What’s with the floral print dresses at this week’s Academy Awards show? One actress/presenter looked as if her dress had been made out of the drapes · la Carol Burnett’s famous sketch. Halle Berry’s dress looked like the vineyard was holding up her breasts. These were both “you’ll-be-sorry-in-the-morning” dresses. Sharon Stone looked fabulous, howeverósimple and elegant. Of the men, Russell Crowe was looking good, but some fellow in one of the herd of people receiving one of the lesser awards looked as if he had borrowed his Navy-styled tuxedo from a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore. The fashion for men seemed to be those formal suits with the black four-in-hand ties. Are we still not dressing up because of 9/11?

The Academy Awards show gets longer and we enjoy it less each year.