Live Bloggin' the Oscars

7:32pm - Woah, I'm starting a bit late on this business. It took longer than expected to fill out my Oscar ballot and prepare Oscar party foods.

What is this intro, a Mac commercial?

Overheard at the Oscar Party: Part One:

"Is Shortbus up for anything?"

"What's the matter with Peter O'Toole? He's a zombie?"

7:36pm - Ellen DeGeneres in velvet with white bucks. It's gonna be that kinda night.

7:39pm - Ellen is unfunny. It's official.

7:40pm - Nicholson is bald? It must be for his upcoming role in The Paul Shaffer Story.

7:44pm - No, don't sing, Ellen. Please. Or dance. Leave it for the daytime. For the good of mankind.

Overheard at the Oscar Party: Part Two:

"Um, that kinda wasn't funny."

7:45pm: Award #1 - Art Direction: Pan's Labyrinth. Deserved. Very much so.

7:48pm - Maggie Gyllenhaal does the "Not Yet Worthy For Primetime Awards" spiel. "It was a wild night," she claims. Yeeeeah. Sure.

7:56pm - I guess there was a Jack Black/John C. Reilly/Will Ferrell song and dance number. I missed it due to a cigarette break out in the freezing cold. I can imagine what it was like without having seen it.

Award #2 - Best Make-Up: Pan's Labyrinth: Again, well deserved. Looks to be a good night for Mr. Del Toro, thus far.

8:00pm - Awww. Kids presenting awards. So cute.

Award #3 - Best Animated Short - The Danish Poet.

Award #4 - Best Live Action Short - West Bank Story. Excellent.

Overheard at the Oscar Party: Part Three:

"Hahahaha. The kids can't read the ballot!"

8:11pm - Is this the Bobby McFerrin All-Star Choir?

8:14pm - Kinnear and Carrell are funny, as always. Nice sound editing. Ba-dum-dum.

Award #5 - Sound Editing: Letters from Iwo Jima. You can't go wrong picking the war flick.

8:18pm - Why is the Biel there? Was she in a film this year? Or does nonstop paparazzi coverage equal a presenting gig these days?

Award #6 - Sound Mixing: Dreamgirls. The obvious choice.

8:21pm - Supporting Actor Award rundowns. Please please be Jackie Earl Haley.

8:23pm - Award #7 - Best Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin!!! for Little Miss Sunshine. Incredible. A deserved award for a deserving actor. This was a tough category to predict - all nominees were impressive. I was gunning for Jackie Earl because the dude is a badass, but Arkin earned it.

8:26pm - I'm all for interpretive dance in the awards ceremony. Plus, the shadow lit penguins look nice and creepy.

8:30pm - The Departed montage. Did I see a spoiler?

This had better be Marty's year.

8:31pm - Randy Newman and James Taylor. Great. Shoot me in the face immediately.

8:33pm - NOOOOOOOOO. Newman, Taylor and, now, Melissa Etheridge? Hollywood has terrible taste in music. Period.

8:35pm - Leo and Al Gore. Announce your run for the prez, Al. Please.

"You are a true champion for the cause."

8:38pm - Holy majoley. The Gore got me with that announcement fake-out.

8:42pm - Ellen is still the opposite of funny, but, amazingly the people at the Oscar party are eating her bit up. Very odd.

Award #8 - Animated Feature - Happy Feet.

I thought Cars would have grabbed this, being the Golden Globe winner and all. What do I know though? I saw none of the noms. Oops.

Overheard at the Oscar Party: Part Four:

"BEN AAAAFFLEEEECK! I love him!!!!" (Yes, someone actually screamed this at the appearance of the Daredevil on the TV screen).

8:47pm - The "Screenwriters on Film" montage is entertaining and one of the better Oscar bits I've seen. It's nice to see the writer get his due, even if it's via actors portraying them on screen.

8:50pm - Why did Children of Men get the hardcore, ultimate shaft this year? Just a thought...

