Chick 1 says:

I wasn’t going to start this rundown of the telecast until it actually started at 7:30 CST.  But after what just happened on the red carpet, it’s time to start.

5:50 pm: All six children from the cast of Slumdog Millionaire being interviewed by Ryan Seacrest.  Was that not the most adorable thing ever?!  I could have eaten them all for dessert.  Closely followed by the other cast members from Slumdog, all humble, excited, and a little giddy.  And they seem to handling the whirlwind surrounding their film quite well.  I hope this movie wins Best Picture!

6:30 pm: First glimpse of Robert Downey Jr.  He looks great!  Clean shaven & all the gray out of his hair.  Nice tux…let’s hope he’s not wearing tennis shoes like at the Golden Globes.

6:50 pm: OK, I like Juliana Rancic but stop wetting yourself over Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie!

7:00 pm: Moving from E! to ABC.  Tim Gunn hosting the red carpet?  I really like & respect him but I’m not sure how he’ll do.

7:20 pm: OK, I take it back.  Mr. Gunn is doing just fine.

7:21 pm: The introduction of the accountants was cute & extremely dorky.  I hope they enjoyed their moment.

7:27 pm:  I’m laughing that they’re selling the Oscars right before it starts, hoping people won’t tune out now that the red carpet is over.

7:28 pm: Another laugh.  First commercial is a local one that is a bit of a joke in Nashville.  Why is my Asian lasik surgeon ballroom dancing?

7:32 pm: “Everything’s being downsized.  Next year I’ll be starring in a movie call New Zealand.”  Ouch!  Kiwis will be offended.

7:38 pm:  Anne Hathaway in the opening musical number.  Very funny.

7:40 pm:  I don’t think I’ve enjoyed an opening number on the Oscars since the days of Billy Crystal.  Nice job, Hugh!

7:42 pm: Oops!  Little kafuffle with the curtain opening for the Supporting Actress montage.  And did we hear the control room in a panic for just a moment?

7:46 pm: Yikes!  Goldie Hawn, pull up your dress.

7:48 pm: Penelope Cruz wins Best Supporting Actress for Vicki Christina Barcelona.  Haven’t seen it.  I was rooting for Taraji P. Henson for Benjamin Button.

7:50 pm:  That award took a long time.  Does not bode well for a short broadcast.

7:55 pm: I love it when they read the screenplay over the finished film.  An amazing journey.

7:56 pm: Dustin Lance Black wins Best Original Screenplay for Milk. 

8:01 pm:  Yes!  Simon Beaufoy wins Best Adapted Screenplay for Slumdog Millionaire!

8:03 pm: Jennifer Aniston & Jack Black, that’s an odd combo.  Do they have a movie coming out?

8:06 pm: Animation montage….interesting.  Not great.

8:07 pm: Wall-E wins Best Animated Feature.  Shocker! (read sarcasm)

8:10 pm: La Maison en Petits Cubes wins Best Animated Short.  Aww, cute Asian man obviously memorized speech in English.  “Domo arigato, Mr Roboto.”   Nice parting shot.

8:16 pm  Hulo, Daniel Craig!

8:18 pm: Curious Case of Benjamin Button wins Art Direction.  That was a hard category.  Lots of good work.  And I have to say I think Benjamin Button deserved it the least.  I wasn’t overwhelmed by the changing decades in the movie.

8:22 pm: The Duchess wins Costume Design.  I’m sure the winner does wonderful work & is a good person but he’s one of the reasons people tune out acceptance speeches.

8:25 pm: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button wins Best Makeup.  I do remember when watching the movie, giggling to myself that this ugly baby was going to grow into Brad Pitt.  When  the girl runs into him years later & declares “Good Lord!”  I knew what she meant!

8:29 pm:  The Romance montage was better than the Animation one.  I did laugh at how much kissing in the rain there was.  Standard!

8:32 pm:  Ben Stiller’s mocking of Joaquin Phoenix is hysterical.  “You look like you work in a hassidic meth lab.”  Funny.

8:36 pm: Anthony Dod Mantle wins Best Cinematography for Slumdog Millionaire.  Awesome!  Awww, his wife looks pretty.

8:39 pm: Crap!  A MasterCard commercial about a dog just made me tear up.  Priceless.

8:40 pm: Jessica Biel gets the thankless job of hosting & summing up the technical Academy Awards.  Could they not have made that more interesting?  There’s some fascinating moviemaking technology out there.

8:42 pm:  Yippee!  A new ad for The Soloist!

8:45 pm: James Franco & Seth Rogan laughing inappropriately at The Reader.  Pretty funny.

8:47 pm: Spielzeugland (Toyland) wins Best Live Action Short.  Um, did Seth Rogan just snicker at a funny foreign word?

8:57 pm: Is the musical number flopping as badly as I think it is? Zzzzzzzz.  It just doesn’t seem to flow.  But Beyonce does have a serious set of pipes.  And Vanessa Hudgens’ voice isn’t bad either.

9:04 pm: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, really?  You’re wearing a cap?!

9:08 pm: Heath Ledger wins Best Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight.  No surprise there.  They had already announced that the Oscar will go to his daughter.  His family is accepting.  This may be the most touching, boring speech ever.  And this is definitely one acceptance that won’t be played over by the orchestra.

