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Oscars 2009 Liveblog

For the 2010 Oscars liveblog, click here!

Oscars Liveblog here start 8pm Eastern / 7pm Central / 6pm Mountain / 5pm Los Angeles time. I'm doing things a little differently this year, using Twitter to cross post. On either the site here or any Twitter-enabled device you'll be able to get my live commentary on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's big show -- who won, who should've won, and background that will help you enjoy this festival of Hollywood navel-gazing!

Go to the liveblog!Hit your browser's Refresh or Reload button to keep up.

# including why SLUMDOG was such an Oscar hit. 9:21 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Well, it's only 9:20 here, but I'm uber-tired. As I said, I'll be doing more analysis in the coming days on Making the Movie 9:19 PM Feb 22nd from web

# I think comedic presenters were the best. Ben Stiller's bit will probably be the most memorable presenter moment, not the musical numbers. 9:18 PM Feb 22nd from web

# HJ was fine, but there was nothing other than some fancy dance steps to make him stand out. 9:16 PM Feb 22nd from web

# I think they shouldn't encourage people to give shorter speeches, just speeches with less lists of names. 9:13 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Overall, I liked the show. Since they can't cut the boring categories, there's only so much they can do to bring the time down. Thought the 5 former present bit worked. 9:13 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Amelie Gillette: "They'll never fix the Oscars. But that's why we watch it." http://tinyurl.com/agz7oh 9:10 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Thanks for following along... Lillian. 9:03 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Credits with coming movies... hmmm. Extra desperation frosting. 8:57 PM Feb 22nd from web

# HJ: "Keep on making movies. And keep on going to them." Nothing like a final note of desperation. 8:56 PM Feb 22nd from web

# I'll have an analysis of why SLUMDOG took the gold in the coming days. Check back. o 8:55 PM Feb 22nd from web

# If you keep this speech brief, this show will be done by 9pm! 8:54 PM Feb 22nd from web

# They brought the whole Mumbai slum with them! 8:54 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Need I say... SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. Jai hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! 8:53 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Best Picture... 8:53 PM Feb 22nd from web

# I've knocked Button, but that montage reminds me what a good-looking movie it is. Gotta love David Fincher. 8:52 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Milk cuts with Network and Braveheart - kinda genius 8:51 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Fun montages mixing the nominees with previous winners. 8:49 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Is Spielberg speaking English? Not time to speak Hindi yet - wait till Slumdog wins. 8:48 PM Feb 22nd from web

# A last word for Mickey Rourke, "He is my brother." 8:47 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Penn praises Gus Van Sandt. Then turns political - "We've got to have equal rights for everyone." Good! 8:46 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Sean Penn: "I know how hard I make it to love me." Calls Acad "commie, homo-loving sons of guns" multiple times 8:45 PM Feb 22nd from web

# As Nikki Finke predicted, Sean Penn takes Best Actor. He won the SAG award and actors are the main Academy voting block. Still, a surprise. 8:44 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Ben Kingsley to Rourke: "We're better off having you in the ring. Welcome back." 8:43 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Angelina is beaming to hear Hopkins praise Brad. 8:42 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Adrian Brody has to look away awkwardly to see his next line when praising Richard Jenkins. 8:41 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Penn is turning red to hear DeNiro speak. Kind of awesome. 8:40 PM Feb 22nd from web

# DeNiro: "How did he do it? How did Sean Penn all those years get roles playing straight men?" 8:39 PM Feb 22nd from web

# He and Langella were apparently comparing notes on Nixon. Michael Douglas gets to praise him though, not Hopkins. 8:38 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Anthony Hopkins gets a huge cheer! 8:37 PM Feb 22nd from web

# And yes, this was her better performance. My THE READER review: http://tinyurl.com/bzauym 8:36 PM Feb 22nd from web

# She thanks the whole crew - big points. Class act. Gotta love Kate Winslet. 8:35 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Kate Winslet holding Oscar: "8 year old did this speech in bathroom mirror. This would've been a shampoo bottle. Not a shampoo bottle now!" 8:34 PM Feb 22nd from web

