Not having a host is working out better than anyone expected. Now, if we could just get rid of all that envelope-opening and the giving-out of awards…
The female voice you hear introducing everyone is Randy Thomas, who has been part of more awards shows than Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and Bob Hope combined. She's great at it and someday, someone else will introduce someone else who will present an award to her.
On the 'net, I see a lot of folks on the web complaining about "politics" on the Oscars. I haven't heard a lot of that in the show, though admittedly I've been fast-forwarding here and there. I have two responses to that complaint, one being that a lot of the films being honored are political. If you produced a movie about some grand racial or gender-related injustice and it won and you had your 45 seconds (or however long they get) to speak to the world, you could talk a bit about that injustice or you could thank your agent. What's it gonna be?
And maybe I'm too cynical about these things but I don't see most of the folks complaining about "politics" complaining if the "politics" matched their own viewpoints. They might have a valid point if they'd just admit that's what bothers them.
On with the show…