Live Blogging the 2008 Academy Awards, Part 2

Jennifer Garner presents the first award, for costume design.
Winner: Alexandra Byrne for Elizabeth, The Golden Age
God count: 0
Speech Grade: A+ , short, succinct, sincere

As they cut to commercial, first they show a clip of Barbra Streisand's speech when she won an Oscar. First thing Babs said was "Hello Gorgeous" as she took hold of her award. Is this something they're doing all night? Reflecting back on previous speeches from years past? If so, I dearly hope to GOD they air some of Greer Garson's speech. Apparently she spoke for 8 minutes and trashed damn near everyone in Hollywood. I can't find a transcript of it anywhere. Now that would be something to see!

George Clooney :-
He gets a joke in about the Oscars always being a long night. Small laugh. Anyway, George introduces clips covering some highlights from the past 80 years of Oscars. Great to see some of these old clips from previous shows.

And now we're back to suffering through Jon Stewart. Thankfully he's not on very long.

Anne Hathaway and Steve Carell are presenting for Animated Features
Steve, like Jon, is still stuck on the politics of the day. He's trying to be funny but failing. Some in the audience are laughing but it sounds more like they're uncomfortable than enjoying Steve. The Oscars really needs to follow the example set by the BAFTA show. They do this much better and keep it shorter too.
Winner: Ratatouille (Brad Bird)
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: C, thanked his high school guidance counsellor, but it was sort of interesting. A little too long. He's now run out of time to thank people by name. They force him off the stage.

Katherine Heigl presenting for ???...oh, it's for Makeup
Heigl made me forget what the hell she was presenting for due to this mini-rant....."please forgive me I'm very nervous and not very good at this". Right. She never has a problem shooting her mouth off anywhere else. Plea for sympathy AND attention. She's pretty desperate for recognition.
Winner: La Vie En Rose ( a man and a woman, no idea who they are)
God count: 0
Speech Grade: A, two people and they both kept it succinct but the damn band really cut them off quickly. Not fair!

Jon Stewart is back to introduce one of the nominated songs. Amy Adams is now on singing the song from Enchanted, called "Happy Working Song". She has the perfect voice for this. Too cute. She changed her dress for this performance. Short, perky song.

Now they're showing clips again from the former acceptance speeches of Michael Douglas and his wife Catherine Zeta Jones. She doesn't remember him winning and he said it's because she wasn't born yet. Ha ha! Well, at least he can joke about it. And we're onto commercials again. It's now 30 minutes into the show.

Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) presenting for Best Visual Effects
Winner: The Golden Compass (4 men)
God count: 0
Speech Grade: B, small quote from Walt Disney, followed by everyone thanking a few people but at least they all kept it short. Not bad at all.

Cate Blanchett is presenting for Art Direction
She's wearing a very unique and lovely purple dress. Not exactly Oscar calibre but it's pretty.
Winner: Sweeney Todd (a man and a woman)
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: A, because they both seem like very nice people and Johnny Depp was willing them to manage their speeches with his eyes from the audience. Anybody who Depp supports deserves an A probably.
By the way, Johnny Depp's suit is extremely spiffy for him. Really nice with a bit of uniqueness to it. Same as Viggo and Daniel Day Lewis, they all chose a suit a bit apart from the standard and all three suited each of them perfectly. Outstanding attire for Viggo and Johnny.

Jennifer Hudson is presenting for Best Supporting Actor
Winner: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: A+! Elegant, funny, touching, and really freaking fast talking!!! But he definitely was prepared. He did a fantastic job. Didn't thank one person who didn't deserve to be thanked either. Half of it in Spanish to give a special thanks to his Mom. Bravo Javier!

Jon Stewart wasting more time with stupidity. Ugh.

Keri Russell is introducing a song from her movie, August Rush. The song is called "Raise it Up". Performers include piano player/singer with choir, various soloists in the choir for different parts. Everyone is dressed in black pants or skirts with white tops or white blouses. Minor dance routine but it's mostly about the song and singing. Not bad. I liked the first song better.

Owen Wilson is presenting for Best Live Action Short Film
Winner: Le Mozart des Pickpockets (1 man)
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: A, despite being very nervous and not having very good english, he did an excellent job. Short, succinct and sincere. Half in english and half in french.

