Well the ever-so-fickle Academy has decided against asking Ellen DeGeneres, last year’s host, back again. Apparently there’s a different producer most every year, and the producer picks the host. So this year’s producer produced 2006’s Academy Awards and wants to go with 2006’s host, Jon Stewart. Stewart as given so-so reviews after his first hosting gig. DeGeneres was apparently considered “too nice” – though I didn’t realize the Academy Awards were supposed to be edgy.

“Jon Stewart will return as host of the Academy Awards. The star of Comedy Centrals ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ will get his second shot at hosting Hollywood’s premiere event, which will be held on Feb. 24 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. He hosted the 78th annual awards show in 2006.

“Stewart was ‘a terrific host’ for that event, Oscar telecast producer Gil Cates said Wednesday, announcing the selection in a statement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. The academy didn’t indicate why it decided to go with Stewart after using comedian Ellen DeGeneres this year. ‘I’m thrilled to be asked to host the Academy Awards for the second time because, as they say, the third time’s a charm,’ Stewart joked.

[From the Associated Press]

I didn’t realize hosting the Oscars was such a revolving door situation. I know it’s considered kind of the “be all end all” for a lot of comedians, but I have yet to watch one that didn’t cure my chronic insomnia in 30 minutes flat. But that’s also the reason I haven’t watched one in a few years. I thought Jon Stewart’s humor didn’t really translate from his show to the Oscars. His political humor is funny, but there’s only so much room for it in an awards show format.

“Stewart, a political satirist, injected some political humor into his 2006 performance, taking jabs at the war in Iraq and ribbing Hollywood’s elite about their ties to the Democratic Party. However, some jokes bombed and he got mixed reviews. ‘His usually impeccable blend of puckishness and self-effacement fell flat,’ a review by The Associated Press said, adding he was ‘too deferential, too nice and too obvious in his targets.’

“The 44-year-old Stewart, who also hosted the Grammys in 2001 and 2002, noted the split decision on his own cable TV show the night after the Oscars, saying he had a great time but didn’t know how he did until he saw the reviews.

“‘I sucked and was great!’ he said. ‘I was a painfully smug and unfunny heir to Johnny Carson.’”

[From the Associated Press]

Does anyone else find Hollywood’s obsession with awards kind of annoying? Why is so much congratulation necessary? I guess it’s just the fact that they’re all awarding each other, like it’s some great accomplishment. I think it’s kind of the grown up children in us that want a blue ribbon for doing well at the science fair. Only the science fair involves a lot of low cut strapless dresses and cummerbunds. I don’t even want to tell you what’s in their juice boxes.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Jon Stewart at the Emmy Awards last year. Images thanks to PR Photos.

With the notable exceptions of Cameron Diaz and Celine Dion, most of the women with bad hair and makeup wore risky dresses that they managed to look pretty good in from the neck down.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s peach-colored Zach Posen tulle and chiffon gown is complicated but flatters her figure well. It looks like she did her hair and makeup herself, though, as she has the same weighed-down too-long straight hair that she’s always seen with lately, and her lips are too red for her pastel-colored dress.

Like Paltrow, Kirsten Dunst is also wearing bright red lipstick with a neutral gown. Red lips are not in this season. It seems like they both just chose their lipstick color using the old “red lipstick for special events” rule that no longer applies. Dunst’s hair was pulled back with plain straight bangs stuck on her forehead. Dust is seen with her 19 year-old brother, Christian. Her dress is a little much with the feathers on the bottom sides, but the top part is decent. I have not been able to identify the designer. Her dress is vintage Chanel.

Cameron Diaz’s bleeding blue eye shadow with too much black eyeliner, dirty brown skin, and sloppy hair are just terrible. She should fire her stylist, hair and makeup people.

Jessica Biel’s curly upswept ‘do gave her hair a frizzy look that didn’t suit her. She wore a pink Oscar de la Renta gown with a black belt and seems to have neglected to apply those sticky things you put over your nipples to keep them from showing through sheer fabric. Her makeup is fine, though.

