A few things to say after the fact
Working from notes hastily typed during commercial breaks…
A preshow interviewer asked the little girl from Whale Rider which celebrity she was most looking forward to meeting, she said Johnny Depp. He asked why. You know, it’s been years since I was a 13 year-old girl…but I knew the answer to that question.
I’m officially sick of Billy Crystal’s “insert myself into the nominate movies” opening montages, especially in films like Monster and Mystic River, in the context of which his mugging is really bad taste. Thought he redeemed himself with the monologue and medley though. His joke about the vile Rumsfeld’s fave movie being “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” was funny, but “The Fog of War” would have been the edgier choice.
Thought Tim Robbins was very well spoken, but I expected nothing less.
My prediction average took a beating with Renee Zellweger. And how classy was it to cut to a shot of Nicole Kidman with a Joker-like grimace, just when she mentioned Tom?
Ok, here’s what happened. I walked back into the TV room. Saw Stiller and Wilson walking out. Noted what each was wearing. Said, “Cue jokes about how ‘we said we were coming in costume.”
I liked Anne Lennox’s performance tonight a little more than on the CD. She looks like she might have had work done, though.
Very nice tribute to Blake Edwards–slapstick entrance worked a treat. Nice to see a little life in one of those things–great speech, too.
It’s hideously inappropriate to laugh during the “in memoriam” montage, but you gotta love whoever decided to put director-rat Elia Kazan’s name right before director-Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl…
Is it just me or was there a post-Janet paranoia on the part of the director tonight about breasts? I could swear that every time they had a presenter (Angelina Jolie, Jamie Lee Curtis) who was, shall we say, blessed in that department, they zoomed in. So as to be above the nipple line as soon as possible, you see. But, that may just be a comment on where I was looking.
God bless Levy and O’Hara for doing the “Mighty Wind” song in character.
Jack Black & Will Ferrell were really funny.
Didn’t get the tie I was hoping for in best adapted screenplay but it’s not that kinda night. Return of the King had a streak–a record tying streak, it turns out–with Ben Hur and Titanic for the most Oscars in one night (11).
As you know, I was hoping for Nemo over Translation in original screenplay, but it was cool to have Sofia Coppola give a shout out to Bob Fosse.
Sorta missed on the best-score prediction–I was hoping for Nemo, but as I said Return of the King is a damn fine second.
I’m convinced that there must have been some bitching and remorse after Charlize Theron failed to mention Christina Ricci when she won the Golden Globe–at every award since (including this one), she’s scrupulously done so.
Hey, an actual surprise! I picked Bill Murray but, as I said, having just seen Mystic River this afternoon I can’t tell you Sean Penn didn’t deserve an Oscar. Good speech, too.