A cartoon/animated bumblebee character, in Jerry Seinfeld's voice, is presenting for Best Animated Short Film
Winner: Peter and the Wolf (1 man and 1 woman)
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: A+. Both of them thanked people and stuck to those who mattered. Short and sweet.

They're showing more film clips from previous years showing former winners of Best Supporting Actress awards.

Alan Arkin is presenting for Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: B- Semi-entertaining. Neither elegant nor succinct but it was definitely sincere. She spoke well and had a couple of laughs. But it all felt 'off' somehow. Plus, she said she's giving her Oscar to her American Agent. That's sort of a slap in the face of the Academy I think. Jeez.

Jessica Alba presented previously the Oscars for various Best Technical Awards, lots of them. I'm not listing them here because I cannot type that fast!

Jon is back and now he's commenting on the pregnant actresses and Jack Nicholson being there. Ha ha h....nah.

Josh Brolin and James MacAvoy are co-presenting for Best Screenplay based on material previously produced or published. Whew, that's a big title. These two had the first interesting introduction of the night. Each of them are very engaging men in their own right. I have some new favs I think.
Winner: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
(*previously won for Fargo)
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: A. I didn't hear all of it but it was short and sweet and seemed relevant and appropriate based on audience reaction.

Now we have the President of the Academy of Motion Pictures. He's explaining how members see the movies and how they nominate each movie and then how they vote. Entertaining clips of interviewing some actors and directors; old clips too from prior years' ceremonies.

Miley Cyrus (ughhhhh) is presenting ...oops! She nearly wiped out as she walked to the podium. That'll teach her to wear heels better suited to a 35 year old woman. I know, that's mean; she just gets on my nerves. Anyway, Miley is introducing Kristen Chenoweth singing a song from Enchanted entitled "How does she know". It sounds terrible so far. I mean, the singing is okay, it's just that the song is phenomenally bad. How did this get nominated? Ahhh, this is the song with the big background contingent of dancers in all kinds of costumes. Yeah, that wasn't very good.

Commercial/Bathroom break!

Dame Judi Dench and Halle Berry are announced but instead there are two men I don't recognize who they grabbed from the audience (so they say) to read the scripts written for the women. I don't know what's going on. They're both short with curly hair and glasses and appear to be arguing about which one looks like Holly Berry. Not to be confused with Hollie Hobbie I guess.
Ok so these two jokers are co-presenting for ??? No idea. Oh, Best Sound Editing.
Winner: The Bourne Ultimatum (2 women. Nope, it's 1 woman and 1 man who looks womanly....????)
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: C. No idea what they're trying to say or who they want to thank. Hard to believe they planned this. Poor souls. Good thing they're in editing. Oh wait, she called for the music to cut herself off!!! LOLOL Re-evaluation due to that ending, they deserve a C.

Same two guys (still arguing about who looks more like Holly Berry) co-presenting for Best Sound Mixing
Winner: The Bourne Ultimatum (3 men)
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: C. Droning voice with long list of names. Also mentioning the death of one of their colleagues. The band cuts them off. Only one guy was allowed to speak. Following that somber note in their speech, the band cutoff was bad form.

Now I see why they need to cut off everyone's speeches. It's so they can intersperse numerous, boring old clips of actors who've accepted these awards in the past. These are a big long advertisement pushing this show. Meanwhile, I suppose it's some comfort to tonight's winners that even if their speech isn't heard tonight, it might be heard 10 or even 20 years from now. Or whenever the Academy again decides to honour their winners on a birthday year.

Forrest Whittaker is presenting for BEST ACTRESS
Winner: MARION COTILLARD for La Vie En Rose
God Count: 0 but she might as well have
Speech Grade: C. That was sort of painful to watch. I'm happy for her though.

Cate Blanchett was so happy for Marion, she appeared to nearly crawl over her seat to congratulate her! Very nice to see. Still, I was rooting for Julie Christie.

Colin Farrell just slid up to the podium. Before he gets started, he chastises whomever to come take care of that slippery spot in front of the podium. Anyway, Colin introduced another song performance from a movie. This song is called "Falling Slowly" and it's from a small movie called Once. I think he said it was an Irish movie. One girl on piano and one man on guitar, they're both singing together. Slow and sort of sad, this song is my choice for 1st place song of the night. Amy Adams' song, which she performed when the show started, is now my 2nd place.

