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…)

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…)

GO HERE TO WATCH HEATH’S DAD ACCEPT THE OSCAR FOR HEATH.

Heath Ledger won best supporting actor for his performance as the Joker in “The Dark Knight” at the 81st annual Academy Awards on Sunday.

His parents and sister accepted the award for the actor, who died in January 2008.

“This award tonight would have humbly validated Heath’s quiet determination to be truly accepted by you all here — his peers — within an industry he truly loved,” said Ledger’s father, Kim.

Ledger is only the second actor to win a posthumous actor. Peter Finch won best actor for 1976’s “Network” two months after he died in early 1977.

Penelope Cruz won the first Oscar of the night, a best supporting actress honor for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

“Has anybody ever fainted here? Because I might be the first one,” she said, before paying tribute to writer-director Woody Allen, who oversaw “Vicky Cristina,” and writer-director Pedro Almodovar, who gave her some of her best roles. She then thanked “everyone who has helped me from the beginning.”

“Slumdog Millionaire” got on the board early, with screenwriter Simon Beaufoy winning best adapted screenplay. The film also won Oscars for cinematography, sound mixing and film editing.

“Slumdog,” which has dominated this awards season and received 10 Oscar nominations, is considered the favorite to win best picture. The only film with more nominations, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” has three Oscars — for art direction, makeup and visual effects. “Button” earned 13 nominations.

Dustin Lance Black, who won original screenplay for “Milk,” gave an impassioned speech in favor of gay rights.

“If Harvey [Milk, the subject of the film] had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he would want me to say to all the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told they are less than by the churches, by the government, by their families,” Black said, “that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value, and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights, federally, across this great nation of ours.”

“Milk” concerns Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to major public office. The film has also been in the spotlight because of Proposition 8, the California law against gay marriage that was the subject of a contentious campaign last year. (more…)

Don’t like the dres…

Come back TONIGHT and Live-Blog the Oscars with me!

I will start TONIGHT, at 4:00 for the Red Carpet!! The Oscars will be LIVE at 5:00PST/8:00EST on ABC! You have no reason to not join me!!

It’s going to be great, come back TONIGHT, and let’s watch together!