Didn't notice and shaky camera movements, but my only complaint with the memorial was, with all of the ancillary screens showing cool stuff, they spent way too much time on a tight shot of the main screen so we couldn't see the smaller screens. But that's the fault of the director of the TV broadcast, not the people who produced the memorial.

And, GC, I will second iSm's suggestion to skip that montage. It WILL piss you off.

And I forget who it was directed at, but "Suck it _____" was an awesome moment.

Bill Maher is such a douche. According to LSPE, he was whining earlier in the day about his film not being nominated, then he get up there and whines some more. Get over yourself. At least Jack Black's was funny.

Until recently, Sophia Loren had been aging beautifully. Now she's yet another colligen injected, plastic surgeried wreck. I will never ever be able to fathom how people think that walking around with a face that's obviously been stretched and injected (and hit with a coat of lava orange from their local auto body shop for good measure) "hides" their age in any way shape or form. If anything, it's just a big, obvious neon sign that says, "Wow, they must have aged HORRIBLY to have wanted to have that done do them."

Sorry - the stupid TV show I was referring to was the Oscars and not the True Blood series. For the books vs series - I like them both.

Kate Winslet, and she was brilliant. Plus, I'm envious (as I always am) of people who can really whistle. Her dad A+!

Didn't Spielberg's DP also tell someone in the audience to suck it when Seth Rogan said he was the first DP to present an award? That was the extent of his talking on stage.

I did like Rogan cracking up when Franco mangled the Live Action Short winner's name.

No, not that one. I'm talking about the sound guy who was in the Pineapple Express bit.

The Pineapple Express bit was the best. When James Franco saw himself kissing Sean Penn on TV.... I got me the hy-sterics!

The line was "suck that, Anthony Dod Mantle." Mantle is Slumdog Millionaire's cinematographer.

Personally, I really enjoyed the show. I admit that the company with whom I watched the show was stellar and that probably shaded my opinion, but the highs of the show sure outweighed the lows in a big way.

Notwithstanding my overall appreciation, my three quibbles:
- The memorial bit didn't work as well because it was the one piece that was designed primarily for the live audience. I don't think the song was the problem, it was the multiple screens. I'll bet that a broadcast-specific feed with the multiple pictures would have worked better, especially for the HD audience.
- The musical number in the middle was a little awkward (sorry, Baz) and the fact that it took up so much time versus the relatively short medley of the nominated songs.
- The surprising contrast between the touching introductions given by the presenters of the Actress awards and the mostly stiff and awkward ones given by/for the Actors. I got chills when Michael Douglas, standing on stage with Anthony Hopkins, said that Langella's portrayal of Nixon made you forget all the ones that came before. Ouch.

But in all, what a great show. Jackman's opening number, the Man on Wire Oscar balancing act, Penn's and Winslet's acceptance speeches... there were so many good things to say about the show.

One moment that should have been: when Jackman said that "musicals are back," Heather turned to me and said "A.R. Rahman should get up and say, 'We have a word for musicals in India - we call them movies.'"

Agreed. On the surface, I liked the nod to the classic Top Hat and Tails award show musical form, but they crammed way too much into that medley, left my head spinning a bit.

It was mentioned before, but I loved the Tina Fey, Steve Martin bit. My favorite moment was as Steve was about to deliver his oft-used joking spotlight stealing bit where he repeats the "And I'm Steve Martin". But he couldn't because people were too busy giving Fey a HUGE ovation. Heehee, the irony.

Two more little happy points:

Jennifer Aniston pronouncing Wall-EEEEEE correctly when announcing the Animated Feature winner.

Kate Winslet inadvertenly brit-accenting "FV<K YOU, ACADEMY" Hahahahahaha!



Oh, and Sean made up for his lame white knot faux-pas with his acceptance speech ... but screenplay winner Dustin Lance Black's acceptance was really much more moving and poinant on the subject.


Obviously, I'm very happy with both wins. Both were the odds-on favorites in their categories due to their obvious excellence quite apart from the subject matter near and dear to me. But their wins certainly made for a good night on the Gay Rights front. Yay!:)

Anyone care to explain to me the bizarre display of multiculturalism in the nominated original song melody? Tiko drums during the Slum Dogs songs? African drums during the Wall-E song? What's the connection that I'm missing?


I'm still fuming over the shorts.

For the live action, I should have stuck with my gut. At the screening, ocne the live action program was over, as soon as the lights came on, I made the comment, "Well, we all know the holocaust one is going to win it." I let the people with me talk me out of that prediction, that with 2 selections clearly superior to Toyland, the Academy wouldn't be so predictable as to just pick the holocaust one. hah.