The Day After

[cleolinda]

All right, now that I've had some sleep and some Aleve:

>> How my predictions stacked up

Awards I called: Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, Costume, Makeup, Sound, Sound Editing, Visual Effects, Documentary, Documentary short.

Awards I biffed: Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Editing, Score, Song, Animated Feature, Foreign, Live Action Short, Animated Short.

On the whole, I called something like 15 out of 24, which is not as well as I usually do, and I was outright shocked (and not always pleasantly) by at least three of the ones I biffed (I was surprised by Alan Arkin winning, yes, but I’d at least predicted that if anyone upset the Eddie Murphy train, it’d be him).

>> Burning questions!

How did you predict The Departed for Best Picture? Well, not so much a "burning question" as something I wanted to mention. Honestly, the only Best Picture nominees I'd seen were The Queen and Little Miss Sunshine, and I figured it was probably going to come down to LMS, Babel, and The Departed, but word on the street, if you will, was that the Academy voters were deeply unimpressed with the entire year's crop of nominees; Entertainment Weekly mentioned that one voter confided that he almost left the Best Picture slot blank. So since y'all had raved so much about The Departed (and I really need to watch my DVD of it now), I thought, well, let's say they give Best Director to Scorsese. There's usually one Best Picture nominee a year that's a bit weaker than the other four and everyone's shocked that it made it in. The Departed, if nothing else, was not that movie. So it wouldn't be difficult to say, "You know what? Screw this noise, it was a good film, let's give 'em both to Scorsese."

Variety, on the other hand, refuses to believe anyone could predict such a thing. Never mind that you have it in print on this journal some thirty-six hours ago, although I will admit that my choice was larded with a good helping of "What! Help! I don't know!"

So what was up with the nominees montage at the beginning of the show? It was directed by documentarian Errol Morris in his usual self-effacing interviewer style. I think I saw it listed on the Oscar.com video page here.

Were you, Cleolinda, seriously the only viewer who didn’t like the Black/Ferrell/O’Reilly number? Yes.

So, how did people like Ellen? You know what pisses me off? Some TV critics are saying that she was bland and not really all that great (I liked her). Jon Stewart rocked it last year and no one wants to ask him back, either, because he's "too edgy." I also liked Steve Martin, and apparently people didn't think he did a good job either. Y'all, the porridge is never going to be Just Right. Pick Jon Stewart and stay with him.

(Also, I'm apparently the only one who thought Seinfeld's bit was just totally random and, because the Sanctioned Theater Littering thing is so alien to me, kind of offensive. Well, in the sense that anyone who's ever worked in a movie theater wanted to kick his ass, I mean. I liked Seinfeld when it was on, but for God's sake, I don't know that I could take five hours of "[Random thing]? What's the deal with that?")

What the hell was with the Jerry Seinfeld littering thing? I don't know, but suddenly this takes on a new meaning:

Gore thanks Leo for being "such a great ally in this [environmental] effort." Jerry Seinfeld looks bored.

Poll time!

[Poll #935925]

Why didn't Jennifer Hudson mention American Idol in her acceptance speech? On the Barbara Walters special beforehand, she was asked if she intended to thank Simon Cowell after the things he’d said to her on the show, and she replied, quite diplomatically, that she wanted to thank American Idol as a whole. Unfortunately, she forgot to do even that, but then, you saw the state she was in when she won; no matter how many awards she’d won before, I’m sure there was a part of her that couldn’t believe they’d give an Oscar to a first-time actress.

Jack Nicholson bald, what? "A publicist confirmed Nicholson shaved it for a role as a terminally ill man who escapes a cancer ward for a final road trip in the Rob Reiner comedy The Bucket List, co-starring Morgan Freeman." Well, that sounds cheerful.

Were those the real Best Costumes onstage? As far as I know, yes. They were on display at FIDM already (see pics from last year’s exhibit), so it wouldn’t be too hard to round up some models and get them on stage. From the ridiculous amount of time I spent scrutinizing the Marie Antoinette costumes, they looked like the real deal to me, although--keep in mind, "the real deal" may be one of a number of copies made for filming. Were the costumes onstage at the Oscars actually used in production, rather than replicated afterwards for the show? At least in that sense, yes, they were most likely the real deal.

I also remember in 1996 that they actually had models wear the nominee costumes down a catwalk--the Sense and Sensibility costumes "walked" great--and then they ended with a giant hazmat/spacesuit from 12 Monkeys, no lie.

Pawhobawhat? Pilobolus.