Eva Green loves the goth look, but it just seems out of place at the Oscars. Her straight hair with a puff crown wasn’t as bad as it’s been in the Bride of Frankenstein past, but I don’t like her smoky creepy eyes. Let me know if you think she pulls it off. Her gauzy dress is not my taste, but it’s not awful either.

Celine Dion’s drab hair drags her down in a too-loose green draped dress that makes her look skinnier than usual. Her makeup seenms cheap with light bronze eyeshadow that’s not blended well, and heavily applied, clumpy mascara.

John Travolta’s spray on hair and too-light foundation coupled with black eyeliner applied to the membranes of his eyes make his the worst makeup of the night.

Update I just realized that Rachel Weisz had dark red lips that she managed to make work. Her dress was silver, though, not pastel, and her lips were a darker red than Dunst and Paltrow, who wore a brighter color. Dunst’s dress is vintage Chanel.

One shoulder gowns and solid colors dominated at the Oscars last night. There was a lot of beauty and some superb fashion on display. The best was a delicate mix of elegant, simply styled single-colored gowns and striking accents.

Kate Winslet wore a lovely sea green Valentino floor length gown with one shoulder that continued in a cape-like sash down the back. Her outfit was complimented with Chopard yellow diamond earrings and a big matching ring. She carried a gold turtle-patterned clutch with a tassel.

Rachel Weisz was stunning in a long silver satin Vera Wang dress with subtle accent lace at the neck and back. She wore a vintage diamond Cartier necklace and struck just the right balance between flair and simplicity.

Reese Witherspoon looked flawless in straight blunt-cut hair with bangs, a strapless navy Nina Ricci tiered dress, and a 38-carat diamond Van Cleef and Arpels bracelet.

Cate Blanchett wore a one-shoulder Giorgio Armani Privé gown, with a tulle beaded floral overlay. She wore diamond jewelry by Lorraine Schwartz.

Thanks to People.com for the gown details.

Anne Hathaway says her white lace dress with bows at the neckline and back of the legs was a leftover from The Devil Wears Prada. She seems to realize that the bow is unflattering as she’s seen trying to cover it in one photo.Her makeup looked pretty and not overdone, though.

Jennifer Hudson wore a brown Oscar De La Renta gown with pockets - that she put her hands in self-consicously while on the red carpet - and an odd silver python bolero jacket with an upturned collar. The gown wasn’t bad on it’s own, but the weird jacket gave her a retro sci-fi look. Luckily she removed the jacket during the ceremony. Hudson was dripping in Fred Leighton diamonds. Eurweb called Hudson’s look “Lane Bryant meets Star Trek.”

All the diamonds in the world couldn’t make Cameron Diaz look classy in this outfit. She wore a cheap-looking white satin Valentino gown with straight-cut hanging flaps of fabric and $2.9 million worth of diamond Cartier accessories. Messy hair and makeup and a weird-looking tan paired with a too-white dress made her look dirty.

I may get some heat for this, but I really don’t like Penelope Cruz’s pink dress by Atelier Versace. It looks ridiculous to me. It’s gathered way too tight on top and then it’s huge on the bottom with big billowing feathers. It looks like it took hours to wrap her up in it. Her hair is too severe, although her makeup is well done. She paired it with Chopard diamond earrings and bracelet.

Kelly Preston takes the prize in a Flinstones’ halter dress with a leopard print.

The gaudy stones on Beyonce’s light green Armani Privé dress are too much, although the cut of the dress is decent.

Jennifer Lopez looked good to me on television as I was focusing on her hair and makeup, but I don’t like her dress in the red carpet photos. She was seen in an ill-fitting silk empire-waist Marchesa gown with a strange neckline draped with rows of crystals.

