2009 Oscars Liveblog

8:12 - I think Taraji P. Henson's dress is my favorite so far. Tim Gunn is a much better pre-show host than Ryan Seacrest and Ben Lyons.

8:30 - What's up with the music? Lawrence of Arabia theme in big band-style? Terrible. Oh, Hugh Jackman looks dashing. Here's the opening bit. Oh, no, no recession jokes, please. Oscars = escapism, the ultimate form of in fact. I can worry about the economy again tomorrow.

8:38 - Okay, that was pretty good, actually, Hugh Jackman acting out all the movies. Anne Hathaway was wonderful as well. Hugh to Mickey Rourke: "We're on an 8-second delay, but if you win we're switching to a 20-second delay."

8:45 - Fifteen minutes in and they really haven't given out an award yet? I mean, seriously?

8:47 - Performance by an actress in a supporting role: Penélope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” Saw that one coming. Wouldn't have been my choice, I suspect this is more one of those wins actors get because of their general respect in the community as opposed to the specific performance.

8:54 - Oh snap, did Tina Fey and Steve Martin just make a Scientology joke? Ha! Awesome.

8:56 - Original screenplay: “Milk” Saw that one coming, too. Eh. I mean, whatever, I would rather see this award go to a wholly original story rather than a biopic. But I'm digging Justin Lance Black's speech.

9:01 - Adapted screenplay: “Slumdog Millionaire” Oh hell yes. Well deserved. Oh my, Simon Beaufoy just thanked "Dev and Latika"...Latika being the character played by Freida Pinto. Awkward.

9:07 - Best animated feature film of the year: “WALL-E” Also awkward, Jennifer Aniston trying to do the Wall-E voice when announcing. Another well-deserved win. Not unexpected in the least, though.

9:09 - Best animated short film: “La Maison en Petits Cubes” Hey, first surprise of the night! I thought Presto was a lock. Wow, that may be my new favorite Oscar speech ever...halting English capped off with "Domo arigato Mr. Roboto."

9:15 - Sarah Jessica Parker and Daniel Craig presenting together? That's random.

9:17 - Achievement in art direction: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

9:20 - Achievement in costume design: “The Duchess” Oh, awesome! The costumes for that film were gorgeous, so that makes me happy.

9:23 - Achievement in makeup: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” Aww, he thanked New Orleans.

9:25 - Robert Pattinson and Amanda Seyfried presenting together! Too cute. "2008 in Romance" = most ridiculous montage ever? Seriously.

9:32 - Ha, Joaquin Phoenix joke. Natalie Portman to Ben Stiller-as-Joaquin: "You look like you work at a Hassidic meth lab." Achievement in cinematography: “Slumdog Millionaire”

9:41 - Commercial for "The Soloist" - so looking forward to that film. But it said it's coming out April 24, wasn't it supposed to be in March? Did it get delayed again?

9:45 - "2008 in Comedy" - I think I spoke too soon when I said "2008 in Romance" was the most ridiculous montage ever. What is this shit? Are these bits the "big secret surprises" the Oscar producers were hinting at for this year?

9:47 - Best live action short film: “Spielzeugland (Toyland)”

9:56 - As cute as Amanda Seyfried is all Marlena Deitriched up, I am so over montages both movie and musical. This needed to be a tight minute and a half, not a bloated five minutes. Oh, god, my beloved Baz Luhrmann was responsible for that dreck? Ouch.

10:05 - What a motley crew of presenters. Alan Alda, Cuba Gooding Jr, Christopher Walken, Joel Grey? Man, this just reminds me that Robert Downey Jr. so would have won for best actor had The Soloist not been bumped to '09. Performance by an actor in a supporting role: Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight” Like it was ever gonna go any other way. Well done. Whoah, close ups on Brad Pitt and Adrien Brody with teary eyes during Heath's dad's speech. Wow, RDJ, too. Heath's sister is talking, Angelina's crying. Wow.

