Oscar Host James Franco Tweets, So Do We
Although James Franco tweeted the Oscars better than he hosted them, if it were not for the Twitterverse's acerbic tweets, the award show itself would've been a complete dud.
The sad fact about my life is that I have followed, watched and predicted the Oscars since 1996. What stood out to me this year, more than the previous years, is the important role Twitter is playing in scheduled, appointment viewing.
If you search the hashtag #Oscars on search.twitter.com, you will no doubt see a commentary of the awards show - for a distilled version, look no further than this list of funny Oscar tweets that you can add to your giggle bank.Although the Oscars tried to launch a second-screen experience with their paid iPad app, the best second-screen experience is sitting in front of the TV with your computer and reading tweets.I would love to see how The Academy incorporates, aggregates or facilitates this conversation moving forward, but having tweets scroll across the bottom of the screen seems ludicrous for such an old-fashioned awards show. Days before the telecast, Oscar host James Franco promised that he would tweet during the ceremony. He delivered.In addition to photos, Franco posted videos of his experience before and after his appearances on stage, including when he was dressed as Marilyn Monroe (like that hasn’t been done before).My favourite tweet of Franco’s came shortly after the ceremony when he posted a photo of Oscar writer Bruce Vilanch sleeping at his computer - an image that perfectly encapsulated everything that was wrong with the telecast.Franco’s unique behind-the-scenes look was uploaded to WhoSay.com, a website dedicated to celebrity Twitter users with a ‘verified’ tick beside their name.As you can see from Franco’s profile, the celebrity headshot is a salient feature, making our lowly Twitpic profiles look dull by comparison.If you weren’t amused by his tweets, Franco gave us looks that suggested he was amused by everything, bothered by nothing, and gave us plenty of moments to write snarky tweets from the comfort of our armchairs.When Billy Crystal graced the stage for a short time, the Twitterverse exploded, his name became a Trending Topic quickly, you couldn’t help but detect a sense of gratitude that the real host had arrived.Veteran film critic Roger Ebert used his Twitter account to express nothing but contempt for the telecast with this gem ‘The worst Oscarcast I’ve seen, and I go back a while. Some great winners, a nice distribution of awards, but the show? Dead. In. The. Water.’
