day 2.110

the oscars

last night was the super bowl of entertainment. the be all, end all of award shows: the academy awards. this year the show was hosted by steve martin and alec baldwin. for the most part, i was impressed with their hosting abilities, but it wasn't great. i didn't really feel like 2 hosts were necessary and i'm not a big fan of having someone who could be nominated (and has been) host - i.e. baldwin. steve could have done it himself. the fact that they had to bring in a 3rd talent (neil patrick harris) to open the show was pretty sad, too. i didn't think nph's opening number was all that great, but i would have liked to see him host the whole shebang. maybe this was a test run for next year?

i also didn't understand the very top of the show when they had all the best actor nominees stand in a line to be introduced. that just seemed like a bizarre time filler.

the weirdest part of the night was when they had a dance troop perform to the original score nominees. usually the best original song noms get performed, but this year they were snubbed in favor of this. why? i have no clue. i'd much rather have seen/heard the actual songs performed. oh well. though, this was better than that bizarre hugh jackman/beyonce/zac efron/vanessa hudgens thing from last year.

ben stiller took center stage to present the best achievement in make-up award. he dressed for he occasion - as an avatar.

the night's most touching moment was a tribute to john hughes. though, it was a sad reminder of how many actors there were in the brat pack that aren't that successful anymore. and an explanation for why molly ringwald is now a supporting player on secret life of the american teenager.

the biggest surprise of the night wasn't a win, but rather a snub. farah fawcett and bea arthur were left out of the night's tribute. pretty big overlook when no name behind-the-scenes people are often included. though, had the ladies made it in, the show would have run even more over time. the special lasted a whole extra hour. that's almost completely unheard of.

now to the big winners:

the way they introduced the best actor and actress nominees was bizarre, too. they had a peer give an introduction and then had last year's winner for the matching gender category come out and present the award. i wish they had kept last year's production, which had 5 past winners introduce the current crop of nominees. i guess it would be hard to find 5 new past winners every show, though.

best actor - jeff bridges

• not exactly a surprise, but kind of a bore.

best actress - sandra bullock

• yes! yes! yes!

best supporting actor - christoph waltz

• ok.

best supporting actress - mo'nique

• duh.

best director - kathryn bigelow

• bigelow is the first female every to receive this award. sweetest revenge against ex-hubby james cameron? i think so.

best picture - the hurt locker

• suck it, avatar. ok not really. but really.

and that's all folks. if you want to catch up on more of my thoughts about the oscars, read through my tweets (@bricesander)!