I'll admit that I didn't pay close attention to the Oscars telecast this year. I just wasn't that excited about the nominees, and there wasn't even much star-gazing to do — where was Jodie Foster, anyway?

So I didn't even see the montage of the hosts of Oscars past. And that means I didn't notice that Whoopi Goldberg was completely left out of said montage.

Whoopi wasn't the only one who slipped Oscar's mind — Steve Martin was also left out of the host montage, and Brad Renfro and Roy Scheider were not included in the "In Memoriam" segment.

There was some footage (in a different montage) of Whoopi's 1990 win for Best Supporting Actress for Ghost. But there wasn't a second of praise for her four hosting gigs (yes, four! 1993, 1995, 1998, 2001). The slight did not please the ladies of The View. Whoopi even got a little teary-eyed — here's the clip: … continue reading

This weekend, I convinced Lori to leave Alaska for a few days and meet me in L.A. just to film a special 2008 Oscars edition of She Made Me Watch This! (OK, that's not really why I wanted to see her — but we thought we'd squeeze in a vlog while we were there.)

Since we've seen almost none of the movies nominated this year, we invited Bridget McManus and Karman Kregloe to join us for the post-Oscars analysis in our hotel room (hence the bad lighting) — Bridget because she's actually seen the movies, and Karman, because, well, she's fun to have around (Bridget's not exactly terrible company, either).

Naturally, the vlog got away from us only a few minutes in, with Bridget doing an interpretive dance, me ranting about discrimination against blondes, and Karman smacking Bridget upside the head for making fun of her Stevie Nicks infatuation. Lori mostly just tried to stay out of harm's way.

If you don't mind Oscar coverage that's only 30 percent about the Oscars, then this is definitely the vlog episode for you! If you want substantive Oscars coverage, read Dorothy Snarker's entertaining and informative Best of Oscar's 80th blog post. Or do both, and you'll probably have more fun than you did actually watching the Oscars (honestly, if I had to watch one more performance from Enchanted, someone was going to lose an eye!)

Look for the next new SMMWT! episode in mid-March, when Lori finally returns to New York (yay!).

Hey, did something happen in Hollywood last night? Oh, right; a bunch of people went home with shiny naked golden men. While some may quibble with a few of the winners, last night’s Oscars telecast was a night when Tinsel Town pretty much got things right. Sure, I would have loved for Juno to sneak in and steal No Country for Old Men’s Oscar for Best Picture. But that might have incurred the wrath of Anton Chigurh, and the last thing you want to do is to make a man with a Dorothy Hamill haircut and a compressed-air gun angry.

The evening was largely a classy affair, with lots of first-time winners, loads of heartfelt speeches and even a couple genuine surprises. So in the spirit of honoring excellence, here are a few awards of my own. May I have the envelope, please?

Best Straight Allies: Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth

The filmmakers won for their short documentary Freeheld, about a lesbian couple’s fight to win survivorship benefits. (Look for more details in Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever. this Friday.)

Best Upset I Didn’t Know I Wanted: Marion Cotillard

I thought I’d be mad at Marion for upsetting my personal favorite Julie Christie for Best Actress, but after hearing her exuberant, charming and sincere speech, I’ve fallen in love instead.

  … continue reading

If you still need to catch up on your Oscar-nominated movies before the awards show Sunday and you live near an AMC Theatres chain, you’re in luck. Though, given the bleak subject matter in most of this year’s nominated films, I’m not sure if “luck” is the right word. On Saturday, AMC will screen all five films up for best picture in a row. The marathon will start at 11 a.m. and end at 11 p.m.

Now, I’ve seen all five films, and I watched three of them within a 24-hour span recently. Just that alone was rough. So I really can’t imagine seeing all of them in one day, particularly given most of their unrelentingly nihilistic takes on humanity. There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men are definitely not what I would call feel-good films. While Atonement and Michael Clayton are slightly more hopeful, little ray of sunshine Juno is the only one with the audacity of fun. It’s also the only nominated film centered on a female lead.

