Oscar show highlights

I'll be updating this post throughout the evening. Updates in reverse-chronological order:

- That's it for me. It's been fun, folks. Have a good evening!

- And the final award of the evening is about to be announced. It's Slumdog.

- "I am very, very proud to live in a country that is willing to elect an elegant man president."

- "I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that way of support. We've got to have equal rights for everyone."

- "You commie, homo-loving sons of guns. I did not expect this, and I want it to be very clear that I do know how hard I make it to appreciate me often, but I am touched by the appreciation."

- Sean Penn wins for Milk! Awesome.

- Richard Jenkins was awesome in The Visitor, a little-seen film that I happened to see. My advice to everyone: See it. It's incredible.

- Will it be Sean Penn or Mickey Rourke???

- Kate Winslet takes the Best Actress award, as expected. It's always fun to watch the expressions of the other nominees. Makes me recall Warren Beatty's shocked reaction in 1980 when Chariots of Fire came out of nowhere to beat both Reds and On Golden Pond for best picture.

- The comments from each of the Best Actress presenters to the nominees are pretty nice.

- When the five former Best Actress winners came out to present this year's nominees and winner, why were they playing the theme from Gone With the Wind?

- Okay, it's 10:25 PM (CT), and they just went to commercial saying the awards for actor and actress -- and picture -- are upcoming. Looks like the show will complete within 3.5 hours.

- Danny Boyle takes the directing Oscar for Slumdog and jumps up and down on the stage in the spirit of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh!

- Reese Witherspoon looks like she has two black eyes!

- I'm just informed that Heath Ledger was in last year's Oscar obituaries.

- Did they include Heath Ledger in the montage of dead people? And didn't some other award show not include him and get flack for that?

- Roy Scheider, Sydney Pollock... I'd forgotten these folks had passed away.

- Nice touch having Queen Latifah singing "I'll Be Seeing You" during the montage of folks who died over the past year.

- Time for the dead people!

- Okay, it's 10:10 PM (CT), and they just went to commercial saying the awards for actor and actress are upcoming. If that's really true, this show may end up not going 4 hours!!

- I predicted the foreign language film wrong... or maybe I should say I guessed it wrong.

- Someone needs to tell Zak Efron that a song has lyrics and not just one lyric. When announcing the nominees for Best Song (which Slumdog took, big surprise), he kept saying "Music by [...] and lyric by [...]." Okay, maybe I'm just getting tired and cranky.

- Disappointing year for Original Song nominees. I still have last year's Oscars on my DVR for the top-notch performances of "Falling Slowly" from Once and "That's How You Know" from Enchanted.

- Slumdog wins its 10-millionth award of the evening for Original Score.

- The music from Wall-E is quite beautiful.

- Did you catch the evil eye that Sean Penn gave during Jerry Lewis' acceptance speech? Perhaps this was in response to the anti-gay slur that Jerry Lewis made during his telethon last Labor Day.

- A tribute to Jerry Lewis is upcoming. I just had to check to wikipedia to find out if he was still alive, which I suspected -- and which he is. Well, at least he's someone we've heard of. Nothing worse than an Oscar tribute to someone we've never heard of, which does happen.

- Tradition rules in the Film Editing category: Slumdog takes it. I had predicted The Dark Knight here.

- Film Editing is up next. Traditionally, the winner of this category wins Best Picture. So, Slumdog would look to be a shoe-in. But in recent years, it's gone to more of a big budget flick. (Example here.)

- I was wrong! Slumdog takes Sound Mixing.

- The Dark Knight beats Slumdog in the category of Sound Editing. I predict it will also take Sound Mixing.

- Button takes its 3rd -- and I predict last -- award of the evening, this time for Visual Effects.

- Surprised that the MLK-Jr. documentary short (The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306) lost out to Smile Pinky!

- The Oscar-balancing-on-your-chin act was pretty cool!

- Man on Wire takes the documentary award... this looks like a good one. I'll need to watch it at my brother-in-law's, since he received the DVD as a birthday gift.

- Oh boy! Bill Maher... I thought he would have been even edgier -- and funnier -- than he was.

- Nice how Heath Ledger's sister mentioned his baby daughter: "We proudly accept this award on behalf of your beautiful Matilda."

- Plenty of tears in the audience close-ups as Heath Ledger's family speaks.

- Nice how Heath Ledger's family was there to accept his Oscar.

- We're getting ready for the most emotional part of the evening: The Oscar for Heath Ledger. Get your kleenex ready.

- Christopher Walken at the Oscars WITHOUT a scarf around his neck! Whaddaya know!

- What was with the musical number pulling together lyrics from famous musicals? Oscar filler is there ever was Oscar filler. Put together by Baz Luhrmann, the man responsible for the underwhelming flick Australia.

- The best thing about Spielzuegland winning Best Short Film was James Franco trying to pronounce it.

- James Franco confusing The Love Guru with Slumdog Millionaire! That was funny. And Robert Downey, Jr. with Barack Obama. This sketch was okay... similar to those "Digital Shorts" on SNL. I recommend more of these!!

- Biggest lie of the evening: A Charter Communications commercial claiming they have "better customer service." Compared to what, I ask?

- I rushed back to my laptop from the kitchen for nothing. Just some talk about some scientific and technical awards winner held two weeks ago. Whatever. Back to the kitchen to get my chicken wings.

- Slumdog takes its second award of the evening for cinematography. No surprise here.

- Ben Stiller doing Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman! And chewing gum at the Oscars. And looking away. And having to be reminded when it was his turn to speak. And mentioning that he'd heard that Slumdog Millionaire was shot entirely on a cellphone! Hilarious!

- Ick. Button is a double-winner tonight with Best Makeup. Would have been kind of funny if "Hellboy 2" had beaten it! I'm not sure it was the make-up that made Brad Pitt look young, anyway. I bet it was the computer.

- Costume Design goes to The Duchess, which I predicted because I'd read that it was a shoe-in. Couldn't pay me to see it, though.

- Benjamin Button wins Art Direction, as expected. Too bad, though. Too much of this corny flick looked painted with computers. Revolutionary Road, despite being terribly depressing, was way more deserving.

- Sarah Jessica Parker: She was GREAT in Sex & the City, a very underrated flick. Looking forward to its sequel, which is currently being written according to Parker in an interview on the red carpet.

- Best Animated Short Film: I can't pronounce the name. But it wasn't what I predicted.

- Wall-E wins best animated flick, as I predicted. It was the snob cartoon of the year. I fell asleep during it. Bolt was TONS better. Didn't see Kung Fu Panda.

- The show seems "more intimate" this year. Tighter close-ups of the presenters and audience. Nice.

- Adapted Screenplay goes to Slumdog, as I predicted. Undeserving, in my opinion.

- Milk is an Academy Award winner with its Best Original Screenplay award! Very cool.

- Steve Martin and Tina Fey were hilarious together. "Hello, I'm Steve Martin... And I'm Tina Fey... And I'm Steve Martin."

- Penelope Cruz takes the Best Supporting Actress! Yeah! She was great in Vicki Cristina Barcelona.

- Nice how they announced the nominees of the Best Supporting Actress award. Definitely a different feel than the norm!

- Cool how they had five past winners of the Best Supporting Actress award give out this year's award.

- Hugh Jackman accusing Meryl Streep of using steroids in support of her record 15 Academy Award nominations.

- "Confess to me... Why can't you let this be? Give me my dignity! Look what you've done to me!! You're a worthy adversary... Why is your upper lip so sweaty? Mr. Frost, I think I love you. Oh, Nixon, you know I love you, too!"

- Hugh Jackman's musical tribute to the top films of the year was fun!