Ahh... the coveted golden statue of ambiguous gender...

Before I delve into the nitty-gritty of Hollywood glamour night, let me update you on the MRI results for my knee. Good news - no surgery required! The original diagnosis of sprained MCL( medial collateral ligament) was confirmed by my surgeon. Bad news - still gonna take a lot of time to heal. The actual words of my orthopedic surgeon were "It takes months and months!". So, I'm definitely bummed about that...
Oh well, on with the show now...My DH is in Japan this week on a business trip, so I had the "pleasure" of watching this year's Oscars all by my lonesome self. I'm putting the "pleasure" in quotes mostly due to the fact that the show took waaaaay too long without giving any fun or edgy moments to enjoy (nobody stepping over seats or missing their award due to being in a bathroom or french kissing). So, frankly, it was a bit sleep inducing. I love Ellen DeGeneres' humor and thought she did an okay job hosting. But she was too mellow, I thought. I could have used a bit more laughter. At least, she wasn't a total flop like poor Jon Stewart last year. But, as far as hosts go, I definitely miss Billy Cristal. I think he did the best job of them all (at least the ones I've watched).
So, for those that were less loyal to the tube during Hollywood's golden broadcast, here are some highlights (IMHO, that is).

Scorsese - finally won for Best Director. I was totally rooting for the guy. He came sooo close, sooo many times and finally got his due. You should have seen me looking pleadingly at the screen before the announcement going "Come on, give it to him, please? Come on! How much space does Clint Eastwood even have on his mantel, really?". So, needless to say I was quite happy to see him win. He couldn't even believe it himself - "Can you check the envelope?" he inquired unsure of his fortune. Overall, Departed seemed to have dominated slightly, winning Best Picture, editing and adapted script. It really was a good movie even if violent to a fault. But hey, Scorsese wouldn't be Scorsese if things weren't somehow, somewhere gruesome.
I was a bit surprised to see Little Miss Sunshine nominated for Best Picture. We enjoyed that movie quite a lot, it was truly a breath of fresh air (even if I had to endure Steve Carell for over an hour - picture eyes, picture them rolling), but I would have never thought a small indie flick like that would rise to be nominated for an Oscar! Several Oscars, actually. Though, it didn't win Best Picture, it did snatch the golden dude for Best Original Screenplay, deservedly so. And I don't know about y'all, but I was very inspired to find out that Michael Arndt, the screenplay writer, has actually quit his job as an assistant to Matthew Broderick to write this movie! How cool is that?! I think it reminds us all again that we gotta take risks and lose something in order to even qualify for winning...
Whitaker got Best Actor award for playing a Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in Last King of Scotland. DH and I just saw that movie last week and, I for one, was awed by both main performances there. Whitaker was larger than life and his portrayal of the ruling paranoia was simply awesome. In fact, even Ugandans themselves say that in this role his resemblance to Amin was uncanny. Gave me chills, for sure. The kid (for he does look like he just graduated from high school) that plays Nicholas Garrigan, personal physician and advisor to Amin, did a marvelous job as well, in my opinion.
Another movie that piqued my interest was Pan's Labyrinth. We didn't see it yet and, frankly, when I first read the description of the plot, I was kind of skeptical. Fantasy and fascism just don't occupy the same plane in this universe for me (I had a similar problem with Life is Beautiful). However, Pan's Labyrinth won several awards for cinematography, art direction and makeup and while it was winning those awards they were showing clips from the movie. Now, I'm still ambivalent about the whole subject matter, but the clips were really cool in a surreal kinda way. So I think, I've become of open mind when it comes to watching this movie. And so it went on the list... Anyone see it yet? Thoughts?
So that's all for the actual significant (in my humble opinion) wins. On a goof side (and, yawn, there wasn't that much) there were a couple of things that were a bit weird.
First, what's up with Jack Nicholson showing up bold and in sunglasses? The dude has lost it, I'll tell ya! And second, there was an incredibly embarrassing moment when Clint Eastwood was presenting Ennio Morricone with Lifetime Achievement award, Ennio said "Thank You" and... and that were his only words in English. From then on he continued in absolute confused silence of the audience in Italian! Which wasn't that big of a surprise for someone, who's, say, Italian. BUT, there was NOBODY translating! So, for several minutes he just kept talking and then the cameras were cutting to the people in the audience looking quite lost. Finally, Clint Eastwood had blown me away by saying that he would translate and proceeded doing just that. Now, who knew the cowboy was fluent in Italian? Not me!
That pretty much wraps up my boring account of a boring ceremony, but hey don't shoot the Messenger!
H