# I also thought Meryl Streep was impeccable and Melissa Leo was pretty good. 8:33 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Winner: Kate Winslet. Yay! 8:32 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Sophia Loren, I'm sorry, looks like a mummified corpse. She could learn from Streep how to age with grace. 8:31 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Does having a montage of actresses saying thank you deaden the big climax of an actress saying thank you? 8:26 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Wikipedia on Longinus: http://tinyurl.com/bt8hl6

# Boyle gets points by thanking the producers of the show. Thanks Longinus. The philosopher? No, the choreographer. 8:22 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Winner: Danny Boyle, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. He should stay up there so he can be handy when they hand out Best Picture. 8:21 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Reece Witherspoon read Best Director nominees... momentum is for Boyle and Slumdog 8:20 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Ledger died January 22, 2008. Before the previous telecast. They must do it from the day of the Awards, because James Whitmore died Feb. 8:18 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Lillian: Was Heath Ledger not in that or am I crazy? 8:16 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Big finish with Anthony Mingella, Sidney Pollack, Paul Newman. #oscars 8:15 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Hearing applause for writers like Crichton, Pinter, Abbie Mann. Also Roy Scheider, Isaac Hayes. No applause for Farber the film critic. 8:14 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Queen Latifah sings for the recently dead. Hard to read the names behind her, even in HD. 8:12 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Scott Tobias: I think that "This is a departure for me!" joke was probably better before it was translated to English. 8:09 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Yojiro Takita "I. Am. Here. Because. Of. Film. We will be back, I hope." 8:09 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Departures wins! Lillian: "Random" The odds on favorite was Waltz with Bashir. Maybe The Class. Actual surprise here. 8:07 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Frida Pinto and Frankenstein: Best Foreign Film or what it should be called, non-English language film - I hate word 'Foreign' - especially since Academy is getting more international 8:07 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Me: "Slumdog domination" Lillian: "I'm just very happy about that." 8:05 PM Feb 22nd from web

# AR Raman "The essense of the filim, which is about optimism. All my life I had a choice between hate and love. I chose love and I'm here" 8:03 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Jai Hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! #oscars 8:01 PM Feb 22nd from web

# That was decent medley. Helped by the fact that the Slumdog songs are AWESOME. 8:00 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Personally, I like his jazzy rendition just as well as Gabriel's 7:59 PM Feb 22nd from web

# John Legend fills in for Peter Gabriel who dropped out from singing the WALL-e song 7:58 PM Feb 22nd from web

# O saya! sung by Rahman - could he be a back-to-back double winner? 7:57 PM Feb 22nd from web

# That makes at least three people who have expressed thanks in languages other than English by my count. Good deal. Hope #oscars stay int'l 7:57 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Winner: A.R. Rahman SLUMDOG - yes! 7:54 PM Feb 22nd from web

# "Please welcome Zak Efron and Alicia Keys" Do I have to? 7:53 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Snooze. Spielberg liked it though. 7:53 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Michael Giacchino, future winner for the score to PIXAR's UP, conducts a medley of the slowest songs from nominated films. 7:51 PM Feb 22nd from web

# RT Aaronoof: Shouldn't they have aired the award to Jerry Lewis at the top of the show when it was only like 2:30 AM in France? #oscars 7:50 PM Feb 22nd from web

# RT erickohn: One nutty professor introduces another. #oscar 7:49 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Tasha Robinson: "I was actually expecting that to be interminable, as honorary awards normally are, so I'm quite pleased." 7:48 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Jerry Lewis: "The humility I feel is staggering." I have SO much humility right now. I'm like the humblest guy on earth. 7:46 PM Feb 22nd from web

# I haven't seen many Jerry Lewis films, but there's a scene in KING OF COMEDY that Scorsese let him direct that is hysterical. 7:45 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Jerry Lewis has raised $2B for MDA, but it's still not cured. Epic fail? 7:44 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Eddie Murphy celebrates Jerry Lewis. You know, the one with the patent on video assist. 7:42 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Have to agree. They've met their goal of keeping show clipping along. But does that make it better? 7:38 PM Feb 22nd from web

