One more thought on the booing (or not) of Michael Moore's remarks. The prevailing thought throughout Hollywood today seems to be that the booing heard on the telecast was more from stagehands than Academy members. It's all a function of where the microphones are. The ones over the audience are pretty far away from them. If Jack Nicholson stood up and screamed in the middle of the ceremony, you probably wouldn't hear it too well at home — perhaps not at all. But the stage crew, which tends more towards the conservative side, knows where the open mikes are. Some of them, knowing what Moore was likely to say, may even have moved into position to register disapproval. Apparently, a couple of them did give the filmmaker a pretty rough time backstage, as per Steve Martin's comments. This may explain why Moore, in backstage interviews, said he only heard about five people booing. They may not have been booing down front.
Dave Mackey corrects me: The female announcer last night was Randy (not Randi) Thomas, who is most-often heard as the spokesperson for "Hooked on Phonics" and on the Game Show Network program, Lingo. She has her own website at www.randythomasvo.com. Dave also reminds me that the year before they used Glenn Close and Donald Sutherland, the Oscars had Peter Coyote as their announcer. I don't know why it pleases me so to see them return to non-celebs but it does.