And the Oscar Goes to . . .

Staying up later than I ought to so I can see the 79th Annual Academy Awards.

Some thoughts:

*The Red Carpet was underwhelming. Too much safe (read boring) fashion. My choice for Worst Dressed has to be Cameron Diaz (yet again) who had on really pretty emerald drop earrings. And that's it. Her white dress looked like a damned 80's prom dress: a bad blocky neckline and unnecessary asymmetry that showed off shoes that looked like something made by Dyeables.

And can I say I just can't handle two hours of Ryan Seacrest, Jay Manuel, and Guiliana DePandi on E for the Red Carpet. However, considering Joan Rivers was the only alternative, I sucked it up. Fashion and cinema are major industries AND topics of serious discourse. Why can we not have more intelligent commentary and less of the sycophantic bitchiness on the Red Carpet? Watching those clowns is as bad as the middle-school-bathroom gossips who suck up to the popular kids and then snark behind their backs. GET OVER YOURSELVES!

*And now, for an attempt at some intelligent fashion commentary with just a HINT of snark. There were a couple decent looks out on the Red Carpet, which became much more palatable once I muted the commentary.
***Rachel Weisz was near-perfect in Vera Wang, but she forgot the age-old adage that you should always remove at least ONE thing (in this case the gorgeous vintage Cartier necklace that was just too much with the jeweled neckline of her gown).
***Cate Blanchett, who always looks effortlessly smashing, and
***Gwyneth Paltrow in Zac Posen. She redeemed herself after the sadistic bodice on her gown last year, which made it look like she and her breasts were in a major feud. And the breasts were losing.

*My favorite favorite though was Reese Witherspoon, who is finally getting over the goody-two-shoes-Southern-wife-and-mother-crap now that she's about to be single. I like the sexy. Bring the sexy. Speaking of the sexy, I predict a hot steamy affair both on- AND off-screen for Ms. W before long. Wait for it.

*Speaking of sexy, the sexiest sexagenarian EVER has to be Helen Mirren. I want to look that good at FORTY, forget my mid-60's.

*Borat, the most important film of the year, got robbed of the one stinking award, Best Adapted Screenplay, for which it was nominated. Praise to the Golden Globes for giving the film the recognition it deserves.

*An Inconvenient Truth, the other most important film of the year, WON BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE, BABY! I've showed it to like 9 different classes already, and counting. Good as Dreamgirls' songs were, it was also pretty damn cool to see Melissa Etheridge win the Best Original Song award for the film as well.

*Since it won nearly everything else, I was surprised when Pan's Labyrinth didn't win best Foreign Film.

*Speaking of Best Foreign Films, I cried during the montage when they showed the clip from Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About my Mother), my favorite film by Pedro Almodovar. Watch it and you'll know why. Three words: "mi hijo, Esteban" and I LOST it.

*The Pilobilus Dance Troupe, who acted out the Best Picture nominees from behind the backlit cyclorama screen, was fun.

*For its themes of the universality of the human condition and the idea that as humans we are all the same despite cultural differences, I will be using Babel in my Humanities classes.

*Jennifer Hudson's Best Supporting Actress trifecta (Globes, SAGs, Oscars) just goes to show that the American public, who voted her off American Idol, is really friggin' clueless. Seriously. I hate American Idol anyway (see above for the anti-Seacrest rant, for example), and this just goes to show it. That woman can SING. Oh, and she can act too. She totally outperformed Beyonce when they sang at the Academy Awards, but I fear that in our skinny-lovin' culture she will never have the success Beyonce enjoys, despite outshining her vocally a thousand to one. My grandfather always said the same thing happened to Roy Orbison, who was far more talented but not nearly as attractive to the ladies as was his contemporary Elvis Presley. Time will tell.

*I need to see it before I pass judgement, but I think The Departed might have been slightly overrated in getting both Best Director AND Best Picture. I like the message of Babel much better. But then again, Crash won Best Picture last year and Global Warming was the hot issue this year, so perhaps it was just too much message for one year.

*Best Actor and Best Actress both went to individuals who portrayed royalty. Discuss.

*So happy that Forest Whitaker won Best Actor for portraying Idi Amin, but I doubt that anyone saw the movie, and that even fewer people can find Uganda on a map. Hint: It's in Africa, slightly right of center, bordering on Sudan to the south and west of Kenya. FYI.