2009 Oscars Live Blog

And here we go.

7:48: The show starts in a few minutes. Will it be all about Slumdog? Based on the red carpet, it certainly seems like it. Even the little kids are there-you know, the ones that the producers are accused of underpaying. Many, many of the people on the red carpet said they are involved in a big dance number, and they all look really nervous. This should be fun. Get a refresher on what to expect here.

8:02: Supposedly the first Oscar of the night will be for supporting actress, which could also be the first scandal. Since Kate Winslet got bumped to best actress for The Reader, it's literally wide open, though Penelope Cruz is in the lead. Viola Davis for Doubt? Or Taraji P. Henson for Benjamin Button, as stat king Nate Silver says? We're in the tank for Cruz, but who knows.

8:04: p.s. The actual show starts at 8:30. ABC just says 8 for this red-carpet business.

8:09: Love that the little Slumdog kids don't really speak English. Fox Searchlight clearly fed them lines about the Oscars. They're totally going to get into trouble.

8:15: The Academy realized they can't afford to turn down movie trailers now, so we're going to have a bunch of Super Bowl-style event previews all night. The first is Knowing, the Nic Cage movie about the end of the world (or something). Looks pretty lame.

8:22: Ahhh creepy ABC guy just asked Marisa Tomei about being naked. People won't stop! Yes, she has boobs, and yes they're in The Wrestler. Come on people! Never mind that she won an Oscar 15 years ago. Boobs.

8:30: And here's your host, Hugh Jackman...

8:33: Oh...wow. This is kind of awkward, kind of awesome. Hugh Jackman is a sport.

8:41: The opening could have been worse. Kind of a mess, but certainly not boring. Jackman is in it for the long haul. There will be more time to talk about this later. Nikki Finke hates it.

8:45: Supporting actress! Go Penelope!

8:48: We rule. Aww, she thanks Almodovar. "This ceremony is a moment of unity for the world." ABC certainly hopes so. Ah, any Spanish speakers where you are?

8:57: Screenplays handed out. Paste goes 2-2 in the categories. Slumdog's dominance begins, and Dustin Lance Black gives an extremely heartfelt ode to gay kids. That will be a speech the Academy likes to quote. No one is Kansas is watching anymore, but that was kind of sweet.

9:04: Wall-E wins best animated feature, everyone's prediction. Cute, forgettable acceptance speech. Probably last commercial winner.

9:08. So far, this is just like previous years, if a little more uneven. Not sure what all the pre-show psycho buzz is about. Highlight so far is Japanese guy, who Queen Latifah seemed to really like. Maybe there's a surprise on the way...?

9:14: Daniel Craig stages with Sarah Jessica Parker. Throwing bone to middle-aged female viewers.

9:17: No 0-13 night for Curious Case of Benjamin Button after all: it just snagged art direction. Boring speech. Fellow commenters below seem to be into Steve Martin and Tina Fey as hosts. Poor Hugh Jackman, misfire.

The nominee presentations are, to be fair, better than in years past, with a half-effort to explain obscure categories. Paste 5-4 btw.

9:19: Make the 5-6. We rule. Duchess takes costume design.

9:22: 6-7! Benjamin Button wins makeup. That's two awards for it so far, the most of any movie. That won't last.

9:26: So that Romance bit was supposed to be part of branded genre montages to get the blockbusters involved. I don't know, doesn't really seem to be working. Bonus on Robert Pattinson, though now all the young girls are going to be out.

9:30: An hour in. Will the producers keep it to three hours? Let's hope so. Zzz so far.

9:34: So Ben Stiller is doing his Joaquin Phoenix bit. Ha... ha. Marisa Tomei really likes it. They did it yesterday at the Indie Spirit Awards too.

9:35: Okay, this is kind of funny.

9:36: Slumdog Millionaire wins cinematography (7-8!), which continues to suggest it will go all the way. The sound categories should be soon, and if it wins those, it's over.

