Cute closing number. Thanks to anyone who stopped by tonight; hope you had fun.
Funniest line of the night.
I was not expecting Ang Lee.
OMG! Who’d have thought Grey Poupon would have the ad of the night?
QT doesn’t have much of a self-esteem problem. 
It’s basically an opera, with all of the dialogue sung (though not in the musical style you normally associate with opera). The story is sort of soap opera-ish, not the type of thing I’d normally enjoy, but I stumbled across it one day and could not turn away.
The music they played just now, “I Will Wait For You,” is from “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” which you need to see the next time TCM airs it.
Shockingly, Seth is able to make those little bumpers to commercial and not sound like he’s mocking them. I’m as amazed by that as anything.
Love me some Norah Jones.
Belly laugh.
I don’t know about the Stella Artois chalice, but one of these days I want a genuine Guinness pint glass.
Well, this is a surprise.
TCM, which does an “in memoriam” reel every December, always seems to do a better, classier job of it than the Oscars.
Here is the video that inspired that Sprint commercial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtyqS68ViWk
I really think they ought to go back to presenting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award on the live broadcast.
I have to say, I’m enjoying Seth MacFarlane more than I thought I would.
“Pretty much everything the Christian Right says is wrong with Hollywood.”
Good job, but I think Shirley Bassey still wins the evening.
Well, as soon as I said that, they changed the lighting.
Adele’s dress kind of blends into the backdrop.
Jennifer Lawrence may be a fine actor, but with cue cards? Not so great.
Someone on Facebook expressed surprise that there could be a tie. There was a famous one in the 1960s, between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/katharine-hepburn-and-barbra-streisand-tie-for-best-actress-oscar
Hope you’re having fun. I am.
If I recall correctly, Plummer hated TSOM for many years because of typecasting, but he seems to have made peace with it in recent years.
The Von Trapp Family Singers joke made me laugh.
It’s like Samson; if you cut your hair, you lose your ability to edit sound effects.
Wow, what a nice little speech. I like when they thank the people who are important to them instead of the laundry list of professional contacts whom they feel compelled to thank.
It ruins the illusion to show that everyone in the audience is looking at the monitor, rather than the stage, because they can only see Ted on the monitor.
Yes, but that wasn’t the theme from their particular iteration of “Star Trek.”
So far, Kristin Chenoweth has hosted red carpet coverage and appeared in cruise ship commercials. Does she have gambling debts or something?
John Hodgman on Facebook: “I hear the new Wolverine movie is going to be a musical.”
Very nice.
I still want to see Les Miz.
Was that Jane Fonda?
Between this and Shirley Bassey, this is already some sort of best-ever mark for music on the Oscars.
Jennifer Hudson, more proof that you go farther if you get exposure on “American Idol” but don’t actually win.
Pardon me while I wipe the drool off the keyboard.
Several times, Seth has started talking before the applause has died down, making it hard to understand his first few words. That may be his fault, or they may be cuing him too early.
I can’t recall previous incidences of a Best Foreign Language Film also being nominated for Best Picture.
One would assume that since “Amour” is also nominated for Best Picture, it would be a shoo-in for this category.
MacFarlane is an atheist, btw.
You mean I’m not allowed to tell anyone I’m on “Dancing With The Stars” until *Tuesday*?
By the way, I think the set this year looks hideous.
Some art house needs to run “Searching for Sugar Man” on a double bill with “Looking For Mr. Goodbar.”
I loved Amy and Tina’s joke at the Golden Globes that they were going to wrap up the show by “Eleven, Eleven Dark Thirty at the latest.”
Now that John Goodman is hot again — in both “Argo” and “Flight” — I think it’s about time for him to host SNL. He used to be one of their most reliable hosts (and unexpected cameo guest stars).
He has a particular set of skills.
Posted to Facebook by my friend Amy Forrester: “So even if your Oscar is for makeup and hair design, a quintillion people are still going to see your hot pink leggings… Mercy.”