Both There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men are practically devoid of female characters. It’s a man’s world, and those men are bad, really bad. Seriously, Daniel Day-Lewis’ oilman Daniel Plainview and Javier Bardem’s hitman Anton Chigurh are two of the scariest psychopaths ever committed to film. … continue reading

This morning I came across two videos that make a mockery of things — but in completely different ways.

First, here's a promo clip for Tracey Ullman's new show, State of the Union. (Yeah, I should have posted this on President's Day, but I was too busy writing about illustrious historical figures, such as Beals, Holloman and Kirshner.)

How awesome is Ullman? Can't wait for this — it premieres March 30 on Showtime.

Next, Vanity Fair offers a fake "In Memoriam" Oscars montage that bids farewell to ... well, watch and see. … continue reading

Beginning Friday, Feb. 1, Turner Classic Movies will be spending 31 days in uninterrupted Oscar heaven. Each day has a theme, from adventure films to musicals, politics to sci-fi. Each night, on the other hand, is devoted to a different time period, starting with the 1920s and running all through way through the present. It's an homage to films we love and films we should have heard of. TCM has done this each of the last several years. Personally, I love having a chance to catch some of the classics that I've never gotten around to seeing, like The African Queen, On the Waterfront, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and All About Eve.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that things may indeed be looking up in the battle between the WGA and the muckety-muck studio heads, this year's Oscar broadcast remains in jeopardy. In fact, the powers-that-be have started making contingency plans for Oscar night, just in case things don't go off without a hitch.

Since the Oscar broadcast is the only awards show I tend to watch from beginning to end with anything close to devotion, I would be highly miffed should I not get my yearly dose of pomp and circumstance. But, after reading throught the list of films that TCM plans to offer up in the course of the next moon cycle, I've decided I could likely survive the havoc of an Oscar-less February. Here are just some of the films (or entire days) during which I plan to plop down on my sofa with a big bowl of popcorn, a very large diet soda, and a nice cozy blanket.

Friday afternoon, Five Easy Pieces will be my first stop on the cinematic cruise line. Why would I want to sit through Jack Nicholson's testosterone-fueled adventure across the country? Two reasons, really. First, despite the part of my brain that wishes it were otherwise, I love Jack. Second, I plan to play a little game of "Where's Fannie?" Somewhere in the midst of this road trip saga is a young Fannie Flagg. That's right, she didn't just write Fried Green Tomatoes. … continue reading

The nominees for the 80th Annual Academy Awards were announced this morning. The big question, though, is whether the Oscars broadcast will happen at all. It's slated for Feb. 24, which is, like, 5 minutes from now in writers' strike years. And the stakes are very high. As Lynette Rice of Entertainment Weekly puts it, "If putting the kibosh on the Globes put the hurt on NBC and made the world pay attention to the strike, imagine what stopping the 80th Annual Academy Awards would do?"

I hope they find a way for the show to go on. Meanwhile, here are the Best Picture nominees:

Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

That's right, Juno! Woo hoo! I still haven't seen Atonement. I liked Michael Clayton well enough, but not more than Juno. And I won't be seeing those last two very male-oriented films. So, yay, Juno!

Several other AfterEllen.com favorites nabbed some nods. Here are the actress categories: … continue reading

Hey, Helen Mirren, can I bend your ear for a moment? I have one of those bone thingies to pick with you. Seriously, sit down. We need to talk.

… continue reading

Listen, I know you just won the Oscar and are probably still basking in its post-coital embrace. But at times like these, it is important not to lose one's head.

I thought I'd check in to see how Penelope Cruz is handling her Oscar loss. Seems she has skipped right over denial and gone straight to the anger phase. When presented with a mini chocolate golden man recently, Penelope promptly bit the little guy's head off. Ouch.

Perhaps her next move shows that the lovely Spanish actress is now in the bargaining phase. Why else would she agree to make sweet love to Gandhi, er, I mean Ben Kingsley? Cruz will display her animal instinct in her next project, an erotic drama based on Philip Roth's novella The Dying Animal. The story centers on a student (Cruz) who has a torrid affair with her professor (Kingsley). The film will also star Patricia Clarkson. OK, fine, with all that talent on board, maybe it's not such a bad bargain.

And just in case you needed a visual of what half (the good half) of this May-December tryst would look like, voila. I am nothing if not helpful.