Where was Rachel McAdams? She and Ryan Gosling didn't BREAK UP DID THEY OH GOD NO? Apparently Ryan Gosling said on the red carpet that she was off filming elsewhere. That, or she didn't want to attend the Oscars with pink hair.

What did the back of Jessica Biel's dress look like? This.

Weren't there any bad gowns on the red carpet? Oh my God, Faye Dunaway. And, as always, Sally Kirkland. Also, Forest Whitaker's wife was wearing a lovely yellow dress... until she turned around.

Best dressed, as decided by y’all?

“Trufax”? It’s a word I picked up on JournalFen a while ago and have now decided to run into the ground, as I do with all good things. (What? It makes me giggle.)


>> Trufax!

Best Picture of 2006? Snakes on a Plane.

The biggest thing that I missed, because it’s just not a recap unless I miss something giant: “It's not that we don't have time for long speeches. We don't have time for boring speeches....” Ellen said in her monologue, which I heard but didn’t get to transcribe. “Make something up if you have to. Say you grew up in the Bronx--they love that." If nothing else, “Bronx” should have tipped me off--and maybe I was too happy over the win itself to think straight--but when the POTC2 guys accepted for FX, the line "You know the naysayers said that four blind kids from the Bronx couldn't make it in visual effects, but here we are" went entirely over my head. Which is sad because, in retrospect, it was probably the funniest thing said all night.

Helen Mirren, beacon of awesome: “Helen Mirren met the press carrying a Best Actress Oscar in one hand...and a vodka gimlet in the other.”

The only person more awesome than Helen Mirren: Defamer reports that Alan Arkin’s win comes forty years after his first nomination, and also that he hoped Abigail Breslin would lose: "What, next year she is going to get the Nobel Prize, it's enough. She has had enough attention. I love her and I love her family; and I feel enough is enough. She is a kid; she needs to have a childhood."

The best acceptance speeches:

>> Scorsese:

I just want to say too that so many people over the years have been wishing this for me. Strangers. You know, I went walking in the street, people say something to me. I go in a doctor's office, I go in a whatever. Elevators, people saying, "You should win one, you should win one." I go for an X-Ray, "you should win one." I'm saying, "thank you." Friends of mine over the years and friends who are here tonight are wishing this for me and my family, I thank you. This is for you.

And I also want to thank my daughter Cathy, who is here tonight, who worked on the film. And Domenica, my wife Helen, and our little Francesca, who's seven years old who's watching right now. Francesca, stay up for another 10 minutes but then jump up and down and make a lot of noise at the hotel. Okay. I'll see you in the morning. Thank you.

>> Helen Mirren:

Now you know for 50 years and more, Elizabeth Windsor has maintained her dignity, her sense of duty, and her hairstyle. She's had her feet planted firmly on the ground, her hat on her head, her handbag on her arm and she's weathered many, many storms, and I salute her courage and her consistency. And I thank her because if it wasn't for her, I most, most certainly would not be here. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Queen. Thank you. Thank you very much.

>> Forest Whitaker:

I wrote something down, because I thought if it would happen that I would be a little overwhelmed and I am. So, OK. When I was a kid, the only way that I saw movies was from the backseat of my family's car. At the drive-in. And, it wasn't my reality to think I would be acting in movies, so receiving this honor tonight tells me that it's possible. It is possible for a kid from east Texas, raised in South Central L.A. in Carson, who believes in his dreams, commits himself to them with his heart, to touch them, and to have them happen.

Because when I first started acting, it was because of my desire to connect to everyone. To that thing inside each of us. That light that I believe exists in all of us. Because acting for me is about believing in that connection and it's a connection so strong, it's a connection so deep, that we feel it. And through our combined belief, we can create a new reality. So I want to thank my fellow believers in The Last King of Scotland. I want to thank Peter, Jeremy, Andrea, Lisa, Charles, Kevin, James McAvoy, Kerry, Stephen, Fox, DNA, Channel Four. I want to thank the people of Uganda, who helped this film have a spirit. And finally, I want to thank my mom and my dad. I want to thank my wife Keisha, my children, my ancestors, who continue to guide my steps. And God, God who believes in us all. And who's given me this moment, in this lifetime, that I will hopefully carry to the end of my lifetime into the next lifetime. Thank you.

>> More coverage

People: Red carpet gallery.

USAToday: Backstage with the winners; a rundown of the best speeches.

Cinematical: Oscar Partiers Feed Homeless Leftover Smoked Salmon and Truffles!

