Play Billy Crystal For Me

[Perry]

HI Guys:
                 Regardless that the Oscars was a snoozefest and from a personal view Rings winning 11 Oscars was even more lame, I was wondering how any of you felt about Crystal's singing to Clint in the beginning of the show. I kind of felt it was too long, but when he sang "Clint singing with monkeys and Sondra Locke" to the rolling rolling song i fell out of my chair laughing....ha ha ha..
                        Perry

[Matt]

I thought it was funny. It reminded me of the old "Roasts" the Rat Pack used to do on TV in the 70's.

Clint and Dina have a great sense of humor. They seemed to enjoy it too.

[Hemlock]

The song was great..actually it was the best song of the show(including the oscar nominee songs) and Billy Crystal was as usually very funny.

[Fr@mus]

I agree. Crystal was funny and by far, the best show.
What happened with the all Holly-style big shows?
Very poor shows and I felt sleep with all the perfomances, except the last one..can not remember it´s name, but was a jazzy style or dixie one from a cartoon, or something like that

[1936ireckonso]

Good mild winter evening from TROY, OHIO-USA:

   I always look forward to seeing Billy Crystal perform. He is my idea of a real showman.  

   I loved his tribute to CLINT EASTWOOD  and was singing it around the house ....He just keeps rolling along...That was great....

   Respectfully,

[KC]

By overwhelming popular demand ... mine ... here are the complete lyrics to Billy Crystal's rendition of "Old Man River":

Mystic River,
That Mystic River,
As dark and murky
As Mom's chopped liver,
Mystic River,
It just keeps rolling along ...

There's a shooting,
And there's a beating,
It's like a Disney
And Eisner meeting,
But old man Eastwood,
He just keeps rolling along ...

Oh Clint ...
You've made hits,
You don't make shlock,
You've performed with monkeys,
And Sondra Locke!
You produce!
You write the score!
You sang in Paint Your Wagon,
Please don't sing no more! Shhh!

Weak and weary,
And sick of trying,
Most men your age
Are either dead or dying!
But not Clint Eastwood!
You just keep rolling along!

And here are a couple of caps of Eastwood and his wife and mom enjoying the show ...

[Matt]

You sang in Paint Your Wagon,
Please don't sing no more! Shhh!

That part actually had me laughing out loud when he sang it, but I'd already forgotten that line. Thanks for posting, KC!

[KC]

I'm partial to this bit, myself ...

There's a shooting,
And there's a beating,
It's like a Disney
And Eisner meeting ...

[Brendan]

Yeah that Disney/Eisner joke was great. The Paint Your Wagon one was good and so was the Sandra Locke joke. I liked seeing Clint's wife react to that one.  

[vik]

it was nice to see clint in the limelight

i just thought the academy didn't get it right
clint never got the oscars for outlaw josey wales
he never got best actor for unforgiven it got just 4 oscars - yet give the academy twaddle and it gave it 11
what a bunch of ......

[Fr@mus]

I don´t like this part:

Most men your age
Are either dead or dying!

He is not THAT old, he looks plenty of health and sense of humor!

[1936ireckonso]

Good mild early March morning from TROY, OHIO-USA:

   KC....What a nice surprise..the lyrics and the pictures !!!!

     Thank you so much!!!  I have printed all of it and will keep it in my CLINT EASTWOOOD treasures...

Respectfully,

[Gant]

I thought the song was pretty funny. Clint seemed to enjoy it. Overall tho' I thought the show boring with the 20's jazzy number standing out as ok.. What was that dirge with Sting playin' on.  

.. Everyone does seem to get het up about Clints age. I wonder why that is.. No one ever seems to coment on Connerys age (even tho' he's still playing action types) or Michael Caine.... Whats the big deal.. he's proven himself many times over as a great director... Still on top of his game, still coming up with surprises.

Lord of the Rings.. I enjoyed the first one but found the second boring..the third must be some movie to have won all those oscars.

[philo]

I don't wish to go over all this again, but as someone who has met him I feel that people here are more worried about his age than he is.

Relaxed, decent and a very nice guy that is what I came away feeling he was like.

He certainly doesn't act old and the song was only for fun ..... and well done.


Philo .

[Bronco_Billy]

In a vain place like Hollywierd , Clint is old and Because he hasn't had plastic surgery or wears a hair peice like many others , he will look like someone who's lived in and I applaud Clint for keeping it real in a fake place .

Clint wiil get a lifetime achievement award soon I think.
 

[allycat]

Lord of the Rings.. I enjoyed the first one but found the second boring..the third must be some movie to have won all those oscars.

The point is that LOTR got overlooked for the 1st two films so for some reason they went slightly over the top this time and gave Return of the King all the awards for which it was nominated. I think that all the recognition was deserved but they should have staggered the awards for LOTR over the past 3 years so that it didn't look quite so over the top.
Although I did agree with pretty much all the awards LOTR won, I actually would've preferred it if Clint had won best director instead of Peter Jackson, just because PJ was up for that award 3 years in a row, whereas Clint wasn't. I was so glad that Sean Penn and Tim Robbins won in their respective categories though, at least it's some recognition for Mystic River. I thought both of their performances were brilliant. They're two of my favourite actors.
As for Billy Crystal, he was the best thing about the Oscars for me. I didn't get to watch it til Monday night because it was on too late here so I taped it and watched it after I got back from work on Monday, but because the show overran by 11 mins I missed the last bit.
I love that little tribute to Clint, and the age thing is only tongue-in-cheek anyway. Noone else was sung to the way Billy sang to Clint. So I thought it was great. And particularly the way both Sean and Tim thanked Clint on stage, and the audience really clapped when they thanked him. That to me almost makes up for Clint missing out on the Best Director award.
Has Clint not won it since Unforgiven? If not, it's about time he won it again!

[Aline]

I don't like when he sings "weak and weary and sick of trying, most mean your age are either dead or dying". I think it bad taste. I'm not worried about Clint age more than his person. I know Clint himself jokes about his age all the time in some movies, like In the line of fire or Space Cowboys. But there is difference between good taste and bad taste jokes.

I don't like Billy Crystal much. Sometimes he judges himself very funny. I'd rather Steve Martin or Whoopi Goldberg leading Oscar shows.

[bigdai]

let's face it, whether Clint liked the song or not, he was hardly going to stand up, punch Billy Crystal and walk out if he didn't like it was he.  Personally, while I thought it was fairly funny (especially for BC and the Oscars), I may have been offended by the dead and dieing line if I was Clint and the reference to Locke wouldn't have gone down well.  

[vik]

i would have watched clint punch billy crystal - thats entertainment

[bigdai]

I think it would have been fantastic.  

1) it would have brought some orignality and spontaneity to the predictability of the oscars

2) it would have shown Silly Crystal that Clint is far from dead or dieing

3) it would have garnered Clint a whole new fan base and got him loads of publicity

on the downside... I suppose he would have been arrested and possibly jailed for GBH almost certainly ending his film career.  Still, at least he would have gone out in a blaze of glory like all good cowboys.