Oscars!

I'm guessing a big night for No Country for Old Men: picture, director, adapted screenplay, supporting and a lot of the technical stuff.

Otherwise, I'll take the chalk: Daniel Day-Lewis, Julie Christie, Ruby Dee.

Beyond that, I'll be posting in the comments section over at The Irish Trojan.

Update: Nothing like 1) Stewart bombing with three atrocious political jokes in a row before recovering slightly with his black/woman President asteroid thing, and 2) Amy Adams lip-synching as poorly as a guest on the old Brady Bunch Variety Hour.

A whole hour, and no crapping about global warming. A record?

Update: Tilda Swinton, in the first stunner of the night. Tough category--I saw every performance except Ruby Dee's, all four were exemplary, and Dee was supposed to win.

The Coens, best screenplay: The first sign it might be a big night for No Country For Old Men. (Bardem was a stand-alone.)

Update:And while we're at it, what about the sorry state of film songs? Best Song once went to classics like "When You Wish Upon a Star" and "Somewhere over the Rainbow." As recent as two decades ago, "Footloose" competed with "Against All Odds" competed with . . .

HOLY CRAP! Marie Cotillard?

Anyone with the Swinton-Cotillard parlay?

Okay, back to my original point. Do you realize there was a time that "You're the One That I Want" from "Grease" didn't crack the top five? Or "Grease," the song itself? Or that none of the original songs the Bee Gees wrote for "Saturday Night Fever" earned a nomination?

This time? I suppose the catchy reggae-ish Kristin Chenoweth song from "Enchanted" is catchy. And that thing about the kid musician. Catchy. That's it.
And we'll never hear these songs again.

(Thought, a day later: I saw that spikey little song from Juno performed live (well, live at the event)--not the one about how could anyone want anyone else, but the one about never meeting a boy named Troy she didn't like. It blew away the five on Oscar night, both in composition and delivery. Geez, what's with this Academy? Or was the song not written for the movie?)

Update: Okay--Stewart redeems himself majorly by bringing the girl from best song back to talk.

I'm with Brendan Loy (over at Irish Trojan) re the long, unfunny routines, the endless segments, etc. But to be specific, the worst--the really only truly unforgivable--aspect of each Oscars telecast is the shutting off of the microphone just as the One Winner Too Many steps forward. That tactic is a disgrace, especially given how unfairly it is dispensed. Adrien Brody can shush Bill Conti's orchestra so he might speak two, three, four minutes long. Julia Roberts can speak so long she might be filibustering the Voting Rights Act, and people can marvel at her "spunk." But let the second winning Art Director try to say hello to her children, and not only does the orchestra start up, they shut off the freaking mike , thus maximizing the humiliation toward this poor person at the precise apex of that person's professional life.

If this will continue, never mind Stewart or Goldberg or even Chris Rock. Assign Chuck Barris the permanent host and be done with it.

Stewart isn't having a good night. But his gesture toward that poor embarrassed woman makes up for everything.