Oscar live-blog….

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone for chipping in with comments. It was fun doing this. Final Oscar wrap-up here.

…will happen here. Meanwhile check out the prelude and predictions here .

And what you could/should be drinking while watching the Oscars here.

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Like it or not, The Oscars are here with all its pomp, pageantry and glamour (ok – promise – that’s the last time I will use those hackneyed words). Come in to catch all the snark and rants.

If anybody is actually lurking out there – not expecting many considering the time and the limited readership of the blog – comments are welcome, and really appreciated.

Coming up tomorrow – the BongoPondit special Oscar Nite Awards…..

12.17PM

OK – thankfully and hopefully its the last we have seen of Ellen !!

Thanks to all those who stuck around and commented…… thanks to WordPress, thanks to my wife, my sister, parents, FSM, Desipundit, thanks to……

err… ok – that was lamer than Ellen Degeneres’ stuff. But thanks – it was fun. Nice compilation of music to end the show.

12.16PM

Academy trying to make it up to Scorsese in a big way ……

So, The Departed the biggest winner of the night.

12.14PM

And the Oscar goes to…..The Departed !!!

12.13PM

Best Picture – LSM or The Departed ?

12.10PM

Scorsese asks to double-check the envelope. He can’t believe it – didn’t get it for Raging Bull or Taxi Driver and got it for this !! Still, well deserved. Jokes about people keep wishing the Oscars for him. We are with you Martin !

12.08PM

OK – he DOES IT !!!!!

12.07PM

So the moment we were waiting for !!! Coppola, Lucas and Spielberg…….the ‘original’ three amigos. Scorsese would win by applause !!

Rest of the live-blog stuff after the jump !

12.04PM

Yawn ! Forest Whitaker wins. Not saying he does not deserve. But predicted !

12.02PM

Best Actor Award, presented by Reese Witherspoon with a horrendous hair-do. Will O’Toole win ?

12.01PM

Oh god !another lame attempt at joke by Ellen – vacuuming the floors !

11.55PM

Philip Seymour Hoffman appears in a rather stoned state to present the Best Actress Lead. Helen Mirren wins, as expected and predicted. Classy thank you, also as expected. Witty too !

11.52PM

Ellen’s dress is getting better…unfortunately same can’t be said for her jokes.

11.49PM

A poignant RIP – montage…..Jack Palance is shown – he did a single-handed push-up during the Oscar presentation !

11.43PM

The Departed wins for editing, although I would have thought that United 93 had a good chance.

11.40PM:

Another montage – about America through the films – made by Michael Mann: shots of immigration, immigrants, Irish, Jews, Italians, race relations, the Klan, American Indians, some comedy including Talladega Nights .

11.35PM

Steve Carell voice-overs for Little Miss Sunshine (takes a dig at VW!) . I hope it wins ! or, The Departed …

11.30PM

Queen Latifah and Travolta presents for Best Original Song: Dreamgirls have 3 nominations. High probability of winning one !

Melissa Etheridge wins for her song in The Inconvenient Truth !!! Two for Gore’s documentary !! Thanks her wife, children and……… Al Gore. "Its not red or blue its all green" …

Political ? or not ?

11.28PM:

Finally – Ellen is back, even she is better than the shouting stuff was going on!

11.26PM

Uh-oh: They are still singin’…….time to make another drink.

11.21PM

Ok – they have made many improvements to shorten the Oscar nite – but please, get rid of performing all the nominated songs. Beyonce, Hudson et al are singing the Dreamgirls songs now.

11.11PM

Heh – the mandatory speech by the Academy president, usually the most boring part, shown as a 60-second quickie with the dude speaking real quickly…….

The Spidey couple (Maguire and Dunst) appears for the Original Screenplay award……the serious awards should start soon enough….

Winner: Little Miss Sunshine.…yay !!!

11.10PM

Babel finally wins for Original Score. By (according to the announcer -yeah same one who said Internal Affairs was Japanese) not trying to sound like a National Geographic documentary.

11.09PM

This far, it has been a steady ceremony – nothing boring or drawn out, but nothing spectacular either. Needs an Adrian Bordy-Halle Berry kiss moment or something like that.

11.00PM

Morricone delivers the speech in Italian, Clint translates. Is Italian such an expansive language ? Clint is saying a sentence or two per four/five sentence of Morricone. Class touch thanking all the unknown artists.

10.57PM

Clint introduces the Lifetime Award Winner – Ennio Morricone …..wonderful choice – another one of those talents who have been nominated several times (five) but never won. Who can forget that tune from The Good The Bad and the Ugly !

Love them montages…….

