My Thoughts on the Oscars

To start with I thought Hugh Jackman was a good host. OK, the musical opening spoofing the films has been done by Billy Crystal and done far better. But let's just say I'll take Jackman over the likes of previous hosts such as Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Stewart or Chris Rock any day of the week.

Who knew Anne Hathaway could sing?

It was nice to see Jerry Lewis honored. Eddie Murphy gave the honor and I told my roommate, "From one Nutty Professor to another." No sooner than I said that then the same words came out of Murphy's mouth. Talk about synchronicity.

Usually Best Actor/Supporting Actor is presented by the previous year's BestActress/Supporting Actress and vice versa. This year each of the four categories was presented by five past winners each highlighting the individual performances of the nominees. I thought it dragged it a bit with Best Supporting Actress which was won by Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

As widely anticipated the late Heath Ledger won for Best Supporting Actor in The Dark Knight which was accepted by his parents and his sister. Ledger became the first posthumous winner of an Oscar since Peter Finch won Best Actor for Network in 1976. His sister stated the Oscar would be given to his 3-year-old daughter Matilda. An observation: his mother is a very beautiful woman.

Kate Winslett won Best Actress for The Reader. It was nice when she asked her Dad to whistle in acknowledgement. My Dad has a big whistle too.

I was hoping Mickey Rourke would win Best Actor for his performance in The Wrestler which I saw earlier today. Rourke goes through hell and back in that performance. But the Oscar went to Sean Penn for Milk which I also saw. The award wasn't undeserved but the scorn he placed on people who voted for Proposition 8 most certainly was undeserved. As I emphasized in my article from earlier this week Harvey Milk never spoke out on the subject of gay marriage and it is quite possible he would have opposed it as other gay activists such as Michael Bronski have. What does Penn think about those people? Penn then gave the obligatory kudos to Obama whom the last time I checked opposed gay marriage. However, his shout out to Mickey Rourke was O.K.

Otherwise Slumdog Millionaire owned the night winning 8 of the 10 Academy Awards for which it was nominated including Best Director for Danny Boyle and Best Picture.

Still, I think Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino should have been nominated for something. At the very least Eastwood should have been nominated for his final acting role. But a movie that emphasizes self-reliance isn't going to win many votes with limousine liberals.

Here's some bold predictions for the 82nd Academy Awards in 2010. Best Picture: Amelia. Best Actress: Hilary Swank, Amelia (it would be her third). Best Director: Mira Nair, Amelia.

Finally, I predict that next year's awards will be hosted by Jack Black.

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