Oscar night highlights – the ceremony

82nd Annual Academy Awards - Show
After sitting through all three and half hours of the Oscars last night I’m struck by how kind of forgettable it was. Sure there were some nice moments, but for the biggest night in entertainment it sure wasn’t that entertaining. They tried to mix it up this year by having two co-hosts, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, instead of one. Most of the jokes were lame, though, and while I laughed a few times it sure was a boring ride. I kept asking Kaiser when it would end. (She thought the hosts were much funnier than I did, though.)

They tried to cut down the time by cutting out the entertainment and, as Kaiser told me, it just felt “budget” this year. Last year’s Oscar ceremony, with Hugh Jackman presiding, tried to shake it up with a nightclub feel and more song and dance numbers and was much more memorable. This year felt like a more traditional ceremony and just dragged. Apart from some of the heartfelt speeches and the personal tributes to the nominees, the best part was the opening skit with Neil Patrick Harris. They should have had Harris host this year.

It’s also worth noting that most of the winners were considered shoe-ins and that there were no upsets at all. When you already know who’s going to win, it’s just not as much fun.


Neil Patrick Harris’s opening number: “No One Wants To Do It Alone”
When Harris opening the ceremony with this rousing original song and dance routine, I got excited that we’d be seeing an Oscars similar to last year’s revamped version. The song included such lines as “Why wouldn’t Crosby give up hope? Why does Harold call Kumar when he scores dope? Why does a prisoner drop the soap? Cause no one wants to do it alone.” My other favorite line… “Can’t imagine Cinderella without the ball.. Can’t think of Botox without you all.” Sadly, this was the highlight of the show’s entertainment.

Peer tributes to nominees
I think they started this tradition last year, and it’s a lovely way to personally acknowledge the performances of each actor and actress nominated in the Best Actor and Actress Categories. Each nominee is honored with a brief statement from someone who knows them personally, and the result is often very touching. My favorite was when Oprah described the way Gabourey Sidibe went from being a schoolgirl to starring in an Oscar nominated role within a couple of days. Sidibe was brought to tears and so was I.


Tribute to horror films with Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart
Taylor and Kristen presented a montage of horror films that seemed just as terrifying as a full length feature. For all you can say about the Oscar ceremony’s lack of entertainment and editing, they sure know how to edit a film. As the two Twilight stars explained “Although the most popular genre of film is horror, and although it gave a start to the career of a lot of people in this room, somehow it doesn’t command to the respect it deserves…. It’s been 37 years since horror has its place on the show, when ‘The Exorcist’ picked up two Academy Awards.” [via Celebrity Mania]

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin’s brief taped skits
There were some funny-ish pre-taped moments with Steve and Alec, most notably when they were seen backstage sharing a Snuggie and when they did a cute riff on Paranormal Activity. Overall these two fell flat, though, and their monologue at the beginning was decent but not incredible.

Tribute to John Hughes
Hollywood hadn’t seen legendary 80s director John Hughes in over twenty years before he passed away last year from a heart attack at the age of 59. They paid tribute to his work last night and we got to see our favorite stars from his films, like Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, and Anthony Michael Hall. Kaiser and I were gossiping about how Sheedy and Ringwald could use better styling, but we’re bitches like that. When Hughes’ family was shown in the audience, the industry was finally able to thank the man who brought us such defining lines as “I can’t believe I gave my panties to a geek.”

“Lady Kanye” interrupts speech
The winner of the Documentary: Short Subject Oscar, producer Roger Ross Williams of Music By Prudence, was rudely interrupted by a woman who crashed his speech declaring that men don’t let women talk. She’s already being declared the “Lady Kanye,” and Williams confirms that while the interrupting party, Elinor Burkett, was involved with the film she did pull a Kanye and they have some sort of long-standing beef over the project. (There’s more at Jezebel and Salon.)

82nd Annual Academy Awards - Show
Ben Stiller dresses as an Avatar Na’vi
Ben Stiller presented the award for makeup while in full makeup as a blue Na’vi from Avatar. He admitted that it was kind of ironic considering that no actual makeup was used for the film. Stiller quipped “It was between this and the Nazi uniform but the show seemed a little Hitler-heavy. ” The skit was cute, but it felt half finished to me as I knew that Sacha Baron Cohen was originally supposed to dress as a pregnant Na’vi and confront James Cameron. That bit was ultimately cut due to “creative differences” with a producer who knew how touchy Cameron would be about it. Cameron looked kind of stone-faced at the time, so you can tell why they decided not to make it as in-his-face as originally intended.

