We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
It's Oscar night in Hollywood and I'm happy to be hosting the LOB Oscar party. Awards shows usually frustrate me as they never choose to award the people and films that I would. But I'm a movie fan, so I always end up watching and waiting for those few magic pop cultural moments. If you're out there watching, drop in for a chat, eh? I'll look forward to the pleasure of your company.
posted by The Blue Devil @ 6:01 PM
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
46 Comments:
The "red carpet" coverage has started on the "E" Channel. It's usually full of vacuous blather but occasionally someone such as Kathy Griffin can cut through the clutter. Where are you, Kathy?
One of the major narratives of tonight is whether increasing the Best Picture category to ten nominees will popularize the awards and add more eyes to the broadcast. Here are the ten:
An Education
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
The money is on either Avatar or Hurt Locker, but I'd love to see either Up in the Air or especially An Education pull off an upset.
Best Actor nominees:
Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart
George Clooney - Up in the Air
Colin Firth - A Single Man
Morgan Freeman - Invictus
Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker
The sentimental vote is probably going to industry vet Bridges but I'd love to see Colin Firth picking up the statuette tonight.
Best Actress nominees:
Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side
Helen Mirren - The Last Station
Carey Mulligan - An Education
Gabby Sidibe - Precious
Meryl Streep - Julie and Julia
Again - Oscar is probably not going to my pick - Carey Mulligan - or even my second pick - Meryl Streep. Oscar insiders suggest that Sandra Bullock will be up on stage tonight.
Supporting Actor nominees:
Matt Damon - Invictus
Woody Harrelson - The Messenger
Christopher Plummer - The Last Station
Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz - Inglorious Basterds
Apparently, this one's still up in the air. Strangely, I didn't see any of these movies as they didn't appeal to me at all. I was hoping that Alfred Molina would get a nod for "An Education," but alas...
Best Supporting Actress:
Penelope Cruz - Nine
Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal - Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air
Mo'Nique - Precious
Another tough one for me. Mo'Nique is all but certain to win. I didn't care for "Precious," so that's another loss for me. I usually like Maggie Gyllenhaal but I thought "Crazy Heart" was hackneyed. That leaves "Up in the Air," which I did like. I'd probably give the nod to Vera Farmiga.
Best Director nominees:
James Cameron - Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels - Precious
Jason Reitman - Up in the Air
I've got an Anything But Avatar policy tonight so I'll be happy if anyone - even Kathryn Bigelow for her macho war fest or Lee Daniels for his poverty porn - will do. Of that list, I'd go with Jason Reitman.
Best Doc nominees:
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America
Which Way Home
Tough one, again, with some worthy nominees. The one I'd have plumped for - Anvil: The Story of Anvil - was shockingly not nominated. Of that group, I'd go for "Food, Inc."
The only other category that I care about is Adapted Screenplay, where my boy Nick Hornby is up for "An Education," one of my favorites from 2009. Unfortunately he's up against Precious and Up in the Air, so it's probably not gonna be Nick's night. At least he'll get a big Hollywood night out, eh?
Less than half an hour before the big show now. The red carpet spot has been a bit boring, to be fair, with not a hint of snarkiness. Just the usual Ryan Seacrest biz blather. Shame about that.
Here we go, then. The big show is about to start. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin co-hosting. Should be fun....
We open on the nominees for Best Actor and Actress walking out together. That's a nice collaborative moment.
And now a big Busby Berkeley style show number with Neil Patrick Harris introducing the two co-hosts. I guess the recession is over then?
This monologue is going over a bit flat. I think the trick to doing these is to not be too snarky. That's why Jon Stewart didn't quite click with it. You can be snarky on the Red Carpet but not when you're facing your peers.
Right - so straight to it. Penelope Cruz announcing the Best Supporting Actor award.
And the Oscar goes to....
Christoph Waltz!
Wow - what an articulate speech from Waltz. I'm really impressed. I'm used to the winners just babbling for a few minutes while mentioning a few colleagues before being played off by the band.
Best animated feature now (yawn)....
Up wins....next....
Now Best Original Song
This has got to be T-Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham for Crazy Heart's "The Weary Kind."
Yep - had to be!
The Hurt Locker picks up its first award of the night for Best Original Screenplay.
Nice - a John Hughes tribute. I am so there.
Cool - now it's a John Hughes flick reunion with Jon Cryer, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Macauley Culkin, and Matthew Broderick.
Star Trek picks up a technical award for Best Make-up. That's all they're getting tonight.
Right then....here comes Nick Hornby's category....
Ah well...Precious wins its first award of the night. Sorry, Nick. Better luck night time.
Now it's Robin Williams announcing the Best Supporting Actress award.
And the Oscar goes to...
Mo'Nique!
Very heartfelt speech there by Mo'Nique. Well done.
Avatar wins its first award tonight for set direction. I'd be fine if that was all it won tonight.
The Young Victoria wins a technical award for costumes. I haven't seen that yet but I'd like to.
Two of the Twilight kids now introducing a tribute to the horror genre.
The Hurt Locker picks up its first award of the night for Sound Editing. This is going reasonably well. I was worried that Avatar would sweep all of these awards.
Sorry - that was Hurt Locker's second award. Now it picks up a third for Sound Mixing.
Now it's Sandra Bullock announcing the Cinematography Award.
Oscar to...
Avatar - it's second award tonight.
This is always one of my favorite moments of the Oscar broadcast - the memorial tribute.
Best Original Musical Score now...
Up wins its first award of the night.
Visual Effects now. One would think that Avatar has a lock on that one.
And it is a third award for Avatar.
Now it's time for the Best Documentary...
The Cove wins!
Best Film Editing now....
The Hurt Locker wins its fourth award of the night.
Best Foreign Picture now
The Oscar goes too....
The Secret in Her Eyes. I've got to check that one out. Looks good.
Now it's time for the Best Actor.
They're doing a nice job with tributes from actors that have worked with the five nominees.
So, here we go....
Jeff Bridges, natch.
And the rambling speech of the night goes to...Jeff Bridges! Write it down, dude.
Now on to Best Actress...
Oscar goes to...
Sandra Bullock!
Whipping through the awards now. It's Barbara Streisand now with the Best Director award.
Oscar goes to...
"The time has come," Babs says.
Kathryn Bigelow!
That's five awards for the Hurt Locker as opposed to three for Avatar.
So - Tom Hanks with the big award for the night. He gets right to it....
The Hurt Locker. The big winner of the night - six big Oscars!
Well...that warms my heart. I wasn't especially interested in The Hurt Locker as it didn't have a distinctly anti-war message.
But I'm really happy to see that Avatar has been almost entirely snubbed. Of course, Avatar won the box office vote but it's heartening to see that the Academy hasn't completely caved in to the bottom line.
That's it for the night. I enjoyed it. Hope you did too wherever you were.
Cheerio!
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