Jack Nicholson is looking spry and thinner! He sounds older but looks younger than the last time I saw him. Jack introduced a montage of clips from the previous Best Picture Academy Award winning movies.

Renee Zellweger is sauntering to the podium, wearing a silver sparkly dress with a slit up to her hip nearly. She's presenting the award for Best Film Editing.
Winner: The Bourne Ultimatum (1 man...he looks familiar, though he's never won before)
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: A. Very nice. Not short but not too long. Thanked all appropriate people. Clear, articulate and touching.

Nicole Kidman is presenting (looking very pregnant) a lifetime achievement award to Robert Doyle or Boyle....Sorry, I was out of the room. I think he might have been a set designer or set director since he's mentioning architecture (someone correct me if you know; I feel terrible to have missed the details on this one) He is 98 years old but speaks at the pace of a man 4 decades younger. He's speaking without notes and doing fairly well. It looks like he has children and grandchildren there in a box watching from the audience. His speech ends by reflecting on the benefits of arts during turbulent times during past years. Very very well done. I give this man an A+++. That was truly something to see.

Penelope Cruz is presenting for Best Foreign Language Film
Winner: Austria, for the movie The Counterfeiters
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: A+. Interesting historical background on movies in Austria. No list of names. Very eloquent, short and sincere, and fascinating. I actually wanted to hear more.

Patrick Dempsey introduces the last song of the night. Again from the movie Enchanted, the song is called "So Close". The singer is a young man named John McLaughlin. He would never qualify for American Idol but anyway..... Theatrical set. Looks like an outtake from a Disney movie. Cute but again, who nominates these songs? This is not good. It might be good if the singer was better. Blah.

John Travolta makes an entrance by dancing with one of the women leaving the set from the previous song. That was unique and an interesting twist.
John is presenting the Oscar for Best Song
Winner: Falling Slowly from the movie Once (yayyy!!! I loved this song best!!!) (1 man and 1 woman, the same man and woman who performed the song. Good for them!!! Wow, the audience is whistling and cheering. yay!!!)
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: A++. Fantastic speech...."you know who you are, we don't need to say them" Wow. All the stuff the guy said was perfect! Then the music started so the woman went to speak and the band stopped! Unheard of!!! She opted not to speak though so the band started up again. They said the movie was made with two handicams and only $100,000.00 and they never expected to ever be at the Oscars. What a great story. Ahhh, this is so nice.

Brief clip of Steven Spielberg saying something but I was typing so I missed it. I'm sure it was interesting, whatever it was. And now, a commercial break.

I want to know, who tipped all these people off about thanking God? So far I'm at big fat ZERO. The only person to even come close was Marion Cotillard and if anyone could have done it and gotten away with it, it would have been her. I was really happy for her. She was so amazed and happy and appreciative. Damn. Can I get just one God Thanks?

Wow, Jon Stewart is bringing back out the woman half of the duo who won best song. She wanted to thank some people. She's mostly mentioning, very nicely, that all artists should never give up and dare to dream. The song was written from a perspective of hope and hope connects us all. She ends with thanking everyone who helped them along the way. Very short and beautiful. They both had wonderful speeches. I give Jon huge credit for this. He may have completely redeemed himself in my eyes. Yay!

Now, Cameron Diaz sashayed out to the podium. She can't speak well but she can walk, I'll give her that. Cameron is presenting the award for Best Cinematography. Wow, she really can barely say that word 'cinematography'. Poor Cam. Hell, at least men think you're hot so all isn't lost. Buck up Cam!
Winner: There Will Be Blood, Robert Elswit (*previously nominated for Good Night and Good Luck)
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: C. Gave 80% of the award to one guy. Then gave the whole award to another guy. Then tried to give it to two actors as well. Not literally, he just mentioned them. Not a great speech.