# RT karinalongworth: "This seems to go much quicker when a) I'm not drinking, and b) I don't care about 90% of the films nominated." 7:37 PM Feb 22nd from web

# High percentage of bald winners this year? Subliminal advertising (looking like an Oscar = getting an Oscar)? 7:36 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Winner: Slumdog Millionaire. Boy they are sure coming from behind for the win! 7:35 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Film editing - wish they took as much time showing the art with this as they did with screenplay. Felt rushed. 7:35 PM Feb 22nd from web

# "This is not just a sound award, this is history." No, dude, it's actually just a sound award. Chill. 7:33 PM Feb 22nd from web

# This guy hyperventilating at the podium is adorable. 7:32 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Winner: Slumdog Millionaire. What a comeback after losing Sound Editing and Art Direction! 7:32 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Sound Mixing... heroes? That's a stretch. They can clean up a bad audio track only so much. Garbage in, garbage out. 7:31 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Winner: The Dark Knight. Which may deserve it for all I know. 7:29 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Sound Editing. A category few in the Academy understand and no one in America does 7:29 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Oustanding Visual Effects: Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I guess there are people who liked the movie enough to vote for it. 7:27 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Oh nevermind. It's another montage of movies that were nominated peppered in with movies America saw. 7:25 PM Feb 22nd from web

# For the Sound montage, can we hear some sound effects please? #oscars 7:23 PM Feb 22nd from web

# "Stay tuned for a tribute to action movies"? Not stay tuned for, um, THE MAJOR AWARDS still to hand out. 7:19 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Smile Pinki wins for having an adorable title. 7:18 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Winner: Man on Wire. My review: http://tinyurl.com/ckey3a 7:17 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Bill Maher resists dig at Dustin Lance Black and instead plugs his doc http://tinyurl.com/dybjfy 7:17 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Werner Herzog pontificates on reality. That's the pot calling the kettle a grizzly. 7:12 PM Feb 22nd from web

# On cell with Lillian in Maryland. I can hear her audio - it's ahead of mine. And I'm here in LA. 7:10 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Heath Ledger, sentimental favorite, wins Best Supporting Actor posthumously. His family accepts on behalf of his genes. 7:08 PM Feb 22nd from web

# He's alive! Better than I can say for Allen Arkin. 7:03 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Joel Grey. Wow. 7:03 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Scott Tobias "isn't to my taste, but may be revitalizing for the broadcast. I'd wager the show gets its first good reviews in years tomorrow 7:02 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Baz Luhrman created that overwrought medley? No way! 6:59 PM Feb 22nd from web

# The whole theater is on their feet. Penelope Cruz applauds politely. 6:58 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Mamma Mia as, um, a drumcorps tune? 6:57 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Wow, the High School Musical kids totally interrupted Beyonce's groove. 6:56 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Beyonce is good at this. Maybe she should move to Broadway and leave the acting to Jennifer Hudson. 6:55 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Had to know with Condon and Jackman the show would be a musical fest. But I agree with Finke, lets not make the Oscars the Tonys. 6:54 PM Feb 22nd from web

# HJ "The Musical is back. I can't wait to see Doubt: The Musical." 6:52 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Tasha Robinson @ The Onion AV Club: "Toyland was probably the weakest of the shorts. But Nazis! And children in danger!" 6:49 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Best Live Action short: Toyland - looked Holocaust 6:47 PM Feb 22nd from web

# And those three are presenters. Odd, but I like it. Kaminski "Suck on that, Anthony Dodd Mantle" 6:46 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Gets better when Janusz Kaminski joins them on the couch. 6:45 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Extended Pineapple Express-based sketch. Mildly amusing. 6:44 PM Feb 22nd from web

