The Screening Room

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Who do you think got robbed Oscar night?

What was the most surprising moment during Sunday's show?

How did Jon Stewart fare as host of the big event?

From the Associated Press:
See behind-the-scenes video, slideshows and multimedia projects on the 80th Annual Academy Awards.

If you've seen There Will be Blood, well, there should be laughter while viewing this SNL skit.

That was a fairly uneventful Oscarcast, and I like that. Didn't have to make any last-second tweaks to to my lead except plug a few quotes in and crunch some single-digit numbers, then it was off to the capable hands of my editor (what up Becker).

Sorry if that's too much info on how the sausage is made. Here are Some random observations to close things out:

For anyone who might care (hi mom), it looks like I had a pretty solid night, going 11-for-13 on the categories I predicted. I'll take that any day...
Picture: No Country
Director: Coens
Actor: Day-Lewis
Actress: Cotillard
Sup. Actor: Bardem
Sup. Actress: Dee --- miss (Swinton)
Original Screenplay: Juno
Adapted screenplay: No Country
Animated film: Persepolis -- miss (Ratatouille)
Documentary: No End in Sight
Foreign Film: The Counterfeiters
Song: Falling Slowly from "Once"
Score: Atonement

With four awards, No Country for Old Men ends up the night's biggest winner, earning picture, director, supporting actor and adapted screenplay. The real surprise comes with the second most honored film, The Bourne Ultimatum. Who would have thought?

We now have 16 films that have taken home awards, the same number of films that won Oscars last year. If you picked The Bourne Ultimatum as the night's big winner, you're looking good, as it leads the pack with three. Close behind are La Vie en Rose and No Country for Old Men with 2. Look for No Country to take over the lead shortly...

Taxi beat out the Iraq overview No End in Sight, which, in hindsight, makes sense. Taxi puts a more human face on what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. Powerful film. It's also still at the Angelika, so you can check it out pretty easily.

It wasn't an upset - the Enchanted songs canceled each other out, and they simply weren't as good. But Falling Slowly is still the best underdog story of the night. Once was made for next to nothing, and it is about the power of music. Great line by Stewart after Hansard's humble acceptance: "Man is that guy arrogant." And very nice touch letting Irglova come back out to say her piece after the commercials.

With 13 of the 24 awards given out, the leaders, all tied with TWO, are No Country for Old Men, The Bourne Ultimatum and La Vie en Rose. Seven other films are tied with one. Not hearing their names called yet: best picture nominees Atonement, Juno and There Will be Blood.

Cotillard was considered a possibility by many, but I'm pretty shocked. I didn't think enough people had seen the film. Shows what I know. Kudos to the Academy for making a surprising and cosmopolitan move. (And, yes, to Becker for calling it).

Good to see Bourne pick up a couple, even if they were in the un-glamorous sound categories. I still say it was one of the best films of the year. And yes, it did sound good.

She deserves it, too. I kinda like the Goth/funereal look, set off by the shock of red hair. The Oscars could use a little punking up. Nice crisp speech too, with props for Clooney. More for Michael Clayton ahead?

Nice to see Dallas' Owen Wilson presenting the best short animated film Oscar. He's been through a rough couple of months, but at least for a few minutes out there onstage, he looked pretty good. Here's hoping for more of the same.

If you're scoring, with the best short film Oscar now handed out, that marks 7 Oscars tonight won by 7 different films.

Botched haircut victims the world over rejoice. Seriously, he's a great actor, and that was a terrifying performance.

Among the presenters tonight, we have Katherine Heigl, The Rock and Miley Cyrus. Now you might ask: Why them and not other people who have no real ties to this year's ceremony. The answer may lie in the fact that the show is being broadcast on ABC (home of Heigl's Grey's Anatomy), which is owned by Disney (the studio behind The Game Plan featuring The Rock and Hannah Montana featuring Miley Cyrus). Could all be a coincidence, but on a show this big, you can bet everything is thought out.

So with the strike did Jon Stewart and company have only two weeks to prepare or did he/they have more than two months? Based on the quality of the jokes, it could go either way. An opening bit on the strike fell flat but then he gained a little traction when talking about "the slate of Oscar-nominated, psychopathic-killer movies." He summed up the year's movies by asking "Does this town need a hug? thank god for teen pregnancy?" -- a reference to the lone comedy, Juno.