As I’ve said in past years, I love seeing people win for some of the technical and smaller films, but at the same time that really makes the night last forever. They relegated the honorary Oscars to a separate ceremony this year and they need to move most of the smaller categories as well. This event is televised live and in no way do we have the patience for this. I love film and seeing celebrities but if this wasn’t my job I never would have sat through even half of the broadcast last night. The world of entertainment has radically changed since the Internet revolutionized how we view content while shrinking our attention spans. Movies have, for the most part, kept up (with mixed results). It’s too bad that the Oscars are still stuck in the past.

82nd Annual Academy Awards - Show

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24 Responses to “Oscar night highlights – the ceremony”

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  1. Iggles says:

    That was so funny!!! Cameron looks pissed at first, but eventually he got him to laugh!

  2. Kolby says:

    I loved the banter between Tina Fey and Robert Downey, Jr. They were the funniest part of the evening for me.

  3. Stephie says:

    They cut off the previous winners so this crappy Stiller bit could run. It sucked, they should’ve let the guys thank who they wanted to thank. That was rude.

    Did any one catch the look George Clooney seemed to be giving Alec Baldwin when Baldwin was talking to Martin about the nominees for Best Actor? He said “there’s Jeff Bridges” …..followed by a long pause, as if there was no one else worth mentioning, with a shot of George looking really pissed.

  4. Me says:

    Stephie, I think that was a planned part of the show.

  5. nana says:

    Lady kanye: Ill gonna let you finish, but I am the best short documentary producer ever!!!!

    shes so rude! it would have been funny if Roger left her in the stage alone or hit her with his oscar.

    btw, i think they forgot farah fawcett in memoriam montage.

  6. lucy2 says:

    OMG I think you’re right about Farrah!
    Stephie, I’m pretty sure that was a planned joke too. Clooney has too good a sense of humor to be a grouchy diva like that.
    I thought the Stiller thing was funny for a few seconds but went on way too long. Liked Alec and Steve as hosts, and as much as I love Neil Patrick Harris, I wish they had let A&S do the opening themselves.

  7. LindyLou says:

    I don’t normally watch the Oscars but for some reason I tuned in last night. Got to say it reminded me why I don’t watch them – too long and boring as hell.

  8. Jazz says:

    Loved loved loved RDJ!

  9. michellllle says:

    Ben Stiller’s an ass. Will he ever just go away?

    Clooney on the other hand, long hair or short, he’s delicious!

  10. Jackson says:

    Boring show, as usual. But Steve and Alec were just ‘blah.’ Not funny, not amusing, no chemistry together. It was nice to see that the presenter bits were cut down, but they were still there. I hate that! Just present the damn awards and don’t try to be funny. Best presenter of the night – Tom Hanks. Short, sweet and to-the-point.

  11. Goosie says:

    Yeah,I had high hopes after the NPH number and then nothing quite reached that level. The great moments for so many of the winners pulled me through the show, but the presenters and hosts and etc. were all kind of “snooooooze” to me. And I hated the lampshade wall thing!!

    Damn, Elinor Burkett reminds me of my (now-estranged) crazy manipulative Grandma. All I heard was something about “just like a man!!” and then crazypants ensued.

  12. smith says:

    The John Hughes tribute was great, brought a tear to my eye when the family stood to acknowledge the accolades. Jon Cryer looked fab, Molly looked like a deer caught in headlights, Judd looked like he was on something heavy, Ally looked like she should have been …

    Kristen Stewart – I almost don’t want to comment because she’s such a non-entity, but holy hell, do you have to look sooo bored + over it all the time? Also, stop fidgeting and itching and cough hacking in the middle of your presentation. Have some professionalism and class. See, that’s me not wanting to comment.

    Clooney looked pissed that he had to be there and that he had to sit next to his gal pal (I’ve decided she’s simply his “gal pal” nothing more).

    Loved Avatar but so glad we didn’t have to listen to a Cameron acceptance speech.

    Dear SJP – Garnier makes wonderful hair gel.

    If I cared enough I’d start a petition to get NPH to host Oscar 2011!

  13. TG says:

    NPH opening skit was stupid to me. I love Alec and Steve, wish they had gone after more celebrities, wasn’t as funny as it could have been. Ben Still was the funniest thing of the night.

