The Oscars, edition 96, hosted for the fourth time by Jimmy Kimmel, were broadcast over ABC on Sunday evening from the branded Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard right next door to Grauman's Chinese. (I refuse to call it the TCL Chinese Theatre, whatever TCL means.
) Coming out of the strike year, it feels appropriate to remember that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was originally devised by film producers to stave off unionization: The Oscars, some historians theorize, were invented to make actors and directors and such feel special and distinct from the industry's working classes. Give filmmakers 'cups and awards,' Louis B. Mayer is supposed to have said, and 'they'd kill themselves to produce what I wanted.' Still, all conflicts are put aside for that very special day, this Hollywood Christmas, when the academy hands out its major trophie