Oscar Night 2009














I was a little late, because I was watching the other Jackmen (get it?) on NASCAR. Great counterprogramming move, I think.

Hey, the orchestra this year is behind Hugh Jackman and the seating arrangement of the audience is really different. Everyone seems so up close.























The musical tribute to the Best Picture nominees gets off to a slow start, until Anne Hathaway joins the fray for "Frost/Nixon". She must think she has no shot of winning to participate in this. Pitt and Jolie (with huge emeralds) are there and look great. Mickey Rourke is on a "20-minute delay".

OK, it's the first change in award format. 5 former Supporting Actress winners, Eva-Marie Saint, Whoopi Goldberg, Tilda Swinton, Anjelica Huston and Goldie Hawn introduce the nominees without any film clips. Swinton, as last year's winner, presents the award to Penelope Cruz. Her ingles is much improved. Hey, a tip of the hat to Almodovar from a most gracious winner.

What the hell happened to the long commercial breaks?























Tina Fey and Steve Martin present the writing awards. First up, Best Original Screenplay in a most original way. They have the original scripts on the big screen. "Milk" wins and enables its winner to take a shot at Prop 8.

Best Adapted Screenplay is next and goes to "Slumdog Millionaire".

Jennifer Aniston and Jack Black present a 2008 yearbook in Animation. I saw none of these. Of course, "Wall-E" wins for Animated Feature Film. The Animated Short Film goes to some Asian guy for a French-named film. Did he just say "Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto"? He did. I bet that he did that on a bet.























Daniel Craig and Sarah Jessica Parker (in her bad light persona) present (Does the music have to play during this award? It is annoying,) Art Direction. Goes to "Benjamin Button". Looks like they'll get the minor awards and the major ones will go to "Slumdog".






















Costume Design is next. "The Duchess" wins? WTF?

Parker and Craig are still on. they present Makeup and it goes to "Benjamin Button". Solely on that old-looking infant, I bet.

Here are two people I don't know presenting a "Romance in 2008" montage over a Coldplay song. I sneak a peek at NASCAR.




















Natalie Portman and Ben Stiller present Cinematography. Stiller is in full Joaquin Phoenix mode and I think it's funny. Portman says he looks like he came from a "Hassidic meth lab". The award goes to "Slumdog Millionaire".























Jessica Biel...sigh. She is on to talk about the Scientific and Technical Awards, which she hosted two weeks ago. She looks much better in that clip than she does tonight.

James Franco and Seth Rogen are fucking funny as their "Pineapple Express" characters watching a Comedy montage. They are joined by Janusz Kaminski, the great cinematographer, for no apparent reason and he's funny, too, as he acts like he's high. The three of them present Live Action Short and it goes to some German dude.

Time for Jackman to earn his paycheck. It's a Baz Luhrmann tribute to musicals. The lack of African-Americans on the program ends as he's joined by Beyonce. Wait a minute, it's Jackman live and Beyonce lip-synching? Some "Mamma Mia" and "High School Musical" people help. Jackman concludes with "The musical is back!" to a sitting O!























Best Supporting Actor is next. The 5 previous winners are Christopher Walken (with crooked bowtie), Kevin Kline, Alan Arkin, Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Joel Grey. Arkin calls him "Seymour Philip Hoffman". Tee hee. Walken introducing Michael Shannon is either luck of the draw or an intentional passing of the torch. Ledger is introduced terrifically by Kline. Of course, Ledger wins and Heath Ledger's family (Mom, Dad and sister) accept the award and I know that's a rarity. Well done.

Documentary 2008. I like docs. The famous Maysles Brothers direct the montage in which each nominated director discusses the art form. I've actually watched Maysles Brothers movies. Bill Maher is on to present. Of course, "Man on Wire" wins. How could it not? Even Petit shows up and does a little magic and balances the Oscar on his chin. Documentary Short Subject is "Smile Pinki", which I think I saw late night on Cinemax.

