Oscar Night 2013

Oscar Night 2013, Oh, what a night! The Big Daddy of all the awards, the Academy Awards aired last night live from Los Angeles on ABC. Oscar wanted a larger, younger audience this year and risk taker, Seth MacFarlane was tapped to pull them in.

He opened the program by making Tommy Lee Jones laugh, and he joked that the Academy really screwed up when it came to Ben Affleck. I wonder if the Academy thought that one was funny. His joke about date violence that referenced Chris Brown and Rihanna also missed the mark and got booed. So did his reference to Mel Gibson.

In the middle of Seth’s opening monologue, William Shatner appeared on a video screen as his alter ego, Captain Kurt. He arrived to tell MacFarlane that the show was not going well and the newspapers will say he was the worst Oscar host ever. Not sure why they chose that slant, but OK.

Then Seth went into a song called, “We Saw Your Boobs,” naming actresses who faced the challenge of appearing topless in films. A quick shot of the audience showed Charlize Theron was clearly not amused, but Charlize was then on stage following the song in an awkwardly placed dance with Channing Tatum while Seth sang, The Way You Look Tonight.

Seth followed that up dressed like the Flying Nun in a skit with Sally Fields that ended with the pair enthralled in a passionate kiss.

Octavia Spencer began the night’s awards by announcing the winner of the Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and the Oscar went to Christoph Waltz for ‘Django Unchained’.

Paul Rudd and Melissa McCarthy did their thing before announcing the winner for Best Animated Short were John Kahrs for ‘Paperman’, followed by Best Animated Feature Film which went to ‘Brave’.

Up next was Reese Witherspoon with vignettes on some of the nominees for Best Picture; a change in show format for The Oscars by not waiting until the end of the show to devote show time to the big awards.

‘Life of Pi’ won for Best Cinematography. Understandably, it is a visually stunning film. Robert Downy Jr. and Samuel L. Jackson kept the interaction lively while presenting this award. ‘Life of Pi’ also won for Best Visual Effects.

The biggest and funniest change in the show format this year was the use of the theme from Jaws to play winners off when their acceptance speech went too long, very funny.

Channing Tatum and Jennifer Anniston announced the nominees for Achievement in Costume Design, and the Oscar went to Jacqueline Durran for ‘Anna Karenina’. This duo also announced the list of nominees for Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling, and the Oscar went to ‘Les Miserable’.

Bond Girl, Halle Berry looked like a stunning statue herself when she introduced a tribute to the Past Five Decades of James Bond.

Shirley Bassey, who is 76 came out and surprised the audience and sang the song she made famous ‘Goldfinger’ the theme from the 1964 edition of the James Bond series.  She looked fabulous, sang her song just like the record and brought the audience to their feet.

Jamie Foxx and Terry Washington announced the list of nominees for Best Live Action Short Film. The Oscar went to Shawn Christensen for ‘Curfew’. Best Documentary Short Subject was their next category, and the Oscar went to Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine for ‘Inocente’.

Liam Neeson introduced vignettes for two of the Best Picture Nominees; ‘Lincoln’ and ‘Zero Dark 30’.

The next presenter was Ben Affleck and his category was Best Documentary Feature. The Oscar went Malik Bendjelloul and Simon Chinn for ‘Searching for Sugar Man’.

The next two presenters were Jennifer Garner and Jessica Chastain for Best Foreign Language Film, and the Oscar went to ‘Amour’.

Followed by John Travolta who came to the stage dressed in all black looking fabulous to introduce Oscar’s tribute to the finest movie musicals of the past decade. Catherine Zeta-Jones heated up the stage with a performance of All That Jazz from her role in ‘Chicago’, and then Jennifer Hudson brought the crowd to their feet with her rendition of I’m Telling You from ‘Dream Girls’.

Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway kicked off the huge stage performance by the cast of ‘Les Miserable’.

Mark Walberg and his co-star the teddy bear Ted announced the nominees for Sound Mixing. The Oscar went to ‘Les Miserable’. This technically enhanced duo also announced the winner of Best Sound Editing but this time it was a tie. Not Oscars first tie, but very rare. The first Oscar went to ‘Zero Dark 30’, and the second Oscar went to ‘Skyfall’.

