On Oscar Night

The public outcry for a blog about the Oscars was so loud (thanks, Casey!) that I thought I would oblige, even though I'm late. I did have a draft in my box regarding my favorite moment of the Oscars, but I decided the ceremony, as a whole, deserved a critique.



Jon Stewart
Best Joke: Regarding Norbit's nomination for make-up. "Too often the Academy ignores movies that aren't good."

Runner up: Regarding the effects of the Strike. "The Vanity Fair party was canceled out of respect for the writers. You know how you could also show respect of the writers? Invite them to the Vanity Fair Oscar party. They'd enjoy it."

Fashion
Best dress: Markéta Irglová, could be my girl crush though. It was modest and cool in the front and the back was cut out. I want it!











Runner up: Marion Cotillard, mermaid done right.














Worst dressed: Mrs. Daniel Day Lewis, one hopes this dress was worn ironically but I fear the worst.










Runner up: Cameron Diaz, why was she there again?










Speeches
Best: Markéta Irglová and Glen Hassard Glen "Make art! Make art! Markéta: "No matter how far out your dreams are, they can become true…fair play to those who dare to dream and don’t give up…" Cue my tears.

Runner Up: Marion Cotillard "Thank you life, thank you love. It is true there are some angels in this city." If anyone but her would have said this, my eyes would have fallen out from a violent eye roll. But she pulled it off (could have been the accent, could have been the genuine joy) and a new girl crush was born.

Second runner up: Tilda Swinton, "and George Clooney, you know, the seriousness and the dedication to your art, seeing you climb into that rubber bat suit from Batman and Robin, the one with the nipples, every morning under your costume, on the set, off the set, hanging upside-down at lunch, you rock,man." She is just creepy enough to make fun of George and get away with it. Pretty funny. . . and unexpected.

Moments
Best: John Stewart bringing Markéta Irglová back out after the orchestra mistakenly played her off. Very classy Jon.

Runner up: Daniel Day Lewis getting knighted with Oscar by last year's winner for The Queen, Helen Mirren. Funny and weirdly appropriate.


Awards:
Most deserved: Daniel Day-Lewis. He was the front-runner and for good reason. Even George knew it and conceded by giving him a kiss...

Runner Up: "Falling Slowly" from Once. After watching all the songs being performed, it was clear that all that over-produced musical muck deserved to get beat by simple piano and guitar.

What the hell?: Tilda Swinton, Best Supporting Actress. She was in the movie for like five minutes, and she is no Judi Dench. I was rooting for Amy Ryan for Gone Baby Gone. If you haven't seen that, stop reading and go watch. Now.

Not Cool: Producer Scott Rudin gave a heartfelt thanks to his partner "Thanks to my partner, John Barlow. Without you, honey, this is just hardware." We didn't get the obligatory reaction shot of John looking proud and teary, which we normally see when people (especially significant others) are name checked in thank yous. Get with it Oscar.

Best back stage report: From USA Today, Glen and Markéta played with their won statues. Glen said: “Let’s put them together, like if they are kissing each other.” Marketa: “But they are two boys!” Glen: “But this is Hollywood!” Ho ho ho. Those two.

Random: I was reading ew.com's live Oscar blog as I watched and it was also very entertaining. My favorite blog post of the night came when Javier Bardem won his well-deserved Best Supporting Actor award and he finished the rest of his speech in Spanish. Then on the blog, EW's Annie Barret did her own translation of what he said. "I am so sexy so sexy so sexy so sexy adios." Oh man, I laughed. Doubly so when Aggen decided to just text "Ovaries" to Jared, as a result of being immensely attracted to Javier Bardem.