I'd Have Thanked My Dog Too

So I have to do a post-Oscars blog. I promise this one won't be all about fashion! Only mostly about it.

The Academy tried to switch things up this year, and along with the lovely ALV, I judged every aspect mercilessly. On the whole, it wasn't a bad show, but... well, I love to judge things. :)

Cons:

1. Belts! WTF? Why did every otherwise lovely dress have some hideous, pointless belt taped around the center, as if they weren't all heavily corseted on their own? SJP, Marion Cotillard, Miley Cyrus... all had belts around their itty bitty waists. Hardly necessary, ladies. You're thin as reeds. We get it. Thanks for playing.

2. Beyonce. Can we all just agree that she's a talentless hack? Really. Please? I want my wonderful childhood memories of "Over the Rainbow" back.

3. Beige (to continue the 'B' motif). Everyone wore it. Yawn. As ALV said - apparently 'color' is out. In general, although some women looked really lovely, there were no knock-outs this year.

4. Heath Ledger - you know, that guy that won the flippin' Oscar??? - getting left out of the memorial slide show! And no, he wasn't in it last year.

5. Oh, Sophia Loren. You used to be so beautiful. What happened?

6. The "what the heck are they doing here?" group. Robert Pattinson of 'Twilight' infamy was the most obvious - he sat closer to the front than Tina Fey and half of the best director nominees. Not only was he there - he presented! At least Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgeons were in the unfortunate Beyonce debacle.

7. I don't really care about Mickey Rourke (except I looked forward to the inevitable drawn-out, doggy-memorial speech). But I care even less for Sean Penn - and he forgot to thank his wife in his speech. Dude, she was sitting twenty feet in front of you. Her name is Robin.

Pros:

1. Hugh Jackman was adorable. Some of it was a tad ridiculous, but he attacked it with such sing and dance gusto that I wanted to hug him.

2. Angelina Jolie's jewels. I've never adored emeralds, but good grief, gorgeousness.

3. I think the little tributes by past winners to the nominees was kinda cute, if a bit rambling.

4. The winner of Best Animated Short - who was Japanese - trying to express his thanks in English and finally ending with something in his own language that everyone understood - "Domo Arigatou, Mister Roboto". Hehe.

5. Despite the obvious omission of Heath Ledger, Queen Latifah's singing for the memorial was fabulous. She's fabulous in general. And she wore color. Maybe not the best cut, but honey, if you got it, flaunt it.

6. Kate Winslet. What can I say? Oh yeah - FINALLY. Cute speech too.

7. 'Slumdog Millionaire' - the greatest movie I've seen in ages actually got all the honors it deserved. They seemed genuinely happy to receive every award they got too, which is always nice to see. The wins for Best Score and Best Song were especially fantastic - he told silly jokes referring to his wife (who I'm sure just smiled and rolled her eyes) and shook slightly during his 20 minutes onstage, including a rather clever compilation of the 3 nominated songs.