# jlichman: "Jessica Biel, please stop. No one saw the sci-tech awards. Now take off your top." 6:43 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Jessica Biel explains who Ed Catmull is. But all I can remember is her pretty face. #oscars 6:40 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Creepy stalker camera finds Jerry Lewis in the audience. 6:39 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Finke: "Wait, wasn't that montage we just saw the same as MTV's Best Kiss Award?" 6:38 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Very genuine thanks from Dodd Mantle. I look forward to many more years of his cutting edge and kinetic work. 6:37 PM Feb 22nd from web

# It was great work and I highly recommend the feature on it that was in American Cinematographer. They published pre-prod emails between him and Boyle. 6:35 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Winner: Anthony Dodd Mantle, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE !! 6:35 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Ben Stiller is upstaging the list of the nominees with his Joaquin wander. 6:34 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Everyone in Hollywood is having a laugh at Joaquin Phoenix's expense. Wonder how it feels to be him right now. 6:33 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Best Cinematography presented by Natalie Portman and Ben Stiller. Another odd couple. 6:31 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Finke: "Great idea to have presenters give out more than one award to save time. Or because [the producers] couldn't get enough stars?" 6:31 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Gay kiss from Milk mixed in with all the straight kisses says more than Dustin Lance Black's acceptance speech. 6:29 PM Feb 22nd from web

# They are trying their best to mix in clips of movies people actually saw with the movies that were nominated. #oscars 6:27 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Some young stars. Amanda Spacealien and the Twilight Vampire - they were much better than Daniel Craig and SJP. 6:26 PM Feb 22nd from web

# The micromachines guy couldn't have read those names faster. 6:25 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Winner: Benjamin Button. That's two for Button. 6:24 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Makeup: Hellboy vs. Benjamin Button 6:23 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Costume Designer thanks the Composer??? Now that's dancing about architecture. 6:23 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Didn't see it, but you could tell from the poster it had elaborate costumes. 6:21 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Best Costume: THE DUCHESS 6:21 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Craig stumbles again. SJP misses her cue. Snooze. 6:20 PM Feb 22nd from web

# High praise for David Fincher. I think Quentin Tarantino should play Fincher in the biopic. 6:19 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Winner: Benjamin Button. The only one it will take home tonight out of 13 nominations? 6:18 PM Feb 22nd from web

# The award for bad presenting goes to Art Direction. 6:17 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Daniel Craig stumbles and mumbles. 6:17 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Sarah Jessica's mic has too much reverb 6:16 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Spout "thefilmcynic: Presto sucks! Well done Mr Roboto guy" http://tinyurl.com/d28sho 6:15 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Bathroom break #oscars 6:13 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Kunio Kato: "Sank you, Animation. Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto." No, that's actually what he said, not a racist joke. 6:11 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Oh, I was wrong. La Maison en Petite Cubes or some such French. 6:10 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Presto (PIXAR) will win Best Short Animated too. 6:09 PM Feb 22nd from web

# WALL-e wins. Question is not why did it win this category, but why not in the Best Picture category. Yes, it's better than Dark Knight. 6:08 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Too long montage of animated films that aren't even nominated. 6:06 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Jack Black (Kung Fu Panda) acknowledges that PIXAR always wins - kinda funny. Nice WALL-e opening where the little guy trashes an Oscar. 6:05 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Beaufoy is very composed for a writer. Dull list of thank yous. 6:03 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Winner: Simon Beaufoy SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE - first of many for SLUMDOG? 6:01 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Steve Martin stops his patter and looks at Tina Fey: "Don't fall in love with me." 5:59 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Surprisingly religious speech about gay marriage from a former Mormon. 5:59 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Black puts in an applause line about gay marriage and there is a suspiciously long pause. 5:58 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Winner: Dustin Lance Black for MILK. Could this augur well for MILK in other categories? 5:57 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Very funny. Classy graphical illustration of how a screenplay becomes movie. 5:56 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Introducing screenwriters with Tina Fey and Steve Martin. 5:54 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Tasha at The Onion "Why did Penelope Cruz just say we need to protect the survival of art as best we can? Is someone hunting art for sport?" 5:52 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Great acceptance speech by Penelope Cruz. Impossible to make cynical quips. 5:50 PM Feb 22nd from web

