About Fucking Time

By my count, he should have won at least three by now (Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Last Tempation - shit, he wasn't even nominated for Taxi Driver!!), but Martin Scorsese finally got off the schneid last night and collected his first (sigh) Oscar for Best Director. I did have a brief moment of trepidation when I saw that the producers of last night's telecast made the not-so-subtle move to have Coppola, Lucas, and Spielberg present the Best Director award last night (those three are old buddies of Scorsese's from their days as the "New Hollywood" auteurs of the 1970's - check out Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls for a fascinating, if gossip-filled, look at Hollywood, circa 1967-1981). It reminded me of when Spielberg's buddy, Harrison Ford, was tapped to present the Best Picture award back in 1999, with most people thinking that Saving Private Ryan had it in the bag, and then, surprise! surprise!, Shakespeare In Love won instead. But my worry turned out to be in vain, and Scorsese finally got his due. LONG OVERDUE (ok, I'm done now).

Here's a hilarious spot Scorsese did a couple of years ago for American Express. "Yeah, Timmy. It's your Uncle Marty. How'd you like to turn five again?"