Oscar thoughts at what I hope is past the mid-point: Could we please have even more awkward shots of Martin Scorsese in the audience? They couldn't get a camera near Olivia DeHavilland or Mickey Rooney when they were mentioned but Scorsese is in every third cut.
Steve Martin's doing okay after a very up-and-down monologue. A couple of moments there, he had that "I'm bombing and I know it" look. Betcha if he ever gets asked again — and he probably will be — he's going to go out and do some stand-up appearances just before for batting practice. Or refuse to do it at all during a war.
Told you Michael Moore would get a mixture of boos and applause. The thing he perhaps didn't realize (or didn't care about) was that even some audience members who agree with his opinions would boo him for voicing them then and there. And of course, we had to get two shots of Scorsese — one leading the standing ovation; the other, expressing his disapproval of, at the very least, Moore's manners.
Usually, the Oscars have tuxedoed extras there to fill empty seats when stars are out in the lobby or restroom. This was the first time I recall seeing so many empty seats in audience shots, and I'm wondering if this isn't related to the heightened security procedures. Looks like they did away with seat-fillers.
The CGI Mickey presenting one award was cute but if ever a character belonged in cel animation, it's The Mouse. It's interesting how the almost-traditional "animated star giving out an Oscar" has progressed over the years as the technology has improved. It used to be that he was awkwardly matted-in and since he was pre-recorded, the human had to open the envelope and read the winner. A few years ago, they went to having the cartoon character open the envelope but he'd read the winner with the card covering his mouth so that the tech staff could dub in the proper pre-recorded line. Then once we got to CGI, it evolved to them being able to film five different endlines, and the director would run the correct one. I'm curious as to whether whoever did Mickey's voice (didn't sound like Wayne Allwine, but it might have been) was there tonight, and the whole thing was animated via live motion-capture technology. Someone ought to do a big article somewhere researching the various ways these spots have evolved.
A job I'm glad I don't have: Deciding which members of the Hollywood community who died during the preceding year to leave out of the montage of the departed…and which one was the most beloved and should therefore close it. I guess Billy Wilder was a good choice, though I'm surprised they didn't insert a couple of cutaways to Martin Scorsese.
And hey, isn't that Neil Ross announcing? Catch you later at the post-Oscars party.