The Oscars...sigh.

Watching the Academy Awards ceremony has become an almost inescapable annual ritual, even though at the end of it, viewers feel drained and wasted and realize they'll never get those hours back (a frightening number of hours, if they also tune in for the Red Carpet welcome).

For journalists on the entertainment beat, which may be trivial, but is not as ghastly as the political beat, this weekend is an easy one: they get to run through all their guesses--who should win, who will win, who should have been nominated.

Once again, our grizzled moviegoer, who has seen every film since "The Great Train Robbery," laments the non-winners: Henry Fonda, who won for "On Golden Pond," but should have won for "The Grapes of Wrath" (inexplicably, named best actor that year--1941--was James Stewart, for "The Philadelphia Story," and while Stewart was a gifted thespian, his role in "Philadelphia" was as minor backup to Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn); Richard Jaeckel, a journeyman actor who gave an unforgettable performance as a hot-blooded, hymn-seeking lumberjack in 1971's "Sometimes a Great Notion;" Paul Newman, who finally won for "The Color of Money," after deserving the award a half-dozen times; Hugh Grant, not even nominated for "Four Weddings and a Funeral;" and Peter Sellers, who should have won three Oscars for his triple roles in "Dr. Strangelove."

And then we come to films. Nominated fourteen times this year is "La La Land," a return to the classic Hollywood musical. But "Singin' in the Rain" from 1952, almost universally acknowledged to be the best musical ever (Andre Previn: "I am reluctant to call anything 'the best,' but I will say, unreservedly, that 'Singin' in the Rain' is the best musical ever filmed") was not even nominated. (Happily, Gene Kelly's 1951 "An American in Paris" did win six Oscars, including Best Picture.)

Jean Hagen, who appeared in "Singin' in the Rain" as Lina Lamont, the glamorous silent film star with a voice more grating than Pat Burns's, was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. She didn't win. We love her anyway.

So while trillions of people have seen "La La Land," and many more will, after this weekend, we plan to stay home and watch, for possibly the twenty-fifth time, "Singin' in the Rain."