# I would've also been happy with Viola Davis... but Penelope's performance in VCB was da best. 5:48 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Best Supporting actress is... Penelope Cruz! Yes! 5:47 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Whoopi Goldberg "It's not easy being a nun" 5:46 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Watch the screen below Viola Davis in the graphic. Kung Fu panda is doing a slomo Skadoosh. 5:45 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Five presenters - four too many? #oscars 5:43 PM Feb 22nd from web

# I wish the curtain had just blocked that whole montage of Best Supporting Actress winners. 5:43 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Minor curtain malfunction. 5:41 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Nikki Finke "OHMYGAWD, it's not the Oscars: IT'S THE TONY'S! Worst Academy Awards opening ever." 5:40 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Musical number works great as a stage thing. Good choice. 5:40 PM Feb 22nd from web

# HJ is cracking up at his German shprockets dance for The Reader. 5:37 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Anne Hathaway pulled on stage to play Nixon in Frost/Nixon parody. She has some pipes. 5:36 PM Feb 22nd from web

# HJ serenades Kate Winslet, acknowledges Dark Knight should've been nommed. 5:34 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Hugh Jackman, hereafter HJ, quips about range. Then disses New Zealand. 5:32 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Picking out Kate Winslet early. 5:31 PM Feb 22nd from web

# The stage is pretty cool. And the Lawrence of Arabia theme as swing actually works. 5:31 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Here we go for real now... unless there's a third red carpet show. In which case I'll be banging my head into a wall. #oscars 5:28 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Michael Giacchino "We're going to F with classic movie songs!" 5:27 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Ooh - a sneak peek - 5 minutes before the show... ??? 5:25 PM Feb 22nd from web

# More Jack Black, less Richard Jenkins plz #oscars 5:24 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Penelope Cruz totally owned in VCB - too bad she probably won't win #oscars 5:22 PM Feb 22nd from web

# The folks at the Onion AV club are even liveblogging the commercials http://tinyurl.com/agz7oh 5:19 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Miley Cyrus "Angelina's like one of my favorite persons of all history." 5:15 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Gotta love the slumdogs! 5:10 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Yawn. Want to see some #oscars handed out already. Guess I tuned in too soon. 5:04 PM Feb 22nd from web

# D'oh! More red carpet??? #oscar 5:01 PM Feb 22nd from web

# "Journey down Movies Road to gold"? 5:00 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Not only #liveblogging the #oscars myself, I also have links to other liveblogs http://tinyurl.com/bly7mu 4:59 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Here we go... #oscars 4:56 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Brad Pitt and Angelina look sad like they've already heard they lost #oscars 4:51 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Philip Seymour Hoffman is wearing a knit cap. I was just outside - it ain't that cold PSH! #oscars 4:46 PM Feb 22nd from web

# I personally can't wait for the actual #oscars show to start. I want to see some sketches, some winners and some Mickey Rourke f-bombs 4:44 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Red Carpet Show did a poll of people watching the Red Carpet Show - they like the fashions best - surprise! 4:42 PM Feb 22nd from web

# RT Liveblogging the #Oscars at Making the Movie - please retweet - http://tinyurl.com/dl5jw2 4:13 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Grey skies all around - watching the red carpet show - looks likes some people could get drenched 4:00 PM Feb 22nd from web

# Drove across town and back for a meeting. Traffic is predictably snarled the closer you get to Hollywood and Highland. 3:59 PM Feb 22nd from web

RESOURCES:
List of Nominees

OTHER LIVEBLOGGERS:
John Serba at Grand Rapids Press
Best Week Ever
Onion AV Club
Videogum
Defamer
Spout Blog
Deadline Hollywood Daily

PREVIOUS OSCAR LIVEBLOGS:
Oscars 2008 Liveblog
Oscars 2007 Liveblog
Oscars 2006 Liveblog
Oscars 2005 Liveblog