Seth did a joke about the ‘Sound of Music’ referring to when the Von Trapp Family went missing. Where did that joke go? Nowhere, but when legendary actor and star of the film, Christopher Plummer came on stage you knew why they tried the ‘Sound of Music’ joke. Plummer announced the award for Best Actresses in a Supporting Role, and the Oscar went to Anne Hathaway for ‘Les Miserable’.

The next presenter was Sandra Bullock. It’s nice to see Sandy back at the awards. She introduced the nominees for Achievement in Film Editing, and the Oscar went to William Goldenberg for ‘Argo’.

Jennifer Lawrence considered one of the night’s best dressed, introduce Adele who sang her Bond song ‘Skyfall’.

Nicole Kidman announced three vignettes on the nominees from the Best Picture category; ‘Silver Lining Playbook’, ‘Django Unchained’, and ‘Amour’.

Daniel Radcliff and Kristen Stewart were the next presenters.  Kristen was limping and looking weird due to a foot injury.  She should have used the crutches. They announced the nominees for Achievement in Production Design, and the Oscar went to ‘Lincoln’.

Salma Hayek had the honor of introducing the winners of the Governors Award, and George Clooney introduced the video reminding us of all the folks that have passed on. We have lost Jack Klugman, Michael Clarke Duncan, Marvin Hamlisch and many, many more, but the big surprise in this section was when Barbara Streisand came out to honor Marvin Hamlisch and sang Memories.

The cast of ‘Chicago’, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellweger gave the award for the Best Original Score to ‘Life of Pi’. The second award they announced was for Best Original Song for Adele’s ‘Skyfall’, and the winning moment made Adele speechless and brought her to tears.

Dustin Hoffman and Charlize Theron took the stage to award for Adaptive Screen Play, and the award went to Chris Terrio for ‘Argo’. Their next award was for Original Screen Play and the Oscar went to Quentin Tarantino. The show tried to play him off, but this was his moment. He let them know he was done when he said ‘peace out’ in his typically Tarantino way.

Hollywood Royalty, Jane Fonda, and Michael Douglas joined forces to announce the nominees for Achievement in Directing. The audience gave a rousing round of applause and a standing ovation to Ang Lee as he took the Oscar for Best Director for ‘Life of Pi’. It was one of the evening’s surprises because Steven Spielberg was favored to win Best Director.

Last years Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin announced the nominees for Best Actress in a Leading Role. The Oscar went to the front-runner, Jennifer Lawrence. She received a standing ovation after she suffered the momentary embarrassment of falling up the stairs, but she handled that moment well.

The next presenter was Meryl Streep.  She looked like she was grabbing at her rear end when she walked on the stage but explained that she was walking on her dress. Her category was Best Actor in a Leading Role. And the Oscar went to another front-runner, Daniel Day-Lewis, who also received a standing ovation as he fought back emotions.

The announcement of the night’s big award for Best Picture went to Jack Nicholson, at first, but then he surprised us all when he threw the show to Michelle Obama at the White House to announce the winner for Best Picture. Jack read the list of nominees, and The First Lady announced that the Oscar for Best Picture went to ‘Argo’.

Ben Affleck got his just dessert when his film won Best Picture, and he got his chance to give the last emotional speech of

the night while holding his Oscar high.

To close the show, Kristen Chadwick and Seth sang ‘Here’s to the Losers – God Bless Them All’.

I wonder if the Academy thinks they got what they were looking for out MacFarlane’s hosting duties.

This show caps off award season. This one went a bit past 3 ½ hours. It felt long, but it definitely had some special moments mixed in with awkward ones. It didn’t end the awards season with a bang, but it was certainly a good ride.

See You Next Year,

Tanya Hart

http://oscar.go.com/nominees

Now come with me on the Red Carpet for American Urban Radio Networks, AURN.Com as I catch up with Chris Tucker, Quvenzhané Wallis, and many others at the 85th Annual Oscar Awards.