Mikey Madison supplants Demi Moore and wins Best Actress Academy Award

We don't want to throw too much shade at the 25-year-old Mikey Madison, even if she gave one of the less-interesting speeches of the evening. This just felt like "Anora" overflow and the Academy's love for twentysomething actresses. Whatever you feel about "The Substance" as a film, this was probably Moore's one and only chance of winning an Oscar. That is not in and of itself a reason to give her an award, but she had a better story, and a better performance, than Madison.

Alas, the more thing change, the more they stay the same, as the well-worn adage goes. Most Oscar-annointed ingenues do go on to strong careers, to be fair. Madison was handed her Best Actress Oscar by one of them, Emma Stone. A surprise during what was a thunderingly-obvious Oscar night for the most part was appreciated, to a degree, but there is a real "Monkey's Paw" element to that. Moore winning would have landed better, and she also assuredly had a better speech prepared.