A tuneful In Memoriam

 

If the attending stars at the Kodak Theatre are clapping after some of the images appear during the "In Memoriam" segment that's happening now, it's not possible to hear them on the live telecast.

That was the whole point of having a song accompany this bit, with first-time Oscar producers Larry Mark and Bill Condon talking in the last few weeks about how much they didn't like those outbursts, however heartfelt. They made the "people we lost" segment into a popularity contest, the producers had said.

Insert Queen Latifah singing a lovely rendition of "I'll Be Seeing You" and, check it out, problem solved!

Not so here at Regular Joe Central, where nobody got that memo. The hoots and hollers were nearly deafening at times, but hey, we did lose Paul Newman.