OK, we get it: they want the speeches to be really short. There was a film at the top of the ceremony in which Tom Hanks got mugged by the orchestra as his mock-acceptance-speech wore on. And this year, the orchestra is playing music as soon as the winner begins his or her speech, which is no doubt a distraction -- Colleen Atwood, Best Costume winner for "Memoirs of a Geisha," seemed thrown by it -- as well as a subtle but insistent reminder that it will only get louder as you keep yammering.

Back to Clooney -- he didn't thank anyone, just made an impassioned (if a smidgen self-serving) speech about Hollywood being out of touch -- championing civil rights and other progressive issues before the rest of the country embraced them. Which is a more interesting way of taking up your minute or so of TV time than reciting a laundry list of people no one watching at home knows.