10:15 - Bill Maher presenting documentary: "Thank you very much, everyone's crying and now I have to go on." Best documentary feature: “Man on Wire” Oh god that dude just did a coin trick, then balanced his Oscar on his chin.

10:18 - Best documentary short subject: “Smile Pinki”

10:28 - Achievement in visual effects: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” Would have been nice to see Iron Man get some love, but for all of Benjamin Button's flaws, I have to admit the visuals were amazing.

10:29 - Achievement in sound editing: “The Dark Knight” Hm. I think Wall-E still deserved it more.

10:30 - The smaller prizes are almost dispatched of, meaning the night can finally start heating up. Achievement in sound mixing: “Slumdog Millionaire” What, you thought Wanted was gonna get it? Oh wow, I think this guy is gonna have a panic attack right here on stage. Cut to Jennifer Aniston and a very douchey looking John Mayer...what is up with that creepy thin mustache? Ew.

10:35 - Achievement in film editing: “Slumdog Millionaire” What a haul for the underDog so far! Thought Button would get it, happy to be wrong.

10:37 - What in the...are they really playing out to commercial using Aimee Mann's "Momentum"? Random! I mean, awesome, I love that song, it's giving me flashbacks to 2002 when I was way into Aimee Mann, and sure, it's a movie song (from the Magnolia soundtrack), but still...random!

10:42 - Oh, hey, it's the In Memorium segment...wait, Jerry Lewis isn't dead yet? Oh. Nevermind. Wow, I am going to hell for saying this, but Jerry looks terrible. I feel like he and Dick Clark are on this horrible race to the grave. Speaking of unnecessarily morbid observations, over at DHD, Nikki Finke has declared: "The show has been on for 2 hours now. I've officially lost the will to live."

10:54 - Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score): “Slumdog Millionaire”

10:56 - Still weird Springsteen didn't get a nod for Wrestler for best song. Wait, what the shit is this - are they really performing the Wall-E song as a mashup of gospel and Bollywood? What? What in the hell? Oh cripes. What now, they're mashup up Jai Ho and Down to Earth? Oh god this is making my ears bleed. That was a hotass mess.

11:01 - Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song): “Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar Gotta admit that song is catchy.

11:07 - I love Freida Pinto's dress. Best foreign language film of the year: “Departures”

11:11 - Queen Latifah singing "I'll Be Seeing You" over the In Memoriam montage is so, so very wrong.

11:19 - Here we go, time for the heavy hardware. Wow, Reese Witherspoon's dress is ugly...it looks kind of like Kate Winslet's, but ugly.

11:21 - That is some crazy loud applause for all the nominees. Achievement in directing: “Slumdog Millionaire” Hell yeah. Hope this isn't one of those nights where one movie (Slumdog) gets everything but something else (Milk?) gets the big prize, that would make me sad.

11:29 - Performance by an actress in a leading role: Kate Winslet in “The Reader” YES!!!!! YES!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

11:35 - What a lovely speech by a lovely actress. Unbelievable. She looked lovely, from her chic coiffed hair to her sparkly bracelet to her unusual and stunning dress.

11:43 - Wait, I love Adrian Brody, but why of all things is he talking about Google? And hey, random, Robert Pattinson and Tina Fey are sitting behind Mickey Rourke. Performance by an actor in a leading role: Sean Penn in “Milk” Holy shit check that out, it's the only real surprise of the night. Eh, I wasn't impressed by his performance, plus I was looking forward to a weirdo Rourke speech. Penn says: "You commie-loving homo sons of guns." "I do know how hard I make it to appreciate me...often."

11:49 - Here we go...

11:51 - It's kind of neat how they're interspersing complimentary older movie clips with the current nominees. it's the first "fancy" "new" think they've tried that actually makes sense.

11:53 - Best motion picture of the year: “Slumdog Millionaire” !!!!!!! Proof of a just god.

So we come to the end. An Oscars with very few surprises, to be sure, but I'll take a predictable Oscars where something like Slumdog sweeps over a surprising Oscars where dreck like Crash wins. Here's hoping next year combines unpredictability with deserving wins. Watchmen, anyone?