The corn has been popped, the soda chilled and some idiot is going on about designer dresses on ABC’s pre-Oscar Red Carpet coverage can only mean that once again, we’ll be live blogging the Academy Awards. Keep refreshing for updates!
8:09- Who cares how many times a Valentino gown has been on an actress winning an Oscar?
8:13- Sherlock Holmes is going to be “darn swell” according to RDjr. There’s your poster quote right there.
8:20- Love the Accountant montage! The Crimson Permanent Assurance!
8:24- Every question on the red carpet is about designers! This is the downplaying of the glitz and glamor?!
8:26- Slimmed down Seth Rogen in a tux has just convinced me he could play Britt Reid in The Green Hornet.
8:30- And awaayyy we go! Loving the art deco look of the stage.
8:33- And the show already falls flat with Jackman’s song… Ugh.
8:36- Jackman is no Billy Crystal (And neither was Crystal some years.) Bring back David Letterman!!!
8:38- AND he works in a plug for the Wolverine flick. At least this is now over.
8:40- Was that a screwup with the curtain?
8:43- Five best supporting actress winners to present? Nice!
8:47- The first Oscar of the evening goes to Penelope Cruz! (And that puts that “leaked Oscar winners” list in the realm of hoax.)
8:53- Steve Martin always is a good presenter. Dependably funny all the way back to the 70s. (Was that a slam on Scientology? “No one wants to hear about our religion… that we just made up.”
8:56- Loving how they visualized screenplay writing.
8:57- Best Original Screenplay to Milk!
8:59- “Don’t fall in love with me!” Martin and Fey need to make a movoie together.
9:01- Adapted Screenplay winner is Slumdog Millionaire! First of a run tonight?
9:03- And Jennifer Aniston flubs her line.
9:06- And the Best Animated Feature Oscar goes to WALL-E. No surprise there.
9:08- At this rate, PIXAR is going to have a build a wing on to their building to house all their Oscars.
9:10- And the Animated Short Film Oscar goes to La Maison De Petits Cubes. (Director is struggling with English and looks totally gobsmacked! Whips out the only Japanese everyone knows- “Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto!”)
9:16- And Daniel Craig steps on Sarah Jessica Parker’s dress. Smooth move James Bond.
9:18- Art Direction- Benjamin Button.
9:19- And they are the first people to be played off.
9:21- Costume Design- The Duchess. Will this guy get played off?
9:23- Nope, he manages to wrap it up.
9:24- Makeup to Benjamin Button? Should have gone to either Dark Knight or Hellboy 2….
9:25- Rattling off names=Crappy Oscar acceptance speech.
9:26- Emo boy from Twilight is disappearing into curtain in background.
9:29- Didn’t really love the romance montage…
9:31- Ben Stiller rocks!!! (And we really should have had Letterman as host!)
9:34- And the Cinematography Oscar goes to Slumdog Millionaire. That’s two.
9:37- I am really like the conceit of taking the awards through the production process. Of course, it leaves a lot of the tech awards lumped in the middle.
9:42- And now a montage of movies that the Academy routinely ignores- comedies!
9:44- Rogen and Franco laughing at the ultra-drama serious nominees is evil! (In a good way!)
9:47- Best Live Action Short Film goes to Toyland.
9:49- Going to commercial, the tease for the upcoming Best Supporting Actor award had a definite “We know you want to see if the dead guy wins” vibe to it.
9:54- I was almost liking this musical bit until Hugh Jackman started belting out songs from Grease… yikes! This is a terrible arrangement.
9:56- The High School Musical kids should not be allowed in the same zip code as the Oscars. “Mama Mia” as a drumline piece? I can’t believe I’m longing for the days when Snow White got dirty danced by Rob Lowe.
9:58- Oh, Baz Luhrman created that monstrosity. That explains it.
10:06- Michael Shannon is just a great actor. Why haven’t more people seen Shotgun Stories?
10:08- Ledger gets the Oscar. No surprise. His parents and sister are accepting. This will be emotional. (And the family gets a standing ovation.)
10:12- Best Documentary. I like how they have the directors talking about their craft.
10:14- Love Nill Maher’s tux. Narrow labels, very 50s.
10:16- And The Oscar goes to- Man On Wire. No surprise there, really. Ha! I love the slight of hand!
10:17- Documentary Short Subject- Smile Pinki.
10:20- 14 categories down, 9 to go…
10:25- Will Smith “I love action movies!” Then why have your last couple of ones been so crappy?
10:27- Best Visual Effects to Benjamin Button?!!? Are you kidding me?
10:28- Sound Editing- Dark Knight! Sorry to see Ben Burtt didn’t get it for WALL-E, but then again he already has 4.
10:31- Sound Mixing- Slumdog Millionaire.
10:34- They are just blasting through these tech awards.
10:36- And Slumdog Millionaire takes the Editing Oscar. It looks like Boyle’s film is the 800 lb gorilla of the evening.
10:43- Jerry Lewis is getting the humanitarian award. Probably not from his own family.
10:45- Jerry Lewis doesn’t look like Jerry Lewis. Weird.
10:50- Why are Zac Ephron and Alicia Keyes presenting Best Original Score? They have no connection to music.
10:51- And Slumdog Millionaire gets it. The only question remains is which of the two original songs from Slumdog will get the Oscar.
11:02- Best Song goes to “Jai Ho” from Slumdog.
11:07- Best Foriegn Language Film- Departures from Japan. Really surprised that Waltz With Bashir didn’t get it.
11:14- I am not likeking how the camera is swooping around the in rememberance montage.
11:15- Hey! They used a clip from Hudsucker Proxy for Newman’s segment.
11:18- Good lord this evening just seems to be dragging…
11:21- Danny Boyle gets the Oscar for directing Slumdog Millionaire. (I have half a mind to report the movie getting Best Picture right now and then go to bed.)
11:32- Kate Winslet wins Best Actress for The Reader. Great moment with her father. And she thanks Peter Jackson! (For giving her her first big role in Heavenly Creatures.) But no James Cameron.
11:39- “How did Sean Penn get all those jobs playing straight men?” And DeNiro gets the best line of the night. And namechecks Spicolli!
11:43- Sean Penn for the win!!
11:46- Great speech by Penn- right amounts of personal and political.
11:48- Just Best Picture left. Any doubt that it won’t be Slumdog Millionaire?
11:50- I love how they are transposing past Best Picture winners with the current nominees.
11:54- And Slumdog Millionaire wins Best Picture! So will they now all have a big Bollywood musical number on stage to close out the show?
Midnight- And we’re done. Three and a half hours, not too bad. Some good, some which will be quickly forgotten. Good night all.