The Action montage is shown over "Tick...Tick...Tick" by The Hives. Let's see we get Jolie in "Wanted", the Hulk, Batman, Hancock, Bond, Iron Man and...Frank Martin!!! Will Smith then presents the award for Visual Effects. Somehow "Benjamin Button" wins. Sound Editing is next and goes to "The Dark Knight". I think I just heard ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky" for some reason. Is that in my head, WTF? Spreading the wealth in these post-production awards, "Slumdog Millionaire" gets the Sound Mixing award. Will Smith makes modern Oscar history by presenting his 4th consecutive award to "Slumdog Millionaire' for Film Editing.























Next up, Eddie Murphy presents the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Jerry Lewis. We get a Lewis montage over another Coldplay song. Lewis has been raising money for MDA for a long time now. The total? Over $2 billion. A standing O for Jerry, who delivers an uncommonly humble speech for him. Very classy.

Alicia Keys and some guy (OK, it's Zac Efron) present Original Score to A.R. Rahman for "Slumdog Millionaire". He is onstage really fast, like The Sidler from "Seinfeld". Give him some Tic-Tacs. Only 3 nominees for Best Song. Now I know why Rahman was so quick. He's handling duties for the 2 "Slumdog" songs. John Legend takes over for Peter Gabriel on the "Wall-E" song. Rahman wins again for "Jai Ho", which sounds like a Ricky Martin reject. If you haven't figured it out by now, the "Slumdog" sweep appears imminent.

Foreign Language Film goes to "Departures". It is from Japan. Didn't see it. "Domo arigato, Jose Canseco."

Dead People Scroll with Queen Latifah singing, "I'll Be Seeing You". I guess so we don't clap for the deaths of dead people. Paul Newman should be last, right? Hey, "Brooks was here". Has anyone tried to get that gun from Chuck Heston's cold hands yet? I'm just sayin'. Big ups for Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, too. But Newman was last. Another bet won by that "Domo arigato" guy, I bet.























Next up, Reese Witherspoon hands out best Director. Danny Boyle (Dan-nay!) hops up and down like Tigger when he wins for "Slumdog Millionaire". He even complimented the broadcast and I agree with him...this year's changes are shockingly aggressive and, by God, they worked.

The 5 former Best Actresses to present are: Sophia Loren, Shirley MacLaine, Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman and last year's winner, Marie Cotilliard. They get a standing O and lots of wolf whistles. Kate Winslet gets it for "The Reader". Finally, she worked on a speech.




















The 5 former Best Actors to present are: Robert DeNiro, Ben Kingsley, Michael Douglas, Anthony Hopkins and Adrien Brody. They get a standing O, too! Sean Penn wins for "Milk" and gets to blast Prop 8, compliment Obama and say how great Mickey Rourke is.

Gee, the three big awards without a commercial break! Steven Spielberg is on to present Best Picture. The nominees actually have some clips shown. The winner is "Slumdog Millionaire". And I really don't like these award shows where entire casts go on stage and it's the first time I can remember where the Oscars allowed it. Maybe just this once for India, but that's it, OK?

Well, tonight's show with a final preview of 2009 movies over the closing credits accompanied by Beck doing Dylan's "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box-Hat" clocked in at 3:30. Not bad.

Don't know if the ratings will reflect it, but the pace of tonight's show was great. Did Hugh Jackman really host it? He wasn't around all that much. But the audience was closer to the stage, so awards were accepted quickly. Shorter commercial breaks. Multiple award presenters saved time on lots of unnecessary introductions. The speeches, even the longer ones, seemed crisper. Music and dance numbers not so annoyingly long. I think whoever produced it, looked at where they could save time and they did a helluva job.

Could we do without the 5 presenters for the acting awards? Maybe. It would have been nice to see some clips. Especially if you hadn't seen the movies in question. Let's see the numbers in a couple of days.