What was completely different this year for me is that I hadn't seen any of the nominated films going in. Usually I've seen them all come February but for some reason this year, I slacked. In a way it was good because I had no preconceived notions. No one picture or actor I was pulling for so I could sit back and relax.

So this is a day late because I slacked again but since the Oscar buzz is still running rampant, here is my run down.

Red Carpet
The first thing I saw when I tuned into the red carpet arrivals was a seemingly drunk or stoned Gary Busey messing with Ryan Seacrest during an interview with Jennifer Garner. Ryan was scared and tried ignoring Busey but he kept coming back eventually lunging at Jennifer Garner and then kissing her neck! Imagine?

Oh Buddy Holly! Why?

It was almost worth it though to see Seacrest squirm. He thought he was gonna get his ass kicked.

Biggest Shocker
George Clooney brings a date! This is a girl who was a Vegas bartender last year and I think she appeared on an episode of Fear Factor a few years back. In her 15 minutes of fame she ate bugs. Cut to, now she is arm candy at the Academy Awards of the sexiest man alive. Not bad. Not bad at all. What I like about his girl is she is a natural beauty. And by natural I mean she appears to have smaller sized non-enhanced breasts. Breasts that are not bulbous or spilling out of her gown, but au natural. Kind of rare in Hollywood these days. Yay for George.

Sexiest Man
Some of you may scoff at this but my vote for Sexiest Man goes to Colin Farrell. What can I say...I like my bad boys a little bit rough around the edges.
Sigh............

Biggest Trends
Red Gowns - they were everywhere!
Babies - Belly bumps on Nicole, Jessica, Cate, and more..
Feathers - Penelope Cruz, Jessica Alba, and Hillary Swank all had oddly placed plumage adorning their chests. Not sure why...
Lack of hair extensions - I gotta say it was refreshing to see the majority of women on the red carpet this year embracing their natural locks.
Botox - the same cannot be said however of embracing ones natural skin texture.... The only forehead wrinkle and furrowed brow I spotted in the near 4 hour program was on the 90 year old gent who won the lifetime achievement award. It really does seem to be a miracle drug of our time, as Vanessa Williams stated in her pre-oscar Barbara Walters interview.

Random
Does anyone know why Hanna Montana was there? I mean Miley Cyrus, the girl is everywhere. Does she really need to be at the Academy Awards too? I felt she was a bit out of place but I will give her this -- when it came time for her to read the nominations for the category she presented, despite a lot of tongue twisters she nailed her cue cards where other more seasoned actresses struggled fumbling with lines, sorry Cameron.

Best Dressed
There was no one gown that struck me this year. I liked Rene Zellweger's silver sparkly Carolina Herrera but since she ALWAYS wears Carolina I couldn't get too crazy about it. I'm not a big fan of Katherine Heigl but I did like her tomato red one strap shoulder number. Likewise not a big Cameron fan but I thought her pink frock was frilly and feminine, not too overdone. Honorable mention to Amy Adams dark green gown. I loved the color on her but didn't care for the cut of the dress itself.

Worst Dressed
Had to be Tilda whatever her name was ....who I'd never heard of before last night. This was not a dress. This was a hefty bag.

Jennifer Hudson's Grecian gone wrong ensemble was a close runner up for me for worst dressed.

Host
Inside, it was Jon Stewart hosting. He did okay for the most part. Kept it on track, didn't launch into any of his own political agenda rhetoric and didn't"go there" with any truly distasteful jokes.
His best line of the night for me was when he announced that Dennis Hopper was in the audience and told him not to worry that he would keep reminding him "he was here" throughout the night. Hahahahaaha
I'm a Hopper fan so I got a chuckle out of that. Not bad all in all, but I still miss Billy Crystal's opening musical montages. The Oscars just aren't the Oscars without them for me!

Best Song
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who won Best Original Song for "Falling Slowly" from their Indie film "Once" a Sundance hit made on handy cams for 100k. "Once" tells the story of two unnamed musicians who fall in love through song. The song was really touching and sweet.
Oh heck, see it for yourself.
And as an added bonus you get to see Colin Farrell introducing the pair:

Jon Stewart also won points with me when Irglova's speech was cut off by the conductors so after commercial he brought her back on stage and made sure she got the moment she deserved.

Memorable Moments
The right side of the stage had some sort of slippery action on the floor, Colin Farrell, John Travolta, and a few others slid into the podium.

The movie moment montages were cool and the "In Memoriam" is always so sad and surreal. I wish they held Heath Ledger's frame a little longer but I heard there was a special tribute to him that took place but was not recorded as part of the show.

Class Acts
Helen Mirren. What can you say about Helen Mirren? She is one classy dame. I love her in everything from Green fingers to Gosford Park. A true lady. Beautiful inside and out. You can just see it because it emanates from her in her speech and swagger. Her poise, grace, and humor.. Aside from all this she just seems like a really cool person. Like I would love to go to her house in England, walk around her gardens and just sit and talk with her while drinking tea and eating crumpets in the afternoon.

Daniel Day Lewis. LOVE him. I've been a fan since My Left Foot, Age of the Innocence, and In the Name of the Father. In all of his acceptance speeches he always comes across as so humble, so shy, so mild but intense at the same time, a little bit sad but always considerate with the soul of a poet. It was just last month when he dedicated his Golden Globe to Heath Ledger and used his speech to honor him.
Apart from him winning, in one of my favorite moments of the evening I thought it was so appropriate that Helen Mirren presented him the Best Actor award and as he came up onto the stage he "bowed" to the queen.

Perfect.

"It seems to me like this sprang like a sapling out of the mad, beautiful head of Paul Thomas Anderson," he said, thanking the film's writer/director. "My deepest thanks to the Academy for whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town."

See? Poet.

I like poets.

Speaking of writing, the Best Screenplay categories are the ones I always stay awake for! This is the one I always dream of winning one day. This year's best adapted went to the Cohen brothers. Who can compete with them? They deserve it. But it was newcomer Diablo Cody who won the coup de grace taking home Best Original Screenplay for writing Juno. If you didn't know Diablo is a former stripper and blogger . . Which kind of gives me hope. Not the stripper part. I hated her dress but I loved the last thing she said in her acceptance speech, "I want to thank my family for loving me exactly the way I am."

All in all a pretty good show this year. On my list of DVD rentals in the near future:

Juno
There will be blood
Michael Clayton
Enchanted
Once