Maybe it is true that Brad and Angelina are in the process of adopting a boy from Vietnam, because they didn’t show up at the Oscars as expected last night. I was pretty disappointed, as I wanted to see what Angelina would be wearing and if she could manage to crack a smile. She seemed happy in pictures taken from her balcony looking down on Mardi Gras, so I thought that might extend to the Oscars, where Brad and Angelina were expected to make their third red carpet appearance in grand style.

Both Brad and Angelina appeared in movies that were nominated for Oscars. Angelina’s super-boring film with Matt Damon, The Good Shepherd, was only nominated for art direction, but Brad’s film Babel was considered by some to be the front-runner for best picture and was nominated in several other categories. It was expected that they would come to show support for Brad’s film at least. (Babel only ended up winning in the best musical score category.)

Maybe it was too soon after Angelina’s mother died. Brad has seemed to be understandably annoyed at paparazzi lately. He acted a little grumpy with them after Angelina’s mother died and was seen trying in vain to reason with them a bit later.

The official excuse is that Angelina is near Dafur on a UN peacekeeping mission, but I bet there’s something to that rumor that they’re adopting another child. We’ll have to see.

Here’s a link to pictures of Brad and Angelina at the Golden Globes.

And here’s a big picture post with examples of Angelina’s fashion from Oscars past.

Well I passed out at 3:30 our time, which was just an hour and a half into the Oscars, and didn’t get to live blog the whole thing obviously. I’m watching the taped version now, and will comment on the segments that are particulary interesting.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Vice President Al Gore just did a cute segment about how the Oscars have gone green and how you can do your part to stop global climate change by visiting Oscar.com. They joked that Gore had a big announcement and he took out a piece and paper like he was going to announce another run for the presidency but was cut off by the music. My favorite part was seeing them go back stage, smiling and laughing. (Gore won Best Documentary for An Inconvenient Truth a bit later in the night.)

Overall it is more entertaining than in the past and it seems like whatever they tried to do to revamp it worked. Ellen is engaging the audience, talking to them and having little conversations with people, and so far the entertainment and clip segments have been pretty good. I love the shadow dancers that make little shapes throughout the show.

Can I just saw how damn excited I am that The Departed won best picture? I loved that movie. I saw it on a plane and screamed so loud at the end that the guy in front of me woke up. Then I tried to ask him if he’d seen it, it was that good. (He mumbled “no,” but if he’s seen it now he surely understands my enthusiasm in retrospect.)

I do think Cars should have won best animated feature because I’ve seen it about 20 times, it doesn’t get old, and I still notice cute things about it, much like last years’ winner Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Wererabbit. My son obviously feels the same about it. (Happy Feet is probably just as good or better, and once that comes out on DVD I’m sure to see it over and over again too.)

Here’s the complete list of winners.

Best Picture: “Babel,” “The Departed,” “Letters From Iwo Jima,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” “The Queen.”

Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, “Blood Diamond”; Ryan Gosling, “Half Nelson”; Peter O’Toole, “Venus”; Will Smith, “The Pursuit of Happyness”; Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland.”

Actress: Penelope Cruz, “Volver”; Judi Dench, “Notes on a Scandal”; Helen Mirren, “The Queen”; Meryl Streep, “The Devil Wears Prada”; Kate Winslet, “Little Children.”

Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, “Little Miss Sunshine”; Jackie Earle Haley, “Little Children”; Djimon Hounsou, “Blood Diamond”; Eddie Murphy, “Dreamgirls”; Mark Wahlberg, “The Departed.”

Supporting Actress: Adriana Barraza, “Babel”; Cate Blanchett, “Notes on a Scandal”; Abigail Breslin, “Little Miss Sunshine”; Jennifer Hudson, “Dreamgirls” ; Rinko Kikuchi, “Babel.”

Directing: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, “Babel”; Martin Scorsese, “The Departed”; Clint Eastwood, “Letters From Iwo Jima”; Stephen Frears, “The Queen”; Paul Greengrass, “United 93.”

