I have no special insights on the Oscars which seem to me to be very political. That being said, here’s who I think will win tonight:
BEST ACTOR: Colin Firth
BEST ACTRESS: Natalie Portman
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Hailee Steinfeld
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christian Bale
BEST DIRECTOR: Tom Hooper
BEST PICTURE: The King’s Speech
Oscar the Grouch’s picks are below.
I think Melissa Leo will beat out Steinfeld for Best Supporting Actress, but otherwise we agree. I’m not expecting many surprises tonight, though I am expect:
Inane banter between presenters, some of whom will mispronounce nominee names because they can’t be bothered to get it right
A bunch of presenters who don’t belong there (TV stars, someone who has a movie coming out next year, Justin Bieber, etc.)
Ignoring past winners from more than the last 10 years (unless Jack is in his front row seat) for the new and young – example, no Lauren Bacall award tribute because we need the time for inane montages and musical numbers)
But yes, I will be watching to the end, as always.
Diane and I will watch to the bitter end, too, Jeff. I suspect few people under the age of 50 will bother.
I don’t always make it anymore. Especially if the winner is a sure thing like this year. I agree with all your choices of winners although Melissa Leo may win if her ads didn’t turn off too many people. Doesn’t hurt her to be in an HBO series as well. But they like to choose kids and old people for supporting so Hallie might win.
Hailee did most of the heavy lifting in TRUE GRIT, Patti. As Jeff Meyerson pointed out, she deserved the BEST ACTRESS nomination.
I’m one of those few people under 50 who’ll bother, though I can probably find better ways to spend that 3hrs and 40mins.
Franco and Hathaway as host and hostess is gonna be a real crap shoot. Wish they’d brought back Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, who I thought did a pretty good job last year
My kids and my students will not watch the Oscars, Drongo. Too long and too slow. Everything in their lifestyle is about speed and compression of information.
I still remember as a kid in the late 1950’s trying to stay up and listening outside my parents’ bedroom door for the winners. Of course in those days there were real movie stars.
I think the low point was when Nixon was President and Hollywood was almost dead. I remember one year when Liz Taylor came out to end the show by saying we should “honor America” and all sing “God Bless America.”
The cameras then caught her standing there, clearly not knowing the words, while the crowd streamed for the exits.
Yes, I remember that moment, Jeff. It captured the sullen mood of our country back then. A similar incident happened a couple years ago when Diane and I went to see Jewel performance at the Seneca-Niagara casino. Jewel came out to do an encore, but most of the crowd streamed for the doors. “This won’t take long and then you can go back to your gambling,” Jewel said bitterly.
I’ve repeatedly punched my computer for being too slow. Sadly, violence didn’t speed things up.
For the first couple of hours of the Oscar broadcast, I’ll also be playing Call of Duty as I watch. Then, around hour three, I’ll make myself a snack and read the latest issue of Maxim. All of this helps the time to fly by. Sorta.
I’m in the middle of MASS EFFECT 2, Drongo. I have CALL OF DUTY around here somewhere. So many games, so little time…
Interesting about Jewel. I kind of like it when entertainers actually show real emotion. They all seem so carefully packaged most of the time.
After that Jewel performance, I vowed never to go to another concert at that venue, Drongo. The crowd was rude: getting up, moving around, and talking on their cell phones during Jewel’s wonderful performance. What a disrespectful bunch! We have gone to concerts at the Fallsview Casino across the river in Canada. Those audiences have been respectful and polite.
I just tuned in. Best Foreign Film got an Oscar and now Best Supporting Actor is up. I don’t care about any of them. I want to see Steinfeld win, but none of the rest interest me because I haven’t seen the movies.
I wanted Hailee Steinfeld to win, but they gave the award to Melissa Leo (as Patti Abbott predicted), Bob.
Yeah, and it happened shortly before I tuned in. I checked on line. Drat.
I picked all the major Oscar winners, Bob, except for BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS. But I think we haven’t seen the last of Hailee Steinfeld (who would have gotten my vote).
I nailed them all – in fact there was not one surprise all night – but it was just so predictable that is no great accomplishment.
The highlights for me were Kirk Douglas at 94 and the kids of PS 22 singing at the end.
I wish I’d had the “over” on the number of dresses Anne Hathaway wore,
And someone should have fired all the hairdressers, especially ScarJo’s.
Roger Ebert called the hosts of the Oscars “the worst in a long time.” I’ll be watch OPRAH today, Jeff, for the after-OSCARS details.
The PS 22 kids will be on Oprah today.
And the politicians want to cut music programs in schools and scapegoat the teachers, Jeff. I hope Oprah defends them.
Not many surprises, I’d hoped True Grit might get costumes or cinematography, or something, but no. I thought Hathaway was okay, but the guy was really awful. I don’t recall what it was now, but I did see one film that was mentioned as a nominee. I’d rather have seen that other luncheon they showed clips of.
Most of my students will watch Internet summaries of the OSCARS, Rick. Young people will not sit still for 3 and 1/2 hours of “thank yous.”
James Franco must have been the worst and most comatose host ever. He made poor Anne frantic to hold up her end of it. The Randy New man song was awful as were the others.
It was a real dud-not even any funny dresses to laugh at.
The two young girls both looked gorgeous though and as they kept noting-wore age appropriate gowns.
It may be like Miss America. It has outlasted interest. Especially with all the other award shows preceding it.
Exactly, Patti. The OSCARS seem anti-climatic after all the award shows that precede it. The show is also way tooooo long!
If Franco was too busy pursuing his 9 degrees from 7 different schools (or whatever) he should have turned down the gig. Apparently just before he went on he told the cameraman “this could be bad.”
It was.
Apparently the final total on Anne Hathaway’s dresses was 8.
Leave it to Oprah to pick her favorite as the one described on Dave Barry’s blog as looking like “a fruit roll-up.”
But then, look at how she dresses… .
Anne Hathaway tried to make up for Franco’s dull performance, Jeff. She looked gorgeous in all her 8 outfits. And, I hear Anne Hathaway will be the next Cat-Woman!