The Fug Girls cover the carpet, which is of course the best coverage of all.


Back to your regularly scheduled linkspam:

Roth wins PEN/Faulkner literary award.

Sorority Evictions Raise Issue of Looks and Bias. More from particle_person here:

The 23 members included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members. The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men — conventionally pretty women the sorority hoped could attract new recruits. Six of the 12 were so infuriated they quit....

A few days after the interviews, national representatives took over the house to hold a recruiting event. They asked most members to stay upstairs in their rooms. To welcome freshmen downstairs, they assembled a meet-and-greet team that included several of the women eventually asked to stay in the sorority, along with some slender women invited from the sorority’s chapter at Indiana University, Ms. Holloway said.

“They had these unassuming freshman girls downstairs with these plastic women from Indiana University, and 25 of my sisters hiding upstairs,” she said. “It was so fake, so completely dehumanized. I said, ‘This calls for a little joke...’ ”

Sweeney Todd Starts Principal Photography.

Trailer for Don Cheadle's Talk To Me Is Online: "Directed by Kasi Lemmons, the film is the biography of Ralph 'Petey' Greene, an ex-con who became an Emmy winning broadcaster and social activist."

Ward Sucks Up In BloodRayne II: "Zack Ward told SCI FI Wire that he couldn't pass up the opportunity to star in BloodRayne II: Deliverance." No part of this sentence makes any sense to me.

Paquin Bites Into pilot for True Blood, "from Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball for HBO."

Neil Gaiman says that the American Gods BPALs did so well that he and Terry Pratchett are letting the Lab do Good Omens scents next. Proceeds are going to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; this first batch raised $6000.

Scrotumgate: This is the brouhaha about the Newbery winner that mentions That Word. What I find most interesting about the whole thing, though, is what lyricalnights mentions: “As a librarian and someone who's been following this story quite closely, I feel compelled to mention that it is not by any means a bunch of librarians or anybody else getting upset over the book, and that particular NYT article is about the most biased piece of junk reporting I've seen in a long time. They took a handful of the most inflamatory statements on an informal listserv and created about a million times more hubbub than originally existed. And at least one of the quoted librarians has come forward to say that her mildly cautious reply to the reporter's questions were completely twisted for publication.”

Comments

[lauramcvey.livejournal.com]

Aww, i got into linkspam!
BloodRayne II? They wouldn't . . .
*clicks link*
Oh, man. this is low even for Uwe Boll.

[falco-conlon.livejournal.com]

Ellen was wonderful because her jokes were worked for, clever and classy. The douches of the world didn't like her because she wasn't outrageous, offensive, or crude. The shock factor gets so old after a while and having some in intelligent and legitimately funny like Ellen (or Jon) is always refreshing.

[kismeteve.livejournal.com]

There was no clear winner for Best Picture because the best picture wasn't even nominated.

Why, yes, I'm a bitter Children of Men fangirl.

Alan Arkin FTW, both literally and figuratively.

[ironclad1609.livejournal.com]

I am with you on Children of Men. Departed and Babel were good (didn't see Lil Miss yet or Iwo Jima yet) but CoM was the better movie *nods*

Shame it didn't even get cinematography :(

[scornedsaint.livejournal.com]

Hee! "Scrotumgate" NPR was all over that in a hilarious way.

[thatpalechick.livejournal.com]

"...he and Terry Pratchett are letting the Lab do Good Omens scents next."

You cannot imagine the puddles of joy this brings me. Please, oh please, let one of the new scents be called "The Bentley".

[evilbearhunter.livejournal.com]

Dude! I kind of hate leather smells, but that would be SO AWESOME. I want a scent for the Satanic nuns.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Sorority Evictions Raise Issue of Looks and Bias

My icon sums up my reaction perfectly, I think.

[kateshort.livejournal.com]

Part of me just couldn't fucking believe that.

Part of me isn't surprised in the least. Having become an alumna member, and then having watched my local-gone-national chapter slowly die due to lack of recruitment oomph, I can say that sometimes it is vital to get new blood in using strange means, and to kick out a number of sisters who just aren't cutting it. One former president in my origanization should have had to turn in her badge, or at least go on alumna status, but that didn't happen.

However. In the case of my organization, this wasn't based on the looks of the girls... it was based on their attitudes. Some wanted to work, and some just wanted to party, and some were trying to walk the line between both. It's hard to recruit when you're the quirky group on campus.

