview with Kidman<\/a>, the actor lamenting the unrelenting pace of the modern campaign. \u201cThere were a few Q&As, but it wasn\u2019t a lot,\u201d she said, recalling her first nominations early in this century. \u201cNow it starts in September and finishes in March. If you do Cannes, it starts in May. Like, what? How did that happen?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n