Foreign Language Film: “After the Wedding,” Denmark; “Days of Glory (Indigenes),” Algeria; “The Lives of Others,” Germany; “Pan’s Labyrinth,” Mexico; “Water,” Canada.

Adapted Screenplay: Sacha Baron Cohen and Anthony Hines and Peter Baynham and Dan Mazer and Todd Phillips, “Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”; Alfonso Cuaron and Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata and Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, “Children of Men”; William Monahan, “The Departed”; Todd Field and Tom Perrotta, “Little Children”; Patrick Marber, “Notes on a Scandal.”

Original Screenplay: Guillermo Arriaga, “Babel”; Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis, “Letters From Iwo Jima”; Michael Arndt, “Little Miss Sunshine”; Guillermo del Toro, “Pan’s Labyrinth”; Peter Morgan, “The Queen.”

Animated Feature Film: “Cars,” “Happy Feet,” “Monster House.”

Art Direction: “Dreamgirls,” “The Good Shepherd,” “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” “The Prestige.”

Cinematography: “The Black Dahlia,” “Children of Men,” “The Illusionist,” “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Prestige.”

Sound Mixing: “Apocalypto,” “Blood Diamond,” “Dreamgirls,” “Flags of Our Fathers,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.”

Sound Editing: “Apocalypto,” “Blood Diamond,” “Flags of Our Fathers,” “Letters From Iwo Jima,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.”

Original Score: “Babel,” Gustavo Santaolalla ; “The Good German,” Thomas Newman; “Notes on a Scandal,” Philip Glass; “Pan’s Labyrinth,” Javier Navarrete; “The Queen,” Alexandre Desplat.

Original Song: “I Need to Wake Up” from “An Inconvenient Truth,” Melissa Etheridge; “Listen” from “Dreamgirls,” Henry Krieger, Scott Cutler and Anne Preven; “Love You I Do” from “Dreamgirls,” Henry Krieger and Siedah Garrett; “Our Town” from “Cars,” Randy Newman; “Patience” from “Dreamgirls,” Henry Krieger and Willie Reale.

Costume: “Curse of the Golden Flower,” “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Dreamgirls,” “Marie Antoinette,” “The Queen.”

Documentary Feature: “Deliver Us From Evil,” “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Iraq in Fragments,” “Jesus Camp,” “My Country, My Country.”

Documentary (short subject): “The Blood of Yingzhou District,” “Recycled Life,” “Rehearsing a Dream,” “Two Hands.”

Film Editing: “Babel,” “Blood Diamond,” “Children of Men,” “The Departed,” “United 93.”

Makeup: “Apocalypto,” “Click,” “Pan’s Labyrinth.”

Animated Short Film: “The Danish Poet,” “Lifted,” “The Little Matchgirl,” “Maestro,” “No Time for Nuts.”

Live Action Short Film: “Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea),” “Eramos Pocos (One Too Many),” “Helmer & Son,” “The Saviour,” “West Bank Story.”

Visual Effects: “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” “Poseidon,” “Superman Returns.”

And here are red carpet pictures from Gossip Rocks, Hollywood’s Best and Just Jared. I’ll comment on the fashion a bit later in “Best Dressed” and “Worst Dressed” posts.

Pan’s Labyrinth just won for best art direction. The winner was emotional but didn’t go on for too long.

Maggie Gyllenhaal looks gorgeous. She seems ot have lost all her baby weight. She’s discussing the technical awards portion of the Academy Awards that she hosted. She’s talking kind of sexy and seems to be turning on the charm. Her black one-shoulder dress (one shoulder sash dresses seem to be popular tonight) is lovely.

Will Ferrell is doing a goofy song about a sad comedian at the Oscars. Jack Black just ran in with his shaggy air-dried hair to liven up the act. They’re calling out people in the audience. Now that guy who was also in Talledega Knights, John C. Reilly, stood up in the audience and came on stage to join the act. He’s a surprisingly good singer. They’re doing a great job and it’s a pretty good bit.

