The err 79th Annual Academy Awards

For those of you who missed last night's show, it actually wasn't half bad. Ellen Degeneres did a decent job hosting. The casual glimpses of the nominees was a nice, unique way to open the show. Marty Scorsese finally won a director Oscar, which the crowd just loved. Forrest Whitaker won for his portrayal of Idi Amin. Jennifer Hudson got a nod too - I guess losing American Idol wasn't such a bad outcome after all.

For me the most awful part of the show was the token Canadian lead-in show, E-Talk at the Oscars, with our (searching for the appropriate word) host Ben Mulroney. He looked positively desperate on the red carpet, unable to interpret the celebrities' rebuffs as polite rejection. It was embarrassing. The American red carpeteers behaved like asses, but at least they were choreographed to look like they had their collective acts together. Yes - I said asses.

Favourite moment: When Al Gore (who had a lot of fans at the Oscars) who was being egged on by Leo DiCaprio to make a major announcement to the world finally looked like he would do just that - the orchestra cut him off. Perfect.

[sorry dvd - don't know where I got 49th]