In the case of DZ mentioned above, it seems like the national recruitment staff were only worried about image. They should have surveyed the girls anonymously to see who should stay and who should go, and why. Are there are few sisters who just don't care anymore? Fine. Whether they're rich and white and skinny or larger and aid-based and ethnic, send them off to alumna status. But if you have sisters who care, you work with them so that you don't piss everyone off. Bad publicity like this? You've killed your chapter, and you'll need to come back in five years, at best, to try to resurrect it... assuming anyone cares anymore.

In our case, there wasn't a firm enough hand from nationals guiding the chapter to get rid of women who truly weren't doing what they needed to do. In the case above, the pendulum has swung waaaaaay to the other side. There's a happy medium there where nationals do need to make some firm decisions, but not at the cost of sisters who truly are dedicated to the organization.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on Seinfeld being utterly blah with small spikes of offensiveness.

[arden-ranger.livejournal.com]

Someone should take Sally Kirkland's charge cards, because that woman shouldn't be allowed to dress herself. Anytime Worse Dressed is mentioned, I always think of her name.

And Faye has gotten scary looking since she's had work done on her face. A little too much, if you ask me. She should also beat with a shoe whoever told her that dress was a good idea.

[handlet.livejournal.com]

Ha, I remember the 1996 costume nominee fashion show! Good times. And maybe it helped that I wasn't paying very close attention to all the awards coverage, but I was about as certain as I could be about The Departed winning best picture. Don't call me a liar, Variety!

[cassildra.livejournal.com]

I was honestly surprised to see you link to my journal entry about SoaP wikivandalism. I don't really see why, but hey. *shrugs*

And now, to read linkspam!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Well, you did link me to it...

[junebugged.livejournal.com]

I slavedworked my way up the ranks in a movie theater for seven years, eventually running and managing it. Granted, it was in a small town, but STILL. The amount of crap and gum and candy etc that I had to pick up daily was just... UGH.

If I ever meet Jerry Seinfeld, I plan to punch him in the scrotum.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

You said the Word of the Day! *Peewee's Playhouse scream*

[thegeneralerin.livejournal.com]

I was completely pissed off about Seinfelds theatre comments. I was like, "uh, maybe movie stars who have their own private screening rooms...Most normal people throw their trash out."

And I enjoyed Ellen.

And am I the only one who thought Gore looked like a Baldwin?

[pseudoblu.livejournal.com]

You're not alone, my Mom commented on the Baldwin resemblence over dinner.

[katybug828.livejournal.com]

Just had to drop in to say that I was also put off by Jerry Seinfeld's bit. So that makes all of two of us.

I don't know what it was about it. Maybe my thought process was simply: c'mon Jerry, it's a freakin' Jujubes box. They put the trashcan right outside the door and I know your hand can close almost as easily as it opens. Cut the poor minimum wage worker a break.

[pseudoblu.livejournal.com]

Wow, all I heard in that speech was something about four blind kids winning for Visual Effects. I was so confused. Now it makes so much sense and is so much funnier.

I loved Ellen and I really really disliked Seinfeld. But then I really loved Jon as the host too.

[leucocrystal]

Were you, Cleolinda, seriously the only viewer who didn’t like the Black/Ferrell/O’Reilly number? Yes.

NO, I hated it too!  So now, that makes two of us!  *clings to you*

As for Seinfeld's theater rant?  I actually worked at a movie theater for nearly four years, and I still found it funny, mainly because... after doing that job for so long, all you can ever do is laugh at it.  Besides, people do sometimes leave some pretty hysterically random things behind (empty mini-alcohol bottles, half of a newspaper, whole cartons of Chinese... I could go on.)

That said, I never leave a single scrap of anything behind, because... c'mon, how could I possibly do that?

[sound-of-bells.livejournal.com]

Black/Ferrell/O’Reilly number

Oh, oh, there are two of us.

[riverchild.livejournal.com]

Oh, icon adoration! Tommyyyyyyy! *squee*

I'm sorry, I don't normally do this, but I'm stupid excited for this show. :D

[agentsculder.livejournal.com]

I was not fond of the Black/Farrell/O'Reill number either. I could tell the show as running long, and it was unnecessary, and not all that funny.

The coolest thing I heard today: Buckingham Palace is working out arranging a tea between Helen Mirren and Betty Windsor herself. I saw that on NBC Nightly News, and I just squeed. That is so much better than a phone call from the President.

[eyemage.livejournal.com]

I thinks a cleolinda podcast of some sort would be a wonderful idea.

hows that for random?

btw great job on the oscars commentary.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

You know, I've considered doing some kind of podcast, but... I don't know what I'd say, you know?

