Oscar Live Blog. Hour #1

ARRIVALS | HOUR 1 (YOU ARE HERE) | HOUR 2 | HOUR 3

8:31 WOW. Killer Montage You know it worked because I wanted to watch every Best Picture nominee again and I was so sick of all 10, five minutes ago.

8:34 "I loved you in Tron" So far the show is highlarious. Morgan Freeman awesome cameo combined with self-deprecating humor "soothing voiced narrator". And Anne even made a Black Swan joke funny and Black Swan jokes are so mid-January 2011.

8:41 GONE WITH THE WIND shout out. Classy. Although very WTF random. I'm not liking where this is going with the Cinematography + Art Direction = Best Picture. Eyesore in Wonderland wins. It's all uphill from here. Cinematography = Inception. Sorry Roger Deakins. You'll have to wait for #10.

8:51 Kirk Douglas. Wow Old Hollywood shout out. Take that 2009 Oscars!

8:52 Oh this is sweet. Kirk Douglas said James Franco looks better outside the cave. To Anne Hathaway "Where were you when I was making pictures?" SUPPORTING ACTRESS (I'M SO NERVOUS) MELISSA LEO. She used the naughty "F" Word. I'm glad they didn't play her off the stage. Kirk Douglas was SO fun.

poll by twiigs.com

9:01 "It's the young and hip Oscars" Anne Hathaway responding to Melissa Leo's F Bomb. hee.

9:02 BANKSY'S IDENTITY REVEALED: Justin Timberlake. Although I am so grossed out that they just reminded us that Shrek (2001) won the first animated feature Oscar.

9:04 ANIMATED SHORT = The Lost Thing. I'm doing T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E on my predictions but I never care about that. I just wanna love the movies. ANIMATED FEATURE = Toy Story 3. I feel like a lot of people won't udnerstand why Lee Unkrich was so "i can't believe this" It's because he's one of the only Pixar people who didn't have an Oscar.

9:14 ADAPTED SCREENPLAY = THE SOCIAL NETWORK. So... seeing Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin in white tuxedos totally shocked me. It's a rare sight. Paddy Chayevsky "NETWORK (1976)" shout out. Nice.

9:15 BTW I think it's excellent that Anne Hathaway is hosting on a night where they're referencing Old Hollywood and Classic Films. She gets it. One of the few young stars who does. Nice presentation of the Screenplays with the changes..ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY= THE KINGS SPEECH.

9:23 A tradition of singing" Anne Hathaway. Bring it girl. ♪ ♫ On My Own cuz someone is Hugh JackAss. ♪ ♫ Can we give her the Emmy right now. James Franco in drag.

poll by twiigs.com

9:24 Russell Brand misinterpreting Helen Mirren's French. Did they fire Bruce Vilanche? Some of this presenter banter is actually funny.

9:28 FOREIGN FILM = Susanne Bier's IN A BETTER WORLD. I love this woman. Though I haven't seen this film yet.

9:30 SUPPORTING ACTOR = CHRISTIAN BALE
His beard looks like one of those fake ones that people wear that loop around the ears. It's so... round. Like a dangerous redheaded Santa Claus. But the best comment on this came from Scott Feinberg on twitter.

Good one.

okay. on to HOUR 2 - mid ceremony! 

Oscar Arrivals. *LiveBlog*

ARRIVALS (YOU ARE HERE) | HOUR 1 | HOUR 2 | HOUR 3

5:45 Inauspicious begins. Joan Rivers started my night off joking that she and Annette Bening should do a Thelma & Louise together as Oscar losers.

6:03 The "good" folks at E! (and the quotation marks are necessary) would like you to know that Jennifer Lawrence set the bar too high for those that follow. I imagine that some people will be wowed by the silhouette but if basic red is setting the bar too high this is going to be a dull fashion night.

poll by twiigs.com

6:15 Armie Hammer calls David Fincher "The Emperor of the Set". Hopefully he'll be emperor of the Oscars. On working with Clint Eastwood for J. Edgar "It's the polar opposite of working with David Fincher." 1 take versus 100. I'd think so.

6:21 Josh Hutcherson was talking to Ryan Seacrest earlier about how much he loves Christian Bale "He goes hard." was the phrase. Wait, did he use The King's Speech set too. sorry.

6:22 Ryan literally just said "Here we are peering in Michelle Williams car"  UM, PERV!

6:27 They're interviewing Mila Kunis like she's a nominee. I guess that's what you get when you're even hotter than bar-setting Jennifer Lawrence.

<--- 6:38 Reason #14 why Mandy Moore is never going to win an Oscar. They asked her how hard she prepared for her performance tonight and she's like totally casz, like,  'um. not much really. We just came and ran through it a few times.'

Oh Mandy. They have to see you sweat. EXERT. See also: Natalie Portman.

Zachary Levi -- her Tangled partner (I love that movie, don't you?) -- says "I Feel Great. I've been excited for months now." Are you supposed to see a doctor if it lasts longer than 4 hours?

blue live blogging apparently tonight. I blame those King's Speech sets.

6:42 Amy Adams just said that "feistiness" is not hard for her to act. What do we think of her look? It's so modest. But still it's sparkly. Feisty Mormon Housewife Going to a Glitzy Event?

 6:52 Seacrest just called Mark Ruffalo's wife "Summer". Um... her name is "Sunrise." To her credit she didn't flinch and just answered the question.

7:00 Cate Blanchett's dress

poll by twiigs.com

7:02 I'm so weirded out that Kevin Spacey is using THE SOCIAL NETWORK to talk about "finding your voice" I agree with the gist of what he's saying but you can't steal THE KING'S SPEECH narrative this late in the game. Votes are in.

