Didn't do my Oscar diary this year, and it's a good thing too, as there were very few noteworthy moments. I didn't even have a pen and paper to take notes, but here are a few things that stuck out in my mind:
- Chris Rock was nothing more than adequate. For some reason many of my co-workers thought that his introduction jokes were funny, especially the Tim Robbins one, while I found them predictable. His best line of the night was about next year's drive-through Oscar lane for the crap categories. I say bring back Steve Martin or get Conan O'Brien.
- When Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor accepted their award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and they started saying how they have been partners together for many years and both have amazing wives, was I the only one expecting them to say, "So there is no better time to tell the world that the two of us are madly in love with each other"? Would've been quite a moment.
- If you're gonna pair Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek together, don't let them do voiceovers unless you have some way of identifying which one is speaking at any given moment.
- Funniest moment of the evening: Vin Diesel's hairpiece as he's filming the new Sidney Lumet movie. I'll never be able to sit through that movie for fear of laughing myself to death. It could feature a threesome with Kate Beckinsale and the Olsen twins and I'd still not be able to watch.
- Jeremy Irons's joke about the gunshot noise was funny, but would've been better had they cut to P. Diddy lying in a pool of his own blood.
- Highlight of the evening: I won my Oscar pool, nailing 17 of the 21 categories we voted on (sorry Short Films and Sound Editing).