I had figured they’d segue right from Shirley Bassey into Adele, but I guess not.
Nice JCPenney commercial. And it’s followed by Tommy Lee Jones for Ameriprise!
But she was born in January, so she’s already 76
She was born the same year as my father.
She still sounds good.
Shirley Bassey! How cool is that?
The way the announcer produced “Dartnell” made me think of a very old, original-cast SNL sketch, “Bad Poetry” / “Bad Theater” / etc., which was always hosted by Dan Aykroyd as Leonard Pinth-Garnell. This is the type of detail you won’t find at any other Oscar liveblog.
It used to be that Jack Nicholson was everyone’s good-natured target; apparently Clooney has graduated into that spot.
The Oscars are brought to you by Diet Coke. I have not had diet soda, or soda of any kind, since mid-afternoon on Tuesday. I kept reading stories about how even diet soda is bad for you (and the diet sweetner, by causing your body to expect calories, can even give you cravings). We’ll see how long I’m able to make this last.
I think every awards show should play people off with the “Jaws” music.
I was reading today that the tiger was computer-generated in about 85 percent of the shots.
“Now that I’ve won an Oscar, I can afford that haircut.”
No Scarlett?
It’ll be 16 years before she’s too old for Clooney. Nice.
Trivia question: Who played Les in Les Miserables?
Redemption for Pixar after the drubbing they took for “Cars 2.”
This may be the first time ever I’d actually seen two of the animated shorts — “Guacamole” and the Simpsons one, which ran last week following the regular episode of “The Simpsons.”
I really liked “Guacamole.”
I think we’ve reached the point of diminishing returns for self-aware mockery of lame presenter dialogue.
Twenty-five minutes in, and I’m already blithering.
The *second* time Ricky Gervais hosted the Golden Globes, he was just as irreverent, but people didn’t get offended because that’s what they were expecting. In this case, people were expecting MacFarlane to be MacFarlane, so it lost some of the shock value. If that means anything. But the meta thing with Shatner allowed him to be the naughty little boy but then winkingly apologize for it and pay tribute to the supposed dignity of the event.
Christoph Waltz killed it last weekend on SNL, by the way.
Well, as Oscar openings go, it wasn’t bad. It had the virtue of being unpredictable. You knew MacFarlane was going to be irreverent, but he managed to do so while defusing it at the same time.
Love the Smokey and the Bandit reference ….
No, Adele’s out there screaming her song at everybody.
If you’re not familiar with Seth McFarlane, he has actually released an album as a singer.
About two minutes ago I was about to accuse him of bending over backwards and playing it too safe. I’m glad I didn’t post that.
Actually, why *can’t* Tina and Amy host everything?
SHATNER!!!!!!
Burn on Jodie Foster!
“Now that’s what we were afraid he would do.”
Argo’s story was “so top secret that the film’s director is unknown to the Academy.” LOL.
OK, let’s see how long it takes Seth to get into trouble.
Since the only way you can watch the Oscars is live, I’m taping tonight’s tribute to the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, on BBC America.
The photo I put on Facebook just now was taken during that same California trip, back when my brother and SIL and the kids lived in Orange County. We were there just a week or two before the Oscars, and a vacant space in Hollywood and Highland had been converted into an Oscar museum. The Oscar you see me holding is a regulation size and weight. They had it tethered to the little display stand (you can see the tether if you look closely) for people to pose with.
The Dolby Theater, formerly the Kodak Theater, is located a stone’s throw from Grauman’s Chinese Theater (or whatever it’s called now — I think it changed hands again recently). It’s connected to Hollywood and Highland, a high-end shopping mall, and it’s across the street from the El Capitan Theater, where Jimmy Kimmel does his show, and where my brother and I once stood for two hours in the standby line.
I’ve just turned over to the tail end of the red carpet stuff. Why is Kristin Chenoweth reporting on the red carpet? I always smile when I see her, but it seems like a comedown.
Welcome to my Oscar liveblog.
I enjoyed your liveblog!