Celine Deione sings a Morrocone tune…..

10.45PM

Jerry Seinfeld is here….to present Documentary Feature. Does some usual stand-up stuff – ‘theatres rip us off – oversized, overpriced that we should not be eating to begin with…..we should not be picking up afterwards’ (responding to signs in theatres that ask you to pick up after yourself)

Will Inconvenient Truth win ? or Iraq in Fragments ? or Jesus Camp ?

Winner: Inconvenient Truth ! Gore finally wins something…and is on-stage again. Good short-point by Gore.

10.42PM:

Haven’t heard anything about what people are drinking. On my third martini now.

10.39PM:

Now some great ads from Microsoft Vista …."wow"

10.35PM

This year’s Oscar Cinderella story – Jennifer Hudson Best Supporting Actress. As expected, she breaks down and cries a lot.

10.34PM

Clooney makes it official – Gore not running for Presidency (he found out while he was drinking with the former vice-president and Jack Nicholson backstage) !

10.33PM

Ellen’s in a white suit now – much better !

10.31PM

No Blanchett and Owen presenting the Best Foreign Film. Will Water win ? Or will it be another for Pan ?

Lives of Others from Germany. Winner thanks Swarchenegger !!!

10.28PM

Deneuve presenting with Watanabe, best Foregn Film, probably.

Beautiful montage again of foreign films….compiled by Giuseppe Tornatore.

10.20PM

Self-deprecating joke from Robert Downey Jr about his way-ward days of the 90s. He’s there with Emily Watson to present….

Best Special Effects: Pirates, as expected.

10.17PM

Now a cute MasterCard Ad with an elephant…….

10.13PM

Hollywood targets the 18-25: Ellen asks Spielberg to her picture with Clint Eastwood for her MySpace !! Youtube mentioned by Gwenth Paltrow…

Best Cinematography Award: Pan Labyrinth wins again !

10.07PM

Monahan mentioned that he was inspired to write after watching Lawrence of Arabia – acknowledges O’Toole in the audience.

10.05PM

Ladies and G. Tom Cruise in da house……for the humanitarian award to Sherry Lansing. Amazing that a person can achieve so much in her profession and do so much. She mentions scientists as real heroes – thats me !!! Thank you , thank you !!!!

Kind of ironical Cruise presenting the award though…….

10.03PM

Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway presents for Best Costume……joke about being in character from Devil Wears Prada is tepid. But the girls look divine !

Winner: Marie Antoinette – well deserved IMO.

9.58PM

Desi alert: Amex ad with Wes Anderson about filmamaking (features desi who was there in The Insider) Wait again till tomorrow for the video……

The iPhone ‘hello’ ad again…..

9.53PM

Monahan wins for The Departed – the announcer wrongly says its adapted from the ‘Japanese’ screenplay Internal Affairs (which is actually Hong Kong made)

9.52PM

Cant keep Hanks out of the Oscars !!

Best Adapted Screenplay: How is Borat an ‘adapted screenplay’ ???? S

Shows the sequence when Borat announces ‘ we support your war of terror !’ – another subtle political message ?

I am supporting Children of Men.

9.48PM

Great montage about writers ! Could guess about 80% of the films …….

9.45PM

A bald Jack Nicholson – looks even meaner and sinister…..

Diaz again ! Presenting for best animated feature.

We could do without the animated features in the audience.

Winners: Happy Feet wins !

9.41PM

Aishwarya makes an Oscar appearance – in the Loreal Ad.

9.40PM

Err…..kind of funny joke…..Gore made to stop from making a ‘major announcement’ by the orchestra starting to play (as they do to prevent thank you speeches from going on too long)!!!!

9.38PM

More global warming messages: This Oscar ceremony is green !

Gore and DiCaprio on -stage. DiCaprio tries to get Al Gore to announce ‘something significant’ …?

9.37PM

Political messages and Oscars – strange or usual bedfellows ?

Melissa Etheridge sang her Oscar nominated song for The Inconvenient Truth with global warming messages in the background……

9.33PM

Instead of the usual practice of a celebrity introducing the various movies in the Best Picture categories, they are showing trailers with voice-overs from various people involved in the film. Nice touch. Saves time too.

9.30PM

Some great ads too. Is Oscars going the SuperBowl way ? User generated ad from Loreal…..

9.27PM

So far – the side performances have been short and really good. The dance troupe is doing a great job taking up various shapes, including the Oscar statuette and the Happy Penguins !

9.25PM

Really happy for Arkin – I really like this actor. …do watch GATTACA !

9.22PM

The first major award: Best Supporting Actor: my prediction was: Eddie Murphy

Alan Arkin won !!! Great ! Prediction is wrong – but my preference won…………..

