Heidi: Hey, look, Peter Lorre won an Oscar

So. A few surprises--Meryl Streep over Viola Davis, Hugo winning Best Visual Effects, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo winning Best Editing.

Not a bad ceremony. A bit flat, but not bad. Crystal seemed uninspired, but is a pro and landed a few decent one-liners. Doubt he'll host again. They should seriously try giving it to Jim Carrey or Will Ferrell or Seth Rogen.

The Artist is a nice film. Good for it.

Next Year: NOLAN must win BEST DIRECTOR and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES must win BEST PICTURE, enough said, good night folks

if it's half as good as TDK, maybe. plus an actor has to die for it to be nominated

I predict the ratings for this will be horrendous. Airing against the NBA All Star game won't help.

They'll be hard pressed to get more than the Grammy's this year.

RDJ would make a great host.

Eh, I'm not sure. He's fun in those small doses, but the laconic, sarcastic presence doesn't scream "host" to me.

JIM CARREY

BTW, there is no precedence to Dragon Tattoo's Editing win.

Ever since ACE started honoring Best Editing in films, only twice a movie has won the Eddie, but lost Editing at the Oscars. In both of those cases, the films were Best Picture nominees.

Apart from that, is is the first film since 1949 that won Best Editing and nothing else.

Would've been a good pick 15 years ago.

He's still an amazing talent. If anything he suits the Oscars more now, having matured and seasoned a bit since the Ace Ventura days.

And he is a real energetic performer with lots of live experience, which sets him apart from most of the Apatow company.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo winning Film Editing was a big surprise. It's also a surprise the way they treated the presentation of Editing (by lumping it with Sound Editing and Sound Mixing? Do they do this all the time?). Editing, along with another film-specific award Cinematography, should be regarded more highly, next to Directing.

There was definitely a conscious decision to conflate and rush the technical categories as much as possible.

The problem though is that he's pretty much irrelevant now.

But so is Crystal.

Yep. Tonight seemed really old fashioned.

Christoph Waltz won at Cannes too. But I suppose he didn't win Best Actor at the Oscars.

William Hurt for Kiss of the Spider Woman. On the actress side, there is Holly Hunter for The Piano.

What will Hollywood do with Jean Dujardin? Oscar winner, handsome, charismatic, but so French. (Strangely reflecting the plot of The Artist...)

Bond villain? A few exotic lover roles, a la Bardem in Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Eat Pray Love? Gerard Depardieu had a few English-language successes--Peter Weir's Green Card; My Father, the Hero; a small role in Branagh's Hamlet--but ended up more or less returning to France.

I also wonder if Dujardin can not do the ham. It's my understanding it's 100 percent his "bit." The goofy smile, the dancing, the broad charisma. He is truly a slapstick performer.

Definitely villain. See Mikael Nyqvist...

A few thoughts:

-Billy Crystal definitely showed his age last night. I chuckled here and there, but I'm admitting I was wrong in saying Crystal would bring it, even in safe mode. His shtick is just dated. It was less laugh-worthy and more "Hey look, our funny uncle is just awkward now... is it time for The Home?"

-Great that The Artist and Hugo split the wins, although Scorsese deserved it for BD. Too bad.

-Angelina Jolie looks amazing for 73.

-You know, we don't need to look back through the years EVERY YEAR. I shudder to think of the 100th Academy Awards. It'll be a fourteen hour show.

-The presenters were awful. Why are people who aren't funny writing material for them? If the writers were so funny, they'd be writing for sitcoms, not the Oscars.

-On the other hand, Emma Stone and Ben Stiller (mainly Stone) were the best part of the show. I almost wish they would host. But in a large, three-hour dose, it probably wouldn't work. Although, it couldn't be worse than Franco/Hathaway or 2012 Crystal, could it?

-Everything else was the norm. All expected winners in the biggies.

Indeed...

I agree on the recap of that current year's array of films rather than always doing a remembrance of films throughout Oscar history. Also, Crystal did mention that HP made somelike 7 billion dollars but I hear what you're saying. There was a kind of disrespect for the lack of recognition for a series of films that was well received overall critically and commercially yet received minimal award recognition for the series.

Billy Crystal wasn't brilliant, but he made me laugh more often than Hathaway and Franco would have done in 10 hours. Oh, and to all daughters: Ratings are slightly up compared to last year - despite the All-Star-Game

Streep winning is really a shame and just shows again that the Academy is corrupt and possibl racist. Black actresses can get awards - as long as it is for supporting and in funny roles (and don't bring up the ONE exception). How many awards did Weinstein get? 10? He even got Documentary. Oscar voters really are whores.

Except that Streep was actually better than Davis.

I normally watch these type of shows anyway, but I have to agree that twitter and things like that make it more interesting to watch because of the instant commenting that you can participate in. This goes along with a app I downloaded called Viggle, I think. I saw it on usatoday and I was using that during the show. It's capturing my viewing habits but it made the award show more interactive as it asked questions periodically and allows you to earn points that you can use towards rewards like gift certificates and what not. Interestingly, during the Cirque moment it asked whether you liked it or hated it and I was in the hate category but it was like 92% to 8% liked it.