The Oscars

Some random thoughts about last night's Oscar show.

• I like it when there's some suspense about which actors and movies will win, and I really like it when there's a big surprise. Before the show started, there was almost universal consensus about who the winners would be, at least based on the various predictions I read, and they were right. No disrespect to the late Heath Ledger, but imagine how interesting it would have been if Michael Shannon had won Best Supporting Actor.
• On the other hand, it's fun to see a Cinderella story like the huge success of Slumdog Millionaire. And wasn't it cool to see the kids from India, who had been flown in specially to attend the awards ceremony.
• Whose idea was it to go from "And the winner is... " to "And the Oscar goes to..." ? Presumably this is to avoid bruising the tender egos of the non-winners, i.e., if Kate Winslet is the winner, does that mean that Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, Anne Hathaway and Melissa Leo are the losers? Apparently so, but I'm guessing they could handle it.
• And speaking of Angelina Jolie, I actually found myself feeling some sympathy for Jennifer Aniston, which isn't usually a feeling I experience when thinking about multi-millionaire television/movie stars. It can't be easy to see your ex-husband and his gorgeous, sexy, more-successful-than-you-are, we-have-six-children-together partner sitting front and center as you're trying to be cute with Jack Black.

Anyway, it's over for this year. Let's all go to the movies and try to predict who next year's winners will be.