8:54 Award #9 - Adapted Screenplay: The Departed. Wonderful choice! It was nice to hear the writer give props to Infernal Affairs, also.

Commerical break - I've always enjoyed Wes Anderson's American Express commerical. However, after seeing Jason Schwartzman in Marie Antoinette last night on DVD, I can't look at him in the same way again. Concrete acts better.

9:02pm - Award #10 - Costume Design: Marie Antoinette. Well, speak of the devil. My lack of enthusiam for the film, notwithstanding, I thought the costumes were exceptional. The art direction was tops, too.

Overheard at the Oscar Party: Part Five:

"Here comes Cruise with the Scientology pills."

9:08pm - Umm, sorry, but I completely missed that whole presentation. Apparently the honoree is something special because I was yelled at by the rest of the partygoers for asking who she was. Tough crowd.

9:10pm - A DeGeneres costume change. She's blinding white. More importantly - Are her shoes red velvet?

9:13pm - Award #11 - Cinematography: Pan's Labyrinth. And so goes my hope that Children of Men would take home an award. I'm not complaining, though, because Pan's definitely deserved this honor as much as Children of Men.

Overheard at the Oscar Party: Part Six:

"Wally Pfister - What a name."

9:21pm - Award #12 - Visual Effects: The Pirates of the Caribbean. Just as I thought. The Pirates series consistently gets better looking visually. If only the same could be said of the scripts.

Catherine Denueve is looking...um...good? Yeah. It's too early to get mean.

Montage action! Foreign language cinema! How many people in the audience are scratching their heads or checking their Blackberries right now?

9:30pm - Award #13 - Foreign Language Film - The Lives of Others! The biggest upset of the evening, thus far. Public opinion was on Pan's Labyrinth taking the award with ease.

NPR's Bob Edwards had a very interesting interview with The Lives of Others director Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck this morning. Their discussion on the Stasi was eye-opening and, at times, scary. I can't wait to see this film now.

9:34pm - Award #14 - Supporting Actress - Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls. Big ups for the Chicago girl! Are Hudson's tears the first of the evening?

Overheard at the Oscar Party: Part Seven:

"Did she thank Beyonce?! DID JENNIFER HUDSON THANK BEYONCE??!!!"

9:42pm - Award #15 - Documentary Short Subject: The Blood of Yingzhou District. I'm sure it's very good, but I'm in the dark on this one. Has anyone seen this?

Seinfeld. I'm not a fan, but Comedian was very good. He obviously lost all of the standup skills he re-learned in that doc, however. Shut up and read the nominees. The "depressing movies" line was pretty funny though.

Award #16 - Documentary Feature: An Inconvenient Truth! I thought this doc was great and deserving of honors, but it was just a glorified Power Point presentation. Don't get me wrong - I loved the film, but I thought that Jesus Camp was more effective and jarring as a piece of filmmaking.

9:51pm - MORRICONE! I didn't know that he was getting an honorary award. I bought a compilation cd of his spaghetti western scores just this past week. This is a great montage.

9:56pm - Alright, haven't our ears been tortured enough? Celine Dion? Is this 1997?

Overheard at the Oscar Party: Part Eight:

"Celine Dion. She's looking right at me."

Eastwood looks lost while Morricone waxes in Italian.

Overheard at the Oscar Party: Part Nine:

"Gwyneth Paltrow is acting like she understands."

10:07pm - Award #17 - Original Score: Babel. Here comes the Babel train.

Overheard at the Oscar Party: Part Ten:

"They should've used Queen songs in The Queen.

10:10pm - The president of the MPAA sounds like Ron Howard.

10:12pm - Award #18 - Original Screenplay: Little Miss Sunshine. This was another toughie to call, but I suspected that this one would take it. It's the "Little Indie That Could" for the Academy voters this year, much like Lost in Translation was a few years back. Not quite up to snuff in their opinions to take the Best Picture honors, but the story was strong enough to take the Original Screenplay Award. Personally, I thought Pan's Labyrinth should have won.

