Oscars 1

A lot to like: Sideways winning for Best Adapted Screenplay and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for Best Original, Hilary Swank in a category where any of the nominees would have been fine by me, Morgan Freeman finally winning an Academy Award, ditto Cate Blanchett (even if it wasn't for one of her best performances), Mike Leigh and Imelda Staunton and Don Cheadle and Alexander Payne on the list of nominees. And though a month and a half into Bush Jong-Il's second reign a win for Vera Drake was too much to hope for, at least this year's Best Picture has the Christers in a lather about Hollywood Babylon already--thanks, DirtyHarry!

Favorite middle finger to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences: Jorge Drexler singing "Al otro lado del rio" while accepting the award for the song he'd written and sung in the film but that had been given to Carlos Santana and Antonio Banderas to sing during the awards show.

Favorite line: crazy English (Australian?) lady saying, "We have an expression in England: this is the dog's bollocks."