[keenai.livejournal.com]

Ellen was head and shoulders about Jon Stewart. I like him, but not his scene, and I really didn't find him "edgy" at all last year. I liked Steve Martin, too.

Costumes

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

I'm sure the costumes were real. There seems to have been a whole crapload of MA costumes in town. There are 6 at FIDM (they switched out the pink/yellow with the wedding gown), and there were like 10 of them on display at the Kodak before the Oscars (none of which were the same as FIDM), and the ones on screen at the Oscars were totally different from both the previous - they had both Vogue dresses, the intro dress, maybe Polignac's yellow gown, and a green one. So all different.

The CUrse of the Golden FLower costumes looked like the ones they had at FIDM, as did the ones from the Queen. Dreamgirls were different - they only had the 3 silver dresses at FIDM. There were no Prada costumes at FIDM because they said they auction them all off after filming, but someone told me that Anne Hathaway's boyfriend bought her the vintage green coat, so if I had to guess, she probably lent it for use during the Oscar presentation..

:-)

Re: Costumes

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

The thing that convinced me was that I couldn't imagine them sewing replicas of the Golden Flower and MA costumes just for the hell of it. Those things were complicated, not to mention expensive.

Also, when the camera panned past the MA dresses, I totally started flipping out--"IT'S THE PINK VOGUE DRESS! I LOVE YOU, PINK VOGUE DRESS! WHICH SCENE WERE YOU IN, PINK VOGUE DRESS?!"

[zrath.livejournal.com]

The only thing that I ever found funny that happened to have Jerry Seinfeld connected to it in some way
was the hilarious trailer for "Comedian", which involves Mr. Announcer-Guy who does all the trailer voice-overs.
"In a world..."
That guy.

Oh, wait, I just remembered a second thing!
I was in Seattle in 1996, visiting some friends, and I saw a bus billboard that made me laugh.
A Seattle TV station was starting up Seinfeld syndication and their clever slogan was: "Time Of The Seins".
Which, of course, is a pun on "sign of the times".
In English anyway.
In French, "seins" means "breasts".
Human breasts.
Boobs.

Time for boobies!!!

[canonball13.livejournal.com]

Jon Stewart rocked it last year and no one wants to ask him back, either, because he's "too edgy." I also liked Steve Martin, and apparently people didn't think he did a good job either. Y'all, the porridge is never going to be Just Right. Pick Jon Stewart and stay with him.

Amen, Cleo. Amen. You ain't never lied.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_ravengirl/]

As a lowly movie theatre minion for five years, that Seinfeld speil pissed me RIGHT OFF. How the fuck does it make sense to trash a theatre in pay back for movie/concession prices?! Do you think us minimum wage slaves are conniving in the break room on how best to rip off the general public by overcharging them on popcorn and nachos? COME ON.

You may say "but it's your JOB to pick up the garbage", which in a sense is true. But it's just like how when I go try on clothes in a change room I don't leave them strewn about because "it's someone's job to pick it up". It is the POLITE thing to do to pick it up, because trust me there is so much more to do than pick up garbage. It takes TWO SECONDS to pick your cup up and carry it down the stairs, and much less work than it did when you were carrying it up to your seat.

FRARR RAGE. D: /end rant.

[kilted.livejournal.com]

I ♥ you forever. I didn't catch that speech, but someone mentioned it in my philosophy class today and I could believe it. I have to hear it from patrons enough about prices and stuff with out Seinfeld egging them on. Dude, it's coroporate that sets the prices. And WE are the ones that have to clean.

So yeah. Rock on!

[kilted.livejournal.com]

To everyone who's picked option #2 on the poll- THANK YOU. Ushing is my least favorite part of working at a theatre. I wonder if people realize that if they took care of their trash themselves, they'd be able to get into the theatre a lot faster on busy nights. They wouldn't have to wait in huge lines outside the doors to get their seats- they'd be able to walk right in.

And ugh, this all reminds me. I have to do closing usher on Wednesday night. Noooooooo. *sigh*

Ahaha, Helen Mirren's speech FTW.

I have a friend who was a memeber of a different chapter of that sorority. She said the same sort of things were starting to happen there before she graduated. WTF.

GOOD OMEN SCENTS? Awesome!

[sarafinapekkala.livejournal.com]

Wait, I thought you were allowed to leave your trash on the floor in the theater! Have I unknowingly been a horrible patron for all these years? ;_;