Alec, Steve and Oscar

Ok, I'll weigh in just a little.

The opening number would have worked if it had been funnier. But it wasn't.

Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin were good - very funny pros who did their homework and went to rehearsal. Makes a big difference. Some of the roast-y jokes got kind of old, but I love that Steve had enough presence to do things like save the awful moment in the wake of Geoffrey Fletcher's muddy acceptance for Adapted Screenplay (did he really neglect to mention Sapphire, who wrote the novel he adapted into his now-Oscar-winning script??) with a zinger: "I wrote that speech for him."



The interpretive dance would have had to be unbelievably extraordinary to work. I mean, Martha Graham-resurrected-from-the-grave good. And guess what? Martha Graham didn't rise from the dead.

Speaking of death - how could they leave Farrah Fawcett and Bea Arthur out of the Death Medley?? At long last, have they no sense of decency?

Meryl Streep is a goddess walking among us. She took all that borderline nasty material and just made it funnier with her reaction. George Clooney did a great job as Active Audience Member too (though I suspect he was at one of the rehearsals.)

All the best actor and actress noms getting stroked by their former co-stars, directors, mentors etc. was painful to watch. Really.

That said, I think that Oprah saying what she said last night may have helped Gabourey Sidibe's career more than an actual Oscar would have.

And that's saying something.

Catherine Bigelow breaking down the gender barrier (and Avatar not getting a titanic sweep): Two big thumbs up.

The orchestra playing "I Am Woman" as she walked offstage: major motherf*cking thumbs down.

I mean - really??

Ok, this all is reading a little bitchier than I like to be. But if you can't make fun of the Oscars, what can you make fun of?

On the whole, it was a good, fun Oscar broadcast, and I had the great good fortune to watch it at two fun parties (and Cory and I even picked the perfect moment to subway between the two of them). I do not trust that the votes were counted accurately at the party we left, but hope that Kim, the "winner," buys Cory's lunch today...