After 81 years, the Academy Awards are old and tired, sputtering around aimlessly in its… After 81 years, the Academy Awards are old and tired, sputtering around aimlessly in its electric wheelchair. Sure, it used to be hot stuff ‘mdash; back when you could count the number of Hollywood award ceremonies on one or two hands. So what if Danny Boyle won the Oscar for best director? It’s only about the 25th award he’s collected in the past year. Granted, by nature of the voting body and other boring details, the Oscars are generally more prestigious than, say, the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards. They aren’t, however, any less predictable. Between blogs, twitters, forums and the thousands of other entertainment-oriented media outlets constantly pumping predictions into the ether, was there any doubt that ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’ Kate Winslet or any of the other winners would have to make room on their respective mantles after Sunday night? Sometimes, though, a win is more than a win. Though ‘Slumdog’ was by far the favorite to take the house this year, its many wins were indicative of the shifting tides in Hollywood ‘mdash; and, if we’re lucky, its award ceremonies. Hugh Jackman is a sport and a showman, but seldom does an Oscar act flop so spectacularly as his musical medley with Beyonce Knowles. It would have been the bee’s knees 50 years ago ‘mdash; a tribute to the old song-and-dance, complete with penguin-suited tap dancers and some kids from the Disney Channel. But awkward silence dominated the Kodak Theater during this insufferably long number arranged by Baz Luhrmann, who directed Jackman in the insufferably long ‘Australia.’ Even on the East Coast you could hear the pity in the audience’s applause. Compare it to another musical number: the nominees for best original song. Diversity ‘mdash; something distinctly lacking from Jackman’s country-club-talent-show number ‘mdash; gave the dying ceremony a jolt of excitement. John Legend and South Africa’s Soweto Gospel Choir stood in for Peter Gabriel with style and soul, joined by the frenetic energy of ‘Slumdog.’ Maybe it doesn’t actually mean anything that the Mumbai beats of ‘Slumdog’ thrilled the audience in a way Jackman’s stiff and stuffy salute to musicals couldn’t. After all, not a single musical was nominated for anything this year ‘mdash; how ‘back’ can they be? Still, it’s hard not to watch this ceremony, romantically considered the biggest night in Hollywood, and hope that some single moment meant something other than well-paid entertainers congratulating each other for how wonderful they all are. It’s possible that after last year’s ‘No Country for Old Men,’ the many ‘Slumdog’ wins will continue to legitimize independent filmmaking and the use of unknown or underappreciated talent. It’s possible that the equality-espousing speeches of Sean Penn and Dustin Lance Black resonated with people other than the predictably liberal audience in the Kodak. Then again, it’s also possible that everyone just went through the motions for another year, from the political grand-standing to the host’s tiresome antics. That we can all finally sleep because Kate Winslet won an Oscar. That maybe the cynics are right, and to anyone but the winners and losers, it just doesn’t mean anything at all. Hopefully that isn’t the case, and the night’s many messages of tolerance and diversity were somehow significant. Whether the Oscars actually mean anything in their old age, one thing is for certain ‘mdash; if you want to believe in that romantic old Hollywood magic badly enough, all the glamour and pomp can at least fool you into thinking it still exists.