10:22pm - Hudson and Beyonce on stage, together. Fight club?

I think there was a "wardrobe malfunction"!! Everyone at this Oscar party is screaming about it! Was there a Hudson nipple on live TV? TIVO folks: fill me in!

Overheard at the Oscar Party: Part Eleven:

"Here comes Beyonce with a KNIFE!"

10:29pm - Award #19 - Original Song: "I Need to Wake Up" by Melissa Etheridge (from An Inconvenient Truth). I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.

Three songs from the musical nominated and not a one the winner. Very interesting move. What a slap in the face for Dreamgirls.

10:39pm - What is this Will Smith-introduced montage about? Blogging in the midst of mild revelry isn't easy.

Award #20 - Editing: The Departed. The deserved winner. Could this anticipate a Best Film win for The Departed and Scorsese? I hope so.

Thelma Schoonmaker's win brought Marty to tears.

Overheard at the Oscar party: Part Twelve:

"Jodie Foster is perpetually 30 years old."

In Memorium:

I forgot that Bruno Kirby died this year!

And Don Knotts! He will live forever for me, though, thanks to the Ghost and Mr. Chicken poster that hangs proudly in my home.

Gordon Parks, Sven Nyquist, Philipe Noiret, Maureen Stapleton, Peter Boyle, Jack Palance, Altman....

Wow. Cinema lost a lot of important figures this year. I say the same thing each year at this point in the show...

10:52pm - Is Philip Seymour Hoffman growing dreadlocks? Or is he hungover?

Award #21 - Best Actress: Helen Mirren for The Queen. The predicted winner - and deservedly so. Mirren's performance was the best of the bunch, and lifted what was essentially a TV movie (but a good one!) to feature status. Mirren's acceptance speech was graceful, but I wanted to see that British cheekiness. I guess the evening's decorum trumped it.

11:00pm - This is one LONG award show. Fortunately, Ellen is getting a bit funnier. Only a bit though.

11:04pm - Award #22 - Best Actor: Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland. Once again, the conventional wisdom pick prevailed. I've yet to see this film, but it arrives on DVD in the coming months. It moves to the top of the list.

Whitaker gave one of the most geniune speeches of the night. I thought he was going to lose it at first, much like during his Golden Globe speech, but he held it together. Nice work, Forest.

11:08pm - Spielberg, Coppola and Lucas. One of these things is not like the others.

Award #23 - Best Director: MARTIN SCORSESE for The Departed. IT'S ABOUT TIME!!

This is a memorable moment.

I can't think of a more deserving director to win this, even if The Departed is not Scorsese's best film. It's great to see humor in Marty's speech, too, rather than it being a weepy, "I've wanted this for so long" speech. I didn't expect him to do that (Scorsese's got too much class), but you never know how a person will react in such a situation.

Award #24 - The Big One - Best Picture: The Departed!! This was another hard one to predict. The rumor mills were abuzz with a billion different outcomes for this award. The Departed was the best film o' the bunch, though. Hands down.

What a great night for Scorsese.

And, that's it. They really wrap this puppy up quick once the Best Picture Award is handed out.

Overall, this year's Academy Awards show was pretty good. The ceremony was entertaining and, luckily, not as annoying as usual. It was surprisingly efficient, too. The musical numbers were quick. The speeches were (relatively) short.

I don't agree with all of the award choices - *cough* Pan's Labyrinth's Foreign Language Film Award loss *cough* - but, I think I'll get over it.

Maybe.

Well, it's a late one. Time to retire. For those who kept up with this wacky Oscar commentary, I thank you.

One more thing, don't forget to visit Facets.org tomorrow for our Oscar wrap-up and to see who won Facets' Oscar contest!

Have a good night.

- Phil Morehart