My favorite Oscar moment had to have been when Ben Stiller came onstage as Joaquin Phoenix.  Sporting dark sunglasses and a bushy beard that David Letterman might liken to the Unabomber’s, Ben Stiller walked on stage with Nathalie Portman, ostensibly to present the Best Cinematography category. As Portman played straight (wo)man, dutifully reading the names of the nominees, Stiller absently gazed stage right, defiantly placed his used chewing gum on the podium, and wandered aimlessly around the stage. ”You look like you work at a Hasidic meth lab,” Portman said, getting a few laughs of her own. Does taking pot shots at two-time nominee Phoenix approach the line of bad taste? Absolutely. But like Marisa Tomei, we laughed our pretty little heads off.

Runner up would be Steve Martin and Tina Fey. While presenting Best Original Screenplay, the comedians regaled us with scripted banter that was actually funny. In what had to be a mocking reference to Scientology, Martin extolled the power of ”Alien King Rondelay” in the writing process, to which Fey responded, ”No one wants to hear about our religion that we made up.” Moments later, when they introduced the Best Adapted Screenplay category, Fey stared adoringly at Martin. ”Don’t fall in love with me,” he deadpanned. It was goofy and loose and fun — three things the telecast could have used more of.

Behind her are past Supporting Actress Winners: Goldie Hawn, Whoopi Goldberg, Angelica Houston, Tilda Swinton and I have no idea who the woman on the right is.

I have to start out by admitting that I never actually made it to see Milk.  I’m sure it’s amazing, and I’m sure Sean Penn deserved it.  But did he deserve it over Mickey Rourke?  Mickey Rourke gave the performance of a lifetime!  How could he have lost!!

Were you shocked with any of the awards?  I have to admit, I was surprised that Penelope Cruz got it…I sort of thought Marisa Tomei would get it.

PS: Wasn’t the Oscars amazing this year?  I loved the whole thing! I thought Hugh Jackman did an amazing job! What did you think?

Best Actress:
WINNER:
Kate Winslet – The Reader
NOMINEES:
Sean Penn Angelina Jolie – Changeling
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Meryl Streep – Doubt
Melissa Leo – Frozen River

Best Actor:
WINNER:
Sean Penn – Milk
NOMINEES:
Richard Jenkins – The Visitor
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
Brad Pitt – The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Best Supporting Actor:
WINNER:
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
NOMINEES:
Josh Brolin – Milk
Robert Downey Jr – Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road

Best Supporting Actress:
WINNER:
Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
NOMINEES:
Amy Adams – Doubt
Viola Davis – Doubt
Taraji P Henson – The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler

Best Film:
WINNER:
Slumdog Millionaire
NOMINEES:
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader

Best Director:
WINNER:
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
NOMINEES:
Gus Van Sant – Milk
Stephen Daldry – The Reader
David Fincher – The Curious Case Of Benjamin ButtonPenelope Cruz
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon

REST OF THE OSCAR WINNERS AFTER THE JUMP! (more…)

Angelina Jolie has dissed Ryan Seacrest again.

She famously ignored him at the Golden Globes in January, and when she saw him at Sunday’s Academy Awards, she walked in an arc around his E! News station to avoid speaking with him.

Apparently, Brad Pitt wasn’t in the mood to chat with Seacrest, either.

The American Idol judge was heard screaming for Pitt to come over. The actor initially tried to tell Seacrest one minute, but then gave in with a shrug and went over to say hi.

Pitt stayed at an arm’s length and quickly answered Seacrest’s question about how he felt to be nominated.

“It’s nice,” he said. “It’s a nice honor for both of us. More than that, it’s just nice being with people we respect and being in the same category with [Sean] Penn and [Mickey] Rourke. It’s just a big night.”

He then zipped by and did other press, while Jolie didn’t bother stopping for Seacrest at all.

Seacrest didn’t seem too heartbroken.

“I don’t remember what she was wearing, to be honest, because her back was turned [to me],” he told Usmagazine.com when asked about his encounter with Jolie. “But I spoke to Brad for a moment, and he was very excited to be there.”

Seacrest clashed with Jolie before: At the 2006 Golden Globes, he asked her what she fed her children that day and she icily replied ” Cereal — we made cereal.”

He later called her “cold” for being so unresponsive.

Turns out, Jolie’s mother, Marcheline Bertrand, was on her death bed at the time.

Source

Jennifer Aniston went face to face with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at the 81st annual Academy Awards Sunday in Hollywood. It is first time all three have been in the same room since Pitt and Aniston split in 2005.

Along with Jolie’s Kung Fu Panda costar Jack Black, the Valentino-clad Aniston (who skipped the red carpet at Sunday’s show) presented Best Animated Feature.

They originally stood to the side of the stage.

When Black made a joke about how all Pixar films win Oscars, Aniston said, “I apologize Mr. Katzenberg [Jeffrey Katzenberg is the co-founder of Dreamworks], I don’t know why we let him out of the house.”

The camera then panned to Jolie, who laughed.

When Aniston announced the nominees, she moved to the center of the stage, right in front of Jolie and Pitt. When the lights were down, Aniston smiled directly at Pitt, but not at Jolie.

Aniston then presented Best Short Film; both Pitt and Jolie kept huge smiles on their faces the entire time.

As Aniston walked off stage, Jolie and Pitt both clapped.

Black told Us afterwards, “Jen did fine. She’s a pro!”

Aniston and her date for the night, John Mayer, sat behind and to the side of Pitt and Jolie.

Asked by Us earlier in the night if she was nervous, Aniston told Us, “Yes!”

Source

An underdog movie about a little guy overcoming life’s enormous obstacles swept the Oscars Sunday night, as Slumdog Millionaire racked up eight Academy Awards, including those for Best Picture and for its Director, Danny Boyle.

But it was not underdog Mickey Rourke (for The Wrestler) who took the Best Actor Oscar. That honor went to Sean Penn, for Milk, in which he played 1970s gay activist Harvey Milk.

“I did not expect this, and I know how hard I make it to appreciate me, often,” Penn said in his impassioned acceptance speech – in which he also acknowledged his fellow nominee, whose career had faded away in the ’90s. “Mickey Rourke rises again,” said Penn, “and he is my brother.”

Besides Penn’s Oscar, his second as Best Actor (his first was for 2003′s Mystic River), Milk was also singled out for its Original Screenplay, by Dustin Lance Black.

A breathless Kate Winslet was named Best Actress for her role as a troubled woman with a Nazi past in The Reader. She confided to the audience in her acceptance speech that she first pretended to win an Oscar when she was 8 and looking in the bathroom mirror, holding a shampoo bottle.

Only, Sunday night on the stage of Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre, she was holding a world-famous golden statuette. “Well,” she said, “it’s not a shampoo bottle now.”

She also advised her sister “goddess” nominees just to accept the overwhelming fact that they were nominated in the same category as Meryl Streep. More on the Oscars! (more…)

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