Oscars, part 4 (and a big wow! at the end)

[mellicious]

M. Night Shamalayan is in a commercial.... for what? Ah, American Express. I was pretty sure it wasn't for his new movie.

Next song: "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" - Best. Nominated. Song. Title. Ever. (My husband, who can hardly be described as a rap fan, says "That got nominated?") And guess what! It wins!

Jon: "I think it just got a little easier out there for a pimp."

(I criticized his monologue, but the jokes as the show has gone on have been much better.)

Also, I like the fake ads for the nominees. Those were good.

OK, the "in memoriam" section. This is going to be long, considering the rate that people have been dropping the last few weeks. (But Don Knotts and Darrin McGavin aren't in there - I guess they'll get to them next year.)

The guy who won Best Foreign Language Film (Tsotsi, from South Africa, apparently) is shouting, although I'm not very clear on why. I think he said "Viva Africa!" among other things.

Crash wins Editing. Haven't seen it, so no real comment.

Hilary Swank's top looks like it's not going to stay on. Also, it is black, which seems to be the new black. (I know, old joke, but everybody really does seem to be wearing it this year.)

They are mixing up the order of things this year, and are already giving out Best Actor. Oh yay, Philip Seymour Hoffman wins. I've liked him for a long time. I was a little worried that Heath Ledger was going to sneak in there - I like him, too, but I didn't love that mumbly-voiced performance so much.

Hey, Memoirs of a Geisha wins cinematography, too! (It really did win all the "pretty" awards, you notice - Costume, Art Direction, and Cinematography.)

Mixing it up again, we have Best Actress, and it's Reese, of course. I think that was the closest to a Sure Thing we had here tonight. She's still a bit excited, though, and I like what she said about June Carter being a "real woman" - I mean, realistic parts for women are pretty few and far between, aren't they?

Now Dustin Hoffman is giving Best Adapted Screenplay. He stops in mid-speech to say "I'm looking at everybody who didn't win - great work! Great work!" And it goes to Brokeback Mountain, of course. Larry McMurtry makes a nice little speech about "the culture of the book." - For Original Screenplay, I assumed that Crash would win, and it did. (Uma Thurman, who was presenting, also had the extremely pale look going which I commented on hours ago when Nicole Kidman was out. There have been a number of people wearing those flesh-colored dresses tonight, too. I made that joke about black being the new black, but you could just as easily say that tan is the new black, too. There have been very few bright colors in evidence tonight.)

Tom Hanks is not aging well. Ang Lee wins. Of course. (Although if Memoirs of a Geisha had been nominated, Ang might should've been worried!) And Jack Nicholson is out to give Best Picture, and it's Crash !! Wow. There's an actual shocker for Best Picture. It's been a while since that happened, hasn't it?

(I was all set to type "Yawn. It's Brokeback." But they actually surprised me.)