9:12 pm:  Documentary montage.  Great quote.  “There really have been amazing breakthroughs in digital technology where anyone can take a camera anywhere & get the shot.  But that doesn’t mean you have a movie to make.”

9:15 pm:  Man on Wire wins Best Documentary Feature.  I’ve heard a lot about this film.  It’s on my Netflix queue now.

9:18 pm: Smile Pinki wins Best Documentary Short Film.  Not a clue about this one.

9:23 pm:  Funny Jimmy Kimmel/Tom Cruise ad.

9: 26 pm: Action montage.  Now that’s adrenaline!  Good year for action movies.

9:28 pm: Curious Case of Benjamin Button wins Visual Effects.  Not sure if I have a preference between Dark Knight, Iron Man, & Benjamin Button.  The action movies are sure more glamorous but there truly is a subtlety to what they accomplished in Curious Case.

9:30 pm: The Dark Knight wins Best Sound Editing.  All good nominees but Dark Knight sound was awesome.

9:31 pm: Will Smith is as charming as ever.

9:32 pm: Slumdog Millionaire wins Best Sound Mixing.  Fine but now that I think back to Sound Editing I think that Wall-E should have won.  They had to create a world of sound from nothing.

9:36 pm: Slumdog Millionaire wins for Best Editing.  Again, another good batch of nominees.  But Slumdog was outstanding.

9:42 pm: Eddie Murphy presenting Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Jerry Lewis.  The program momentarily grinds to a halt.  But Lewis’ thank yous are classy & brief.

9:50 pm: Ahhhh. Movie scores.  Sigh.

9:54 pm: A. R. Rahman wins Best Score for Slumdog Millionaire.  I did love the music in this movie.

9:56 pm: Cool.  Indian dancers.  Is one of them blonde or is that just the light?  They must have gotten John Legend to perform the song from Wall-E.  Peter Gabriel refused because it was so cut down for time.  Legend’s performance feels a little lackluster.

10:01 pm: A. R. Rahman wins Best Original Song for Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire.  I loved this song in the movie.

10:06 pm: Awww.  It’s Freida Pinto from Slumdog.  She is so beautiful.

10:07 pm: Okuribito wins Best Foreign Language Film.  Another cute Asian man with poor English.

10:10 pm:  I have to say, the auditorium is beautiful.  Anything sparkly pretty much has my approval.

10:11 pm: Queen Latifah to introduce…no, sing during the In Memorium montage.  How do they decide what order to put these in?  I’ve seen some done alphabetically or in order of their deaths during the year but this seems random.  Are we saving Heath Ledger for the big ending?  Hmm..do they even show people who weren’t members of the Academy?  I don’t think he was.  Of course, as of a few minutes ago he is.  Ah, no Heath Ledger.  Ended on Paul Newman, of course.

10:19 pm: Good call!  No boring speech from the president of the Academy.

10:21 pm: Danny Boyle wins Best Director for Slumdog Millionaire.  No surprise here.  Fun Tigger reference in his speech.  Nice speech!

10:25 pm: Here comes the Best Actress Award.

10:27 pm: Sophia Loren, Shirley McLaine, Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry, & Marion Cotillard get a standing ovation.  That is some serious talent onstage.

10:28 pm: Anne Hathaway looks like she’s about to cry.

10:31 pm: Doesn’t Meryl Streep have the most magnificent bone structure?

10:32 pm: Brad Pitt is clutching Angelina Jolie.  I think he’s more nervous than she is.

10:33 pm: YES!  Kate Winslet wins Best Actress for The Reader.  As Hugh Jackman joked earlier, I haven’t seen it but she is amazing & it’s about time that she’s up on stage with a stature in her hand!  Nice dress too!  Aww, cute.  Dad whistled so she’d know where he is.  She’s named 2 of my favorite people, Peter Jackson & Emma Thompson.

10:36 pm: Moving on to Best Actor.

10:37 pm: Robert DeNiro, Adrien Brody, Michael Douglas, Ben Kingsley, and Anthony Hopkins get another standing O.

10:42 pm: Anthony Hopkins, quit swaying side to side.  You’re making the camera man seasick.

10:44 pm: Wow! An upset!  Sean Penn wins Best Actor for Milk.  Everyone thought Mickey Rourke was a shoo-in.  I don’t agree with Penn’s politics and he often lacks a sense of humor but he is an outstanding actor and can be quite likable.

10:47 pm: Sean Penn is congratulated by the 5 men who presented the category.  It’s like the great cloud of witnesses.

10:48 pm: Steven Spielberg to present Best Picture.  Love him.

10:49 pm: Inspiring Best Picture montage, editing past Best Picture winners among the nominees.

10:53 pm: Finally, I get to see what Kathleen Kennedy & Frank Marshall look like.

10:54 pm: Woohoo! Slumdog Millionaire takes the big one!  Best Picture!  Go see it!

Awww. there’s a huge crowd onstage including the children.

10:56 pm: Ah, Hugh gives a teaser for the Upcoming Movie montage.  Might we get a peek at…yes!  Sherlock Holmes!  Oooh. Johnny Depp & Christian Bale are Public Enemies.  Oh too many cool things coming! 

11:00 pm: Sorry.  Momentarily captivated by Upcoming Movie montage.  Sigh.   I love movie trailers.  More places to visit in your imagination in 2009.  Have fun out there!  And go see Slumdog Millionaire.