Hillary Swank is now introducing a clip of photos of those we've lost, both from in front and behind the camera, in the last year. Oh God, people are doing the applause thing for certain names. That's always disturbing. Wow, Jack Valenti died in the last year. I had no idea. He was the head of the Academy or at least head of the movie ratings board, for years. This montage includes costume designers, producers, agents, directors, actors, all mixed in together. That's nice to see. Deborah Kerr.....can't believe she died the same year as Mom. And Ingmar Bergman, big applause for him. Heath Ledger, understated applause, no better than they gave for most others. Thank God. If they had all stood up for Heath and none of the others, I'd have been horrified.

Amy Adams is presenting the award for Best Original Score. She is so congenial and perky, it's unnerving. Like watching Tonya Harding in a good mood we can all only imagine she might have in another life. Anyway....
Winner: Atonement, Dario Marianelli
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: A. First old time type of speech, like so many we've all heard over the years. It's a bit hesitant but thoughtful. Names a few people in a relevant way. He's very gracious.

Tom Hanks is talking about the soliders in Bagdhad, Iraq. Some servicemen and servicewomen are shown on film. Oh wow, they're naming the nominees for Documentary Short Subject. Each serviceperson gets to name their own nominee. This is so cool. What a great idea. Oh my goodness, they also announced the winners! They had the envelope there in Iraq and everything. Wow.
Winner: 2 women for some movie (missed it) sounds like it might be about lesbians. It's a 38 minutes movie due to be released by HBO later this year they said.
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: A. Very heartfelt, creative and well said. They cried. No list of names. Good job ladies! Congratulations.

Tom Hanks is now presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature
Winner: Taxi to the Dark Side (1 man and 1 woman)
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: A. Ohhhh bit of an anti-war statement in that speech. Good on ya! Good speech. Well said. Short and sincere despite lack of notes and clear bit of nerves. Dedicated to two deceased people. Touching.

11:23 pm. Yep.

Harrison Ford (poor man, he gets so nervous when he has to speak in public, he always has a shaky voice) is presenting the award for Best Screenplay
Winner: DIABLO CODY FOR JUNO
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: A+ "What is happening? This is for the writers. I want to thank all the writers and my fellow nominees. I want to thank the academy" etc etc etc. Talking fast, ugly tattoo, weird dress but you know, she's unique. Good on her for being herself. Crying now and barely making it off the stage while thanking her parents for loving her just the way she is. I especially appreciated that she mentioned fellow nominees by saying she learns from them and values them. Good job Diablo!

They're showing clips of past winners of the Best Actor award. Well, this is good for all their careers. Good job Academy. We never remember who wins.

Helen Mirren is presenting the award for BEST ACTOR (and she's scaring the crap out of me with her delivery. This woman is good.) please please please please let Viggo win...please please please....i'm crossing my toes and everything....Ah crap, it's gonna be DDL. Wow, Johnny Depp sang in his role in Sweeney Todd.

WINNER: DANIEL DAY LEWIS

SHIT!

God Count: 0
Speech Grade: A+ Interesting, witty, avoiding listing names except for his Grandfather, Father and Sons. No mention of Heath Ledger. I'm surprised. Ah hell, Congrats Daniel. Now retire or stop acting so Viggo can get some awards. He also deserves them.

Now they're showing clips from past Best Director Winners. Wow, I had no idea David Lean, the Director of Bridge on the River Kwai, won for that movie. That movie was nearly a freaking bible in our house while I was growing up.

Martin Scorcese is presenting the Oscar for this year's BEST DIRECTOR

WINNER: JOEL COEN AND ETHAN COEN for No Country for Old Men
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: A+ Funny and short speech from Ethan. Joel relating a funny story about Ethan from when they were kids, relating it to what they do today. "Too many people to thank for this, we're really thrilled" and my favourite "thank you for letting us continue to play in our corner of the sandbox". Awesome. These guys are clearly a lot of fun.

Denzel Washington is presenting the Oscar for BEST PICTURE

WINNER: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, Coen brothers and one other guy
*this movie won 3 awards tonight
God Count: 0
Speech Grade: A+ No words from Coen brothers at all, though they're standing up there. They're letting the 3rd guy speak since the Coens have been up there 3 times now tonight and already said their thanks. This guy is doing a good job. Bit long but oh yeah, he thanks his gay partner at the end and calls him Honey! That's awesome. Hollywood might be getting real after all.

I'm upset that Viggo and Julie Christie didn't win. Oh well.