7:11 Justin Timberlake is talking about the film speaking to his generation. Again. A bit late for this campaigning. But I hadn't really thought about the problems for a musician to be playing Sean Parker. Conflict of (financial) interest. This is way too deep for a Seacrest conversation.

7:14 The E! reporters on Marisa Tomei "You just never know what you're going to get from her."

I beg to differ: Great Performances. General Awesomeness. I Expect. She Delivers.

7:16 I have a headache. Who should I blame? Which star has been obnoxious? Who?

7:20 Helena Bonham Carter is wearing COLLEEN ATWOOD. Synergy! Oscar Nominees Dressing Oscar Nominees. Love it Love it Love it... the synergy at least. Haven't seen the whole dress yet. Though I like

Helena is the bomb. Lucy Honeychurch has come a long way. Although speaking of fashion. She promised "a catastrophe" and the bodice is not hideous enough to make worst dressed lists.

7:26 ohno. Celine Dion is doing the In Memoriam Popular Dead People segment.

7:30 Hugh Jackman says

"Protein me up. Whatever I can get... I'm on the Ryan Seacrest diet."

No Comment. (Too easy.)

That's really what he said.

7:35 Truth: I usually think Hilary Swank looks great (red carpet wise) but I hate the top of the dress. [Heidi Klum Voice]  "it looks cheap, non?"

7:41 Gwyneth is totally flat ironed. Confession: flat ironed hair makes me crazy hot.

7:48 I thought Mark Wahlberg's wife was actually Sarah Jessica Parker for a second. Oopsie. haha. FIGHTER & THE CITY. He just said he was hoping for an upset but not in the supporting categories! he quickly added.  DON'T JINX IT, MARK.

7:54 I asked my tweeps who ScarJo's date was? His name is apparently "Hot Yummy" Were his parents hippies or something? 

8:00 Okay I hadn't seen Natalie Portman until now. The masses are correct. She looks amazing. That color is so perfect for her brown eyes. Yummy. She just called Darren Aronofsky "The Bees Knees" 

8:06 Tim Gunn just called JustinTimberlake a "color theorist" They better not steal my COLOROGY. True Story: My first Fourth of July in New York I got drunk and discussed the colorogy of  fireworks with a lesbian I met at a friend's party. And then we made out.

8:14

TIM GUNN: If you could sing a duet with anyone in the world who would it be?

GWYNETH PALTROW: Jay-Z He is amazing. He's a genius. I am his biggest fan.

8:15 Something is beeping in our apartment and we CANNOT figure out what it is. The Boyfriend says "Is one of your Oscar screeners about to explode? You have 14 minutes left to watch this disc." LOL

8:20 Okay time to start a new post. But first one last poll. Natalie from the Critics Choice, Globes, SAG, Spirit and Oscar night.

 

poll by twiigs.com

 on to the actual show. It's Oscar Night! 

Best Picture Title Cards

♪ Tradition.... TRADITION.
This is beautiful even if 65% of the movies were undeserving of the Best Picture of the Year title. [via]

We'll undoubtedly be adding The King's Speech to this tonight, though we know which movie* is really deserving. You can vote for it at the Best Picture chart.

*whichever you want it 2 B -- opinions are magic that way!

Last Minute Oscar Linkage

Serious Film 3 wishes for the ceremony aside from wins
Wild Lines roots for a movie they weren't rooting for. "I take it all back" interesting post
<--- James Franco Oscar Morning footage. Adorable.
THR six things to watch for tonight.
Wesley Morris if you suffer for your art (Natalie Portman) you end up celebrated for it. In depth piece about the perceptions of screen acting changing. Liz Taylor, today's birthday girl, even gets a casaul shout out.
NPR good informative listen as Andy Trudeau runs down the nominees for Best Score. Did you know that How To Train Your Dragon uses a penny whistle and a dulcimer at the same time in its score? I did not.
Bohemea Best thing about the Spirit Awards? John Hawkes and Dale Dickey (Winter's Bone)
IndieWire Melissa Leo has a breast tattoo. #thingswedidntknow
Sunset Gun "Bette Davis Defines... Oscar" Love this.

And if you're just tuning in, YES, we will be live-blogging the Oscars tonight. See you at 6 PM EST. It's also the last couple hours to vote on the readers choice "should" wins so get clicking through the categories.

Mainstream Oscar News Segments Are Silly

Through inertia I was watching CBS this morning (must have been the last station I looked at last night) and I perked up because they were reporting on Banksy's street art spreading around Los Angeles in the buildup to Hollywood's High Holy Night (They didn't call it. But I always have).

So the lead in was this little preamble about stars and campaigns. 'Oscar campaigns. Though it can be embarrassing to beg for votes Oscar winners do' -- I'm paraphrasing. So in the video edit lead in they show Julia Roberts (okay, I get it) and two other super famous made themselves ubiquitous winners (I forget who. sorry) and... Mo'Nique? Really, CBS? Mo'Nique didn't beg for votes, baby!

"First I would like to thank the Academy for showing that it can be about the performance, and not the politics."

Then they had on an "Oscar Expert" (everyone calls themselves that on TV) and he predicted The King's Speech, Firth, Bale and that Leo's going to lose (he didn't settle on who would win instead)... and Annette Bening. I wish people would stop getting our hopes up about the Bening. It's like Billy said in the Spirit Awards comments...

To quote Teri Garr in Tootsie, "I just want my pain now.". That is how I feel about Bening's inevitable defeat at tomorrow's Oscars ceremony.

P.S. I will be blogging and tweeting tonight. Stay tuned.