Shouldn't we have given out a little supporting sumthin-sumthin by now? Some of us have deadlines over here. Growl. Now we get an Enchanted song.

Ratatouille wins for animated feature, and as much as I loved Persepolis, I can't front on the rat. Brad Bird is genius; his two major Pixar films, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, form a passionate, high-flying defense of high standards.

Elizabeth wins for costumes...which, at this point, are the only parts of the movie I can remember. Sorry Cate.

Just to be on the record, here are my predictions:
Picture: No Country
Director: Coens
Actor: Day-Lewis
Actress: Cotillard
Sup. Actor: Bardem
Sup. Actress: Dee
Original Screenplay: Juno
Adapted screenplay: No Country
Animated film: Persepolis
Documentary: No End in Sight
Foreign Film: The Counterfeiters
Song: Falling Slowly from "Once"
Score: Atonement
I think I will skip the other categories. Feel free to slap me around when I miss one and tell me how awesome I am when I get 'em right.

George Clooney just showed why he's George Clooney, making Regis feel like a million bucks and an old drinking buddy all at once. Talking the usual Oscar stuff, he casually mentioned the rising fortunes of Notre Dame's basketball team. He knows where Rege's passions lie, and he was quick to make ever-casual small talk over sports. Check out Joel Stein's highly entertaining "I had Clooney over for dinner" story in the new issue of Time, which ends with this nugget: "George Clooney is a movie star because he's happiest when he controls how everyone around him feels. Because that's what movies do."

Count on Gary Busey to provide some welcome wheels-offness on the red carpet. First he calls out Seacrest - "I've been looking for you" - then he gives Jennifer Garner some, um, unwelcome hug-and-kiss action. "He almost puched her in the face right there," quipped Seth Rogen moments later. Go Gary. Break up the monotony with madness.

John Travolta is sporting a close-trimmed hair cut that makes him look even more like a Ken doll than usual. The hair looks painted on. And what do you know up comes Dwayne The Rock Johnson with the identical hair cut. Let the rumors fly.

Um, what's Patrick Dempsey doing at the Oscars?

E's crew are all abuzz about George Clooney coming with his girlfriend Sarah Larson. The presence of the former Vegas cocktail waitress and Fear Factor contestant (she bit the head off of a scorpion) set off a frenzy of engagement speculation.

Ryan could not contain his man-crush. He was still swooning over George and his perfect hair when Jason Bateman walked up. Jason said "Yeah, it's looks so real. But if you get the camera up close you can see the netting."

Jason Bateman confirmed that there is a push to make Arrested Development: The Movie a reality. "The snowball is rolling downhill and getting bigger. All the creative are on board."

Quote of the night: Asked about how hard the intense scenes in Michael Clayton were to shoot, Tom Wilkinson said no, in fact, it was easy. "I mean Hamlet is going through hell, but the actor isn't, because it's written so well." Also he confessed to be a "Friends" addict, watching it every day, getting upset when he can't watch it. "I met Lisa Kudrow the other day and I was completely tongue-tied and blushing. She must have thought I was mad, but I was thinking 'she's Phoebe."

She's wearing Calvin Klein, if you care. And she's looking forward to a "magical night" but the pay-off of her red-carpet moment was her pretending to punch Ryan Seacrest again and again, complete with "Thwack" sound effects. Nice.

With no big stars arriving yet -- no little stars either, for that matter -- the next best thing is to talk about the stars that will be here. The first big news of the night: Ryan unofficially outed Angelina Jolie as pregnant. Showing a picture from her arrival at yesterday's Spirit Awards, with her belly obviously bulging, he quipped "She's either pregnant or she's got gas." Har.

E's red carpet/carpet-bombing coverage of the Oscars actually began hours ago, but Ryan Seacrest and the rest of his A-team of C and D listers is on the carpet so it begins in earnest now.

Don’t feel like watching the Oscars from your couch on Sunday? Then head over to the Angelika Film Center (5321 E. Mockingbird Lane in Dallas) to watch the Academy Awards on the big screen. The free event begins at 6 p.m. and wi