Oscars 2008: Stars' Faces On Their Best Behavior For HDTV
We all know by know that HDTV has thrown the entertainment, lighting and make-up industries for a loop, since the high-definition resolution of 720p-and-up TVs (along with bigger screens) reveals blemishes and wrinkles on stars' faces in ways that standard-res broadcasts do not. We were hoping to have a big snark-fest to dish about which stars looked great and which stars looked bad under the high-res glare of HDTV, but we were simultaneously pleased and disappointed to see that on last night's Oscar telecast, most stars passed looked just fine in 1080p. It seems as though the production, lighting, and make-up people have wised-up to the cruel lens of the HD camera, at least as far as people up on the Oscar stage are concerned. (Now, we're only referring to the onstage Oscar telecast itself -- the red carpet, on the other hand, is another matter.)
Sure, we could make some comments about how Katherine Heigl's blush looked a bit too heavy or how the sunglasses-induced-tanlines on the noses of Owen Wilson and Patrick Dempsey were distractingly apparent, but it would be too nitpicky. Yes, in HD, Cate Blanchett does have crows' feet when she frowns or smiles on the red carpet or in the audience, but her more or less expressionless face while up on stage betrayed no signs of aging.
Still, it made a difference that Blanchett didn't really show any expressions on stage – presumably it's part of a strategy on the part of savvy actors to stay young looking in the face of revealing higher resolutions on television. Ultimately, HDTV is still only kind to the very young, which explains why everyone from Best Actress-Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard to Ellen Page to Anne Hathaway, 20-something youngsters all, looked as fresh as daisies.
That is, of course, matters only if you really care about that sort of young/old = good/bad kind of thing. Personally, we don't really care which star looks old or young, particularly since we're all getting a bit older ourselves. We just care about HDTV, 'cause we're consumer electronics nerds. Besides, when you're talented as Cate Blanchett is playing Bob Dylan, you pretty much need crows' feet to pull it off.
Hair and make-up aside, this year's Oscars seemed to nod a bit more to technology than in year's past, as evidenced by everything from Oscar host Jon Stewart playing with his iPhone and Wii, product-placement-style, on stage to the lame commercials and calls for creative ideas on the advertisements for Dove soap (in which viewers were asked to vote via text message on one of two conventional, grainy user-created commercials for the soap) and Bertolli (in which an aging Rocco Di Spirito asks viewers to contribute their ideas, online, of course, on how to throw the ideal dinner party).
All in all, it was a relatively hum-drum, post-writers'-strike Oscars, in glittering HD, no less. Or do the Oscars mean less to us these days because we're getting older? We guess we'll have to wait until next year to find out.
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