    Can someone please explain why James Cameron woulnd’t find that funny? I thought it was cute.

    Oscars were very boring with no surpises and boring bland speeches. Nothing interesting to say.

    Sean Penn takes himself way too seriously. Hope he doesn’ get invited back next year.

  14. Ron says:

    The Oscars really are the social event of the year out here in LA. So I always look forward to them and the longer they run the longer the longer the party. I usually will give them a pass on schmaltzy stuff too. I want to like the and enjoy the show. But this years show was truly awful. It was poorly produced there were techs running front of live cameras. The completely obtuse dance numbers which had nothing to do with anything. The bad lighting that made any woman with an up do look like a hair don’t. No mention of Farrah Fawcett and Bea Arhtur?? Really?? And that Lamps Plus by Kathy Ireland set piece that dropped behind Mo’Nique etc when they were on stage. OMG so bad. This ranks right up there with Rob Lowe and Cinderella.

  15. Amoosed says:

    I don’t normally watch the Oscars, I did this year. It is always this tedious? The two co presenters were very boring, the best bit was the opening song routine and that amazing dance routine later.

    And the horror bit, did we really need to see the Kathy Bates axe bit? It would have been good to cut it a second earlier… I am glad my younger kids were not in the room for that bit.

    However, I was truly entertained by Neil Gaiman’s tweets from the gallery, including info on how people would wander around during the ad breaks, and that it was a cash bar (except for the Campagne!) http://twitter.com/neilhimself

  16. kelbear says:

    Lmao @ smith(#12) I too noticed that when SJP was presenting her hair was sticking up and it bothered me so much. Your comment really had me laughing!

  17. Green Is Good says:

    I was embarrassed for Ben Stiller. He had a good quip, though. Something like “a bit that sounded funnier in rehearsal”. Whatever, it dragged on too long.

  18. RobN says:

    Hated the little personal glimpses of the nominated actors/actresses. They’re actors and they treated it like they were giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Ghandi. A ton of time wasted and then Tom Hanks had to rush through the biggest award of the night because they were out of time.

  19. Beth says:

    They cut out best song performances and I think the show ran longer than last year. They should put some of the technical awards like sound editing and cinematography to the technical awards Oscar ceremony that happens earlier. No offense to those nominees but nobody really cares about best sound or effects.

  20. Emily says:

    I liked Fey and RDJ, they had good banter and it didn’t seem stilted and forced like it normally does.

    The John Hughes tribute made me a bit teary, too. I liked that his family was there and got to see how highly everyone thinks of him.

    I also liked the separate presenters they had for best actor and actress, it gave it a nice personal feel. Colin Firth looked like he was about to cry when Julianne Moore gave her little speech!

  21. JM says:

    I agree- the oscars just aren’t as much fun when we already know who will win. THey need to axe all the other awards shows, so we can be surprised.

    They should’ve either let Martin/Baldwin open the show, or have NPHarris host the whole thing. It was weird to split that up. I missed Hugh Jackman!

  22. MnM says:

    Fey + Downey = funny
    Colin Firth = yummy
    Crazy redhead grandma = galling
    JParker’s hair = appalling

  23. Lindsay says:

    I loved the glamorous look of the stage. The host weren’t great, Hugh Jackman’s opening was not even in the same league as this years opening. The animated films intro was cute and Emily I agree Tina Fey and Robert Downy Junior did an awesome job, pretty funny great chemistry. Overall, the presenters weren’t all that funny this year either.

    Kristen Stewart’s hair looked clean and was actually styled. Not a fan of hers or Twilight but her hair is so bad most of the time.

    I wish I had seen the original Avatar skits with Ben Stiller, I am sure it was much better than what he ended up doing. Who cares about making James Cameron mad? He has burned his fair share of bridges as well with important people n the industry. He is an adult he can handle it. Is he so self involved that he has no sense of humor about himself or his projects and can’t be a good sport?

    Wolfgang Puck gave an interview and said one of the best parts of winning is you go backstage to meet with the press and back there before the press line there is food and drinks. He said everyone else just has to go hungry.

  24. Tess says:

    What a disappointment. It was so bad it was surreal.

    So stale, wornout. Brought narcissism to a new low.

    A fashion note: Kate Winslet looked absolutely gorgeous. Grownup. Glamorous.