9:38: We're not that into the fashion stuff, but why is Jessica Biel hiding behind that dress? Meh. Here to be resident hot chick to give geeks awards. Go geeks.

9:42: Agreed with Tim in the comments, this is a much lighter, more improvisational Academy Awards. Feels looser. It's not clear if that's intended or not. Case in point: Pineapple Express guys are here to go through the year's movies.

9:47: Another short category. One more to go with these. (Correction: We did predict animated short film, and we predicted wrong. That makes us 8-9, still not bad!) HEATH LEDGER is next, says announcer. God, not looking forward to this if it will be anywhere near as awkward as it was at the Globes.

9:54: Another big dance number. Hugh + Beyonce. Fox execs trying to sell Wolverine must be having a heart attack.

10:00: Here comes Heath. Where is Bardem?

10:10: That was pretty painless. Very sad. And now the pop-culture moment is complete. 9-10.

10:11: Bill Maher says there's no god. Uh oh.

10:13: Man on Wire wins best documentary (10-11). Philippe Petit, the tightrope guy, comes on stage and balances an Oscar on his head. Awesome.

10:22: So Paste has 10 of the 11 categories we predicted so far. There are two others we didn't, so that makes 13 awards given out so far -- and 11 more to go. No way is this thing over by 11:30.

10:24: And Curious Case gets another tech win, for visual effects. We got it, though we were pulling for The Dark Knight. (11-12)

10:30: The Dark Knight will win two awards for eight nominations -- it just won one sound award, and Slumdog won the other. A split like that almost never happens. (My crowd loves the Slumdog sound guy -- cute.) We're at 12-14 -- we had Dark Knight for both.

10:35: Slumdog Millionaire gets editing. The cast of the movie goes wild. We're thinking Slumdog will go 8-10 in its awards now, barring a music upset.

10:36: Fatigue is setting in. We're owning this at 13-15, but that's probably because the show has been totally predictable so far. Mickey Rourke, where are you?

10:42: A breather -- Jerry Lewis honorary Oscar. Surprised they snagged Eddie Murphy after he ran off the set a couple years back when he lost for Dreamgirls. (Oh, they were both the Nutty Professor, got it.)

10:50: Original score mish-mash was actually pretty nice. Lots of solid music. And... Slumdog wins it again.

10:51: These musical numbers are a little impenetrable, but they underscore how this is all about Hollywood's nod to Bollywood.

10:57: A.R. Rahman wins song for "Jai Ho" from Slumdog. Yes, kids, that means MIA doesn't have an Oscar.

11:00: It's 11. Even Zac Efron looks tired. This is one soul-crushing show.

11:02: SHOCK! Literally the only one of the night. Departures from Japan wins best foreign language film Oscar. This was thought to be a contest between The Class and Waltz with Bashir. Another awesome Japanese dude on stage.

11:08: People who died with... Queen Latifah?

11:12: Ah Paul Newman... we need more champagne.

11:15: The end of the line. Only actor, actress, director, picture. We're 15 of 18 categories we predicted right now. Here we go.

11:21: Danny Boyle, our man. Best director. Good for him. Boyle gives the Oscar show producers a compliment (!) and says that he "doesn't know how [the show] looks on TV." Hilarious. Yeah, we'd probably love the show too if our movie won every award.

11:27: OMG, Sophia Loren.

11:30: And Kate Winslet has her Oscar. "It isn't a shampoo bottle any more." Cute dad too!

11:35: We kind of dig having all these old actors come on to give out the awards. Rourke or Penn? Ah!

11:41: SEAN PENN! Crazy. Kind of sad. Milk got its consolation prize.

11:44: MAN, what a leftist schmoozefest.

11:50: BEST PICTURE: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. And there it is. Adorable, adorable children.

Midnight: Weird montage over credits. More on that later. For now, we got 18/22 that we guessed. Go us. Goodnight.