Oscars, Oscars, Oscars!
Tags: academy awards, alicia keys, amy adams, Angelina Jolie, Anne Hathaway, ben stiller, best dressed, Brad Pitt, diane lane, Joaquin Phoenix, marion cotillard, marissa tomei, Natalie Portman, oscars, Penelope Cruz, video, winners
The 81st Annual Academy Awards were last night, and as expected, “Slumdog Millionaire” cleaned house. Not literally, of course. It wasn’t a movie about Mexicans. Maybe what I should have said was “cleaned the Slurpee machine.” God knows I don’t want to come off sounding like some kind of racist. People Magazine says
Slumdog Millionaire racked up eight Academy Awards, including those for Best Picture and for its Director, Danny Boyle.
But it was not the underdog, The Wrestler star Mickey Rourke, who was named Best Actor. That Oscar category was won by Sean Penn, for Milk.
Kate Winslet was named Best Actress for her role… 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, she was holding a world-famous golden statuette. “Well,” she said, “it’s not a shampoo bottle now.”
The late Heath Ledger was named Best Supporting Actor for what presenter Kevin Kline called his “menacing, mercurial, droll and diabolical” role as the Joker in The Dark Knight. Penélope Cruz took the Best Supporting Actress in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
[While nominated for 13 awards], The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [only]… ended up with three Oscars, for Art Direction, Makeup and Visual Effects.
I could keep going with this, or I could just read aloud the 1992’s census report while smearing Vick’s Vapo-Rub into your eyes. You’ll get the same feeling either way.
The night’s best-dressed below; for the complete list of winners click here.
Anne Hathaway:
Amy Adams:
Marion Cotillard:
Penelope Cruz:
Natalie Portman:
Brad and Angelina:
Honorable mentions Alicia Keys, Taj Henson, Diane Lane, Marissa Tomei and Robin Wright-Penn (just for the back):
3 Comments, Comment or Ping
Jon
This was probably the WORST oscars I’ve ever seen (or not seen as the case maybe). Other than Heath Ledgers award for the only movie that interested me in the entire lot, I found the whole thing terrible on just about every level. I don’t knock Hugh Jackman because he tried, but he just didn’t fit well as host. The vast majority of movies nominated didn’t interest me in any way and after they gave the Best Supporting actress award to a woman who can barely speak fluent english, let alone act, I found myself so bored I had to watch something else, which is pretty much unprecidented for me. I usually watch the awards no matter what. I wake up and find the movie with the dumbest concept won and Sean Penn turned his speech into a political rally. Couldn’t have predicted any of that
Horrible!
On the other hand, Natalie Portman looked fiiiiiiiiine!
Feb 23rd, 2009
bionic bunny
jon, that’s why i stuck with “big love” and “united states of tara” last night. i knew “wall-e” would win over “bolt”, which was the only thing i had any interest in (no damn bonuses AGAIN), so why bother?
hope you had a good shore leave, abby!
Feb 23rd, 2009
Jon
Good call Bunny. I threw in some movies from Hollywood’s golden era to remind myself what celebrity class and a well made film used to be like. I went back through the awards really quick in like 10 mins this morning on my Tivo and I can’t believe they couldnt even getting the memorials right. Instead of showing a direct feed of the clips, they had a camera pan over a bunch of plasma tv’s like it was a rock video and it was so far away I could barely tell who they were showing had died. Brilliant!
Anyhow, back to my regularily scheduled snarkiness and humor.
Feb 23rd, 2009
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