Morning After the Oscars

I spent part of today watching the actual awards. During the opening of the show, I was driving back from my chilly stint on the jammed red carpet to the office, arriving when Pan's Labyrinth was winning its second Oscar. Then I ran back and forth between my office and Gregg Kilday's, who has a TV, watching and not watching. I had a Scorsese sidebar to finish off, and the Oscar analysis piece, which was hard to do when you didn't know The Departed was going to be the winner going in. By the time we were done, I was so snackered I blew off the parties and went home, which is unlike me. I love the ritual of celebrating with the winners etc., but I was partied out.

The show was more than fine. OK, so there were some dull parts (Sherry Lansing, Ben Affleck, Pilobilus etc) but I admired the easy way Ellen DeGeneres worked the crowd: especially having Spielberg take her picture with Eastwood. Steve Carell's reaction shot when he was included in the line-up of diverse people was priceless, as was Meryl's chilly look at her gorgeous Prada co-stars. And John C. Reilly, Jack Black and Will Ferrell were hilarious. The commissioned shorts were great, especially Errol Morris's The Nominees. He does find those moments that reveal people. Eddie Murphy's long slow burn was the high point. I was most moved by Clint translating for Morricone, whose film music I have adored for decades, with obvious affection. Those two old guys kill me.

And I was pleased with the picks. Somehow, in retrospect, they seemed right and proper. I wasn't upset by anything. I was surprised when Milena Canonero won for Marie Antoinette, though Nora called that one all along. And shocked by Thelma Schoonmaker, only because she had won twice before. In the end the Academy went with the movie that was the biggest hit, the most expensive and complex to mount, with the biggest stars--all at the top of their form. It's cool that Marty won without campaigning. And King got to give his speech—and didn't thank Brad Grey.

Now I do take my Oscar picking seriously. So, on the first ballot I did for Premiere way back on January 23, I got 15 right; on the ballot I did for Gurus o' Gold about two weeks ago, I got 17 right. I came in third in the office pool, along with Gregg and many others, with 15 right. Nora actually ignored my final ballot, which I posted here late Saturday night. She couldn't believe that Eddie Murphy or Listen wouldn't win. So that last ballot was OK, 18 right.. According to Sasha Stone at Oscarwatch, I tied E-film critic and Hollywood Bitchslap's Erik Childress, MCN's David Poland and Variety's Academy tracker. Not bad. Here's Oscar Central's big predictions chart.

Here's the terrific backstage reporting from Borys Kit, Tatiana Siegel and Nicole Sperling. Here's the LAT's The Envelope. And here's the link on Oscar.com that gets you the Errol Morris short--go down to the pic of Eastwood that says Nominees video. (The load is slow.) And there are some nifty pics at the Getty Entertainment Blog. UPDATE: And here's Ray Richmond.