Wow! Nice job with the Oscars this year. Didn’t run overtime, not too weepy and self-indulgent, also didn’t pretend people weren’t having emotional moments or that the war doesn’t exist; nice to see the older stars like Olivia de Havilland; yay for Peter O’Toole; congratulations for Adrien Brody, and welcome to the club!
Don’t care so much about which movies or people won or not, because I haven’t seen any of them, but that’s just me.
Definitely one of the most entertaining Oscar® telecasts in years. Michael Moore is a big fat idiot, but every show needs its jaw-droppingly tacky moment, so nice job on that one Mike. (Adrien Brody was much more moving, and far less calculating, addressing a similar topic.)
Roman Polanski? Pedro Almodovar? Chris Cooper? Great choices all, but not at all expected. I love a show full of surprises.
Michael Moore being Michael Moore was my favorite moment of the night.
I’m sorry Eminem didn’t show up.
Sure Michael Moore’s outburst was a bit tacky (though hilarious) but you know tommorrow a lot of those same people who were booing will be back up on their pedestals mouthing off, asshole hypocrites that they are.
Steve Martin was freakin’ hilarious! As usual. But even better than two years ago. I hope they will bring him back again.
The most shocking thing to me wasn’t Michael Moore - I KNEW he was going to do that.
What shocked me was that he was literally booed off the stage - in HOLLYWOOD. How wacked out do you have to be to get booed off the stage in Hollywood?
The best part of the Oscars was Kirk and Michael Douglas’s father-son act. Touching, funny, and perfectly timed.
So did Jack Nicholson and Nicholas Cage actually have dates, or were they just there with each other?
I thought the best part was Brody planting a big one on Halle Berry. (I looooooved her gown!)
The worst part was probably pulling the mike away from that group of guys who won one of the technical awards early on (I forget which one). It seems to me that the amount of time you get to say your thank-yous ought to be directly proportional to the number of people who’ve won the award. Very bad form to cut off the last guy like that.
Some random thoughts:
Steve Martin (who was great!) missed the perfect opportunity! He should have worn (or at least referenced) his Roxanne prosthetic when joking about Nicole Kidman’s nose in The Hours.
Speaking of: What’s up with there being only two nominees in the “Makeup” category? Surely there were other films that qualified! Kidman’s nose in The Hours. Everyone in The Two Towers, Chicago, Gangs of New York.
I like how when Mira Sorvino got tongue-tangled, she thanked some of the audience for laughing along with her. It sucks when you mess up like that and everyone is stone-faced.
When on stage to present an award, Susan Sarandon unexpectedly restrained herself to just a “peace” hand signal. No speechifying or protesting. THAT was the biggest surprise of the evening for me.
I like how they showed replays of the winners’ reactions. Cathrine Zeta Jones didn’t look at all surprised (the surprise would have been if she lost), but Adrian Brody looked totally caught off guard.
Catherine Zeta Jones is the hottest pregnant woman I’ve ever seen!
The lack of makeup nominees may have something to do with the fact that aren’t a lot of makeup artists who vote, so they the award may not get full consideration.
Sound effects editing and visual effects usually only have 2-3 nominees also.
The Scientific and Technical Awards were presented at a separate ceremony three weeks ago. Two videotaped clips from that ceremony (the two Class I winners, who got Oscar statuettes) were shown on Sunday’s Oscar telecast.
This is a pet peeve of mine: Please do not refer to such awards as photography, editing, sound, or sound effects editing (i.e., the creation of sound effects) as “technical awards”. They are artistic awards.
No, that’s not why. Academy rules allow a maximum of only three nominees for the makeup award.
It’s actually a two-step nomination process. The makeup and hairstylists branch meets to nominate up to seven films as semi-finalists. Then the producers submit film clips that highlight the makeup and hairstyle achievements of those films. Next, to quote the official rules,
A similar process is followed for Visual Effects, although in that case the visual effects branch has a steering committee nominate up to seven semi-finalists, which are then viewed by the Visual Effects branch members and voted down to three finalists.
Steve Martin was perfect. Of course Michael Moore was going to do what he did; Martin’s remarks afterwards totally cracked me up.
Loved watching Peter O’Toole and Olivia de Havilland. Such class and graciousness.
Enjoyed seeing Chris Cooper’s thank you speech early on. I thought that his and Susan Sarandon’s simple messages for peace were much more eloquent than any others.
What did Moore say and what were Martin’s remarks? My friend called just when they were giving that award and I couldn’t get him to shut up.
Max, Moore said:
“I’ve invited my fellow documentary nominees on stage with us here in solidarity with me because we like non-fiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man who’s sending us to war for fictitious reasons, whether it’s the fiction of duct tape or the fiction of orange alerts. … We have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. We are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you.”
Martin said something liike, “The Teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the truck on his limo right now.”
I agree with Caprese that Sarandon’s message was well done. Moore came off looking like an idiot to a room full of people who probably agree with much of what he said. I don’t think they booed him for his opinion as much as the presentation and timing of it.
Nicole Kidman is gorgeous - as is Catherin Zeta-Jones.
Okay, has anyone else noticed this? Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger often have red hands? They are both fair skinned (from what I can tell). I noticed the red hands in Chicago when Renee put her hands near her face. Her face is so light and her hands were very pink. Same with Nicole Kidman. What causes this and has anyone else noticed this?
Tibs.
Max, here is one report on Moore’s speech: Michael Moore Criticises War In Oscar Speech.
I tried to find a site that had a sound clip, but failed.
What was that that was tossed onstage when Steve Martin was doing his iiintroductory monologue?
I was practically braindead while watching as I stayed up all night to see them. Can somone fill me in on the context of the cellphone being thrown on stage? Was that an accident or did whoever Steve Martin was teasing just then throw it at him?
Woo hoo, great minds think alike pugluvr 
pugluvr, from what I understand, it was a cell phone. It had to do with him saying “gay mafia”, I think. Anyone know more about that?
T