Sign of good things to come for LSM ?

9.20PM

First Oscar for Dreamgirls (Sound Effects) the most nominated film this year. Will they win more ?

9.15PM

Hollywood Sound Effects Choir makes wonderful presentation of sound effects using only the human voice for a montage of Hollywood classics – including planes flying, dancing sequence from Chicago etc. Really good stuff.

Prelude to award for Sound Editing: presented by Carell and Kinnear.

Winner: Letters from Iwo Jima.

9.05PM:

Sweet presentation by the two kids: Abigail, and Jaden Smith ! Bit tacky making them present the awards for ‘shorts’ ….still they pull it off nicely !!

8.59PM

Most candid thank-you speech so far: "its very heavy"….

8.55PM

Will Ferrell in a brilliant song about the comedians being the saddest ones at the Oscars – Jack Black comes in…….

‘Helen Mirren – you are just hot !!’

Now John C Reilly comes in – sings about straddling the divide between comedy and serious drama ……

Brilliant !!!! And they are there to announce an award – make up !!

Winners: Pan’s Labyrinth again !!!

8.50PM

Great ad for Apple iPhone (obviously movie theme)- check it on youtube tomorrow ~~~

8.45PM

First Oscar: Art Direction (presented by Craig and Kidman), will Pirates win ?

Whoever the art-directors are for Pan’s Labyrinth win !! Do you really care who the people are ?

8.42PM

Ok – it is getting a bit funnier. "if it wasn’t for Black, Jews and Gays there would be no Oscars !!!"

And Ellen is spontaneous if not anything else…..down in the aisles now….

Mandatory Al Gore/liberal joke: Jennifer Hudson, America did not vote for her…… and Al Gore – American did vote….."

8.40PM

Ellen – not very funny – even though she is trying…..’people love it when u come from Bronx "

Makes a point about many Mexican and Spanish nominees…….

PJ about American obesity – "no one can fill a seat like Americans"

8.37PM:

Ellen wearing a velvet burgundy suit !!! Ok – repeating myself – dont know much about fashion – but burgundy !! VELVET – with white shoes !!!!! Thats so George Constanza……

8.35PM

Opening montage: short, impromptu, interviews with the nominees against white background – supposedly funny – but *yawn*…….

All the nominees standing and taking a bow – usual hyperbole of ‘best of the best’ ‘from all over the world’ etc.

8.28PM

The real show about to begin……

8.25PM

The Three Amigos of Mexican cinema – Irraritu, Cuaron and del Toro – they are funny. "the exchange rate is good: three of us equal one Scorsese !!!

More inane question: Kate Winslet asked how it was to do the love-scene in Little Children.

Helen Mirren on Oscars: " mother of all shows…."

8.20PM

No major fashion faux-pas yet….thats about as interesting its been on the red carpet.

8.15 PM:

Cameron Diaz being interviewed – looks great (though her face is a bit chubby) !!! Did I tell you she is one of my favs ?

8.12PM:

O/T: Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek – watch the dream team in Bandidas !!

8.10PM:

Red hair with a red-gown : I dont care much for the fashion sense of the costume designer for Devil Wear Prada. But then – what do I know about fashion…..

8.10PM

‘Greg Kinnear has BO’ – Steve Carell !

8.05 PM

Stars apparently arriving in hybrids – well since Al Gore is there…..

8.00PM

Over to ABC !

Funny montage intro to the ABC coverage using the Penguins from Happy Feet……Borat, LSM, Dpearted, The Queen – all are covered……

The Red Carpet on E!

7.50PM:

Best presence on the red carpet: Abigail Breslin.

7.45:

e.g of inane question – Seacrest asking Eddie Murphy – will he, as a fomer SNL-er, be funny in his acceptance speech ? Thankfully Eddie was classy and says it would be too ‘pretentious’ for him to assume he would win.

Ricky Gervais has a taped message for Kate Winslet – funny enough.

7.35 PM

Usual inane questions on the red-carpet – unless you are really interested in fashion trends.

Alan Arkin sezs he never cursed in front on Abigail ……..(LSM)

7.25 PM:

I can see Sacha Baron Cohen – too bad he is not appearing as Borat !!!

And whats the deal with the on-screen drawings, slo-mo replays etc (like the thing sports-casters use) to show off fashion trends…..?

7.15PM:

The first class act: Ryan Seacrest is showing his Calvin Klein underwear just before interviewing Helen Mirren.

Helen Mirren is holding the Union Jack for some reason (do we doubt she is British ?) – she admits to have stolen them !!!