Again, the theme seems to be something like “yearning for an Oscar” and they’re singing about that.

Pan’s Labyrinth just won for best makeup. They’re really cracking down on the speeches as the second winner got cut off mid-speech and seemed kind of pissed.

Will Smith’s son Jaden and Abigail Breslin from Little Miss Sunshine presented the award for best short animated film, and they were really cute. Jaden messed up briefly but recovered well.

Tonight I’m having trouble with Wordpress and am not able to edit older posts for some reason.

Here are pictures of the celebrities I mentioned in the last post. I’m still looking for pictures of pregnant Naomi Watts

Ellen Degeres is doing ok. She’s not that funny to me, and I find her red velvet suit kind of ridiculous, but I never really thought she was funny funny. Anyway she supposedly wrote this opening dialogue herself and you can tell because it sounds like her regular comedy.

She’s joking about the people who don’t win, and that seems to be a theme as they had a decent opening clip about the non-winners. It seemed more like a commercial for apple or something that went on too long, but it was pretty cute.

Here are the pictures, thanks to GossipRocks and Hollywood’s Best. I’ll add more shortly. Thanks!

I had some technical difficulties, but am back now.

Update: follow the links and thumbnails below for pictures.

Cate Blanchett is gorgeous as expected in am Armani Prive tight metallic dress.



Reese Witherspoon is wearing a lovely purple-hued navy blue dress with straight hair - I only saw her briefly.


Cameron Diaz looks cheap in a white Valentino dress, bad hair, and dirty-looking makeup.


Naomi Watts is glowing and pregnant in a yellow empire waist gown. (Update: pictures below) It was hard to tell if she was pregnant earlier as rumored, but now it’s more than obvious. Congratulations Naomi and Leiv!

Nicole Kidman looks more like a Barbie than ever in a plain red dress with a giant bow around her neck and pin straight hair.

Leonardo DiCaprio looks hot in his tux, but his hair has too much gel in it and is slicked back too much.

Jennifer Lopez was interviewed on the red carpet by the guy from ProSieben, my local German channel, and he asked her about her movie appearing at the Berlin film festival and how she enjoyed Germany. She said she was busy with appearances and didn’t have much time for sightseeing, but her voice broke just a little when she was talking about the film festival and she made a bad face. She gave good quotes and kept it together, though.

Lopez looks good with soft curls, well-done makeup, and a dress with a kind of hanging neckline. It’s not a gorgeous gown, but it’s not that bad and she looks well put together.

I’ll find pictures shortly to add them to the post as I go.

Kate Winslet is wearing a lovely sea green gathered dress, her makeup is perfect and her hair is pulled back in a style similar to Cate Blanchett’s. The dress has one side that is pulled over her shoulder with a sash down the back and she may be one of the best dressed of the night.

Helen Mirren is wearing a neutral colored dress with a lacy sparkling top, a low cut and long sleeves.

I’ll add pictures shortly. Thanks!

Update: due to technical problems last night, the pictures were added to this post instead.

Update 2: Here are the pictures of gorgeous pregnant Naomi Watts, thanks to Just Jared. Watt’s dress designer has spilled the beans on her pregnancy, saying “The ESCADA gown set off her most precious new asset – the baby she is expecting with longtime boyfriend Liev Schreiber.” It’s not like it wasn’t obvious, anyway.

It is 1:30 in the morning here. I doubt I will liveblog the Oscars well into the morning like I did last year, but I’ll be here for a little while. I’m watching the Oscars on German channel ProSeiben, and they’re on the red carpet now interviewing the German nominees for the best foreign language film, The Lives of Others. One guy is showing his Asian good luck charm. I haven’t seen anyone I recognize yet.

Ah, I see Helen Mirren. She’s wearing a gorgeous neutral colored sparkly number that doesn’t seem to show a lot of cleavage. Her makeup is perfect.

Anyway here’s the starting thread for the Oscars if you guys want to talk about people’s outfits in the comments.