Oscar Wrap Up - for now

A "world premiere" Celine Dion song? --- BAD! Bad bad bad!

"The Departed" winning best picture??? --- FANTASTIC! -but not as fantastic as if "Little Miss Sunshine" would have won. BUT "The Departed" was my favorite movie yesterday. Or, at this point, Saturday, as the Oscars (typical) ran overlong.

Ellen Degeneres, I think, was a very funny, understated host. Will Ferrell and Jack Black performing onstage = a million times better than the "Dreamgirls." Sorry, but I was not impressed, although all three ladies have a great set. Of pipes.

So! These Oscars seriously celebrated Al Gore and Martin Scorsese. In that order. And Leonardo DiCaprio was at the center of both. Cheers!

Stream of Oscar-Consciousness

I was originally disappointed not to be working the Oscars in the newsroom tonight, but I have to admit: After a run through the Park, punchin' out a few loads of wash and taking a languid shower, then a bite to eat - I'm enjoying sitting here curled up on the couch with a beer and the cat, watching the Red Carpet from the sanctuary of my plaid PJs.

My thoughts so far on the early arrivals:

-Cameron Diaz' dress is puzzling - an asymmetrical stiff, tight white mess. It really looks like someone started making a paper airplane, got frustrated and quit. She still looks more gorgeous than I ever could, but I wish she would have worn a better dress ... especially being newly-single and all.

-She can take comfort in the fact that I don't think Jessica Biel's red halter gown does anything for her, either - although I do like the black belt. It adds some shape to an otherwise formless ensemble.

-I'm waiting for a third leading lady to arrive in a jeweled dress: I really like Jennifer Lopez and Rachel Weiss' gowns (Marchesa and Vera Wang, respectively) which both have built-in gems along the neckline (Weiss' has jewels in the train as well - ooh la la!) They both also kept to silvery champagne colors - pretty, pretty! If we get a third gal in a gem-lined gown, my sources say we can officially call this an Oscar "trend."

-Will Smith's family is adorable, and notice Jada Pinkett-Smith is in a gold-colored gown. "He's taking home a gold statue tonight!" she says of her hubby - who will always be The Fresh Prince in my heart. "He might be taking home a Jada, or he might be taking home two statues - a Jada and an Oscar." Oooo-Kay!

-Penelope Cruz' dress is feathery. Verrrry feathery. If feathers were wishes were Academy votes, perhaps she'd have a chance beating Helen Mirren for Best Actress. Ha, right.

Speaking of winning/losing, the only lackluster detail about catching the Oscars on your couch in lieu of a party is the lack of drinking games. I have a bottle of tequila that's just been sitting here - unrealized potential - so I asked my roommate, why not have the two of us make our Oscar picks, then take a shot whenever one of "our" nominees wins? She doesn't want to play, though. And my life isn't currently *that* stressed where I'm going to drink alone, haha. I do have a Budweiser tallboy to savor once the festivities really begin, though.

-Ack! The Red Carpet arrivals have been cut off while Barbara Walters runs through a flurry of interviews with host Ellen Degeneres (for the record, I predicted last year she'd be an Oscar host soon enough - score!) as well as Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson and Helen Mirren. Very interesting ... but I want to see the pretty clothes, fashion cues and don'ts, etc. Arg, what's happened to me?

-Fellow Blogger & Blooddite Mike joined me at the AMC Empire Theater in Times Square for a movie marathon that reeled on for almost 13 hours, showing all five Best Picture nominees back to back - with unlimited soft drinks and popcorn - for a mere 30 clams. In a city where movie tickets average $11 and a box of Junior Mints (in the theater) goes for $4, this was quite a deal! Add in the NIFTY lanyard with holograms of the Best Pic nominees on the front and the movie sked on the back ("This is better than swag!") which allowed us to come in and out of the theater as much as we pleased, plus the bathroom/lunch breaks and the trivia games -- a fun day! And they clearly planned out the order of flicks verrry carefully, hitting you over the head with "Babel" first before lightening things up with "The Queen" and then really waking the crowd with "The Departed" before turning more serious with "Letters From Iwo Jima" and ending on a pleasing note with "Little Miss Sunshine." I think Mike and I were pretty much in step with our opinions on each movie: "Babel" was well-done and beautiful to look at, but it was trying too hard to be this year's artsy "Crash" (and the Japanese story-line really felt disjointed from the Moroccan and Mexican ones.) "The Queen" was delightful, but it was a film where you loved the actors and chuckled at its wit - not sure I would select it to win Best Picture. "The Departed" was probably my favorite of the day - besides bulging with eye candy (and when Matt Damon played rugby within the first 15 minutes of the movie, I nearly swooned) it was outright hilarious, suspenseful, and kept the crowd on the edge of their seats - and Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg? Hilarious! Then "Letters From Iwo Jima" was simply beautiful, heart-wrenching and thought-provoking - but no fear, "Little Miss Sunshine" was a belly full of laughs; I left the theater with a pleasantly aching stomach. I'm pulling for "Sunshine" to steal Best Picture away from "Babel," but we'll see. I'm thinking of making the AMC's Best Picture Showcase an annual tradition - especially since I never seem to find the time or the dough to go to the movies anymore.

-I really butchered those mini-reviews; you'd be better off checking out my former NYU classmate The Reeler who knows movies the way I know domestic beers. But better.

-This just in: Helen Mirren doesn't understand why American women wear those "horrible" shorts all the time. She, personally, never wears trousers or shorts because she insists she has a large bottom and rather short legs. Only skirts for this dignified dame. No wonder she's The Queen!

I'm now going to try and catch clips from the Red Carpet online, as alas, I'm the only tabloid writer in the city without cable, and Barbara Walters is monopolizing ABC. This should be exciting, as my Internet connection is also wavering in and out. Damned wireless Internet.

Third Time's the Charm ...

So on the way home from dinner with the girls last night, trying to recover from another classic week of barely-controlled chaos (which basically defines the newspaper biz, ha) the 6 train stalled on the tracks at 68th Street for half an hour.

I just slouched in my seat and laughed. The other folks seated in my car looked at me curiously, not sharing my amusement -- but this wasn't the third time the train had grinded to a screaming halt for them in a week, I gather. OR they had no sense of humor. It was 10 p.m.

As the minutes ticked by, passengers began to stomp off the train in scattered groups of twos and threes. I just sat patiently, sipping my coffee and flipping through my paper. I'd spent all my cash on dinner and this Starbucks-drip, and didn't relish having to hit an ATM before hailing a cab and then spending another 10 bucks or so. I wasn't keen on walking, either -- not only was it now 10:10, but I was still almost 40 blocks from home.

Jackie, Beth and I - founders of a little brunch club that so far includes just the three of us (or, as my tabloid-teased mind has already christened it, the Brunch Bunch) - stumbled upon the fact that it's actually Restaurant Week in the city, and so various eating establishments are offering prix fixe fancy meals for $35. Jackie picked Lure Fishbar in Soho, so there we headed last night, and I certainly needed the cheery respite. It had been a rough couple of days, and you could literally almost see the steam blowing out my ears as I stomped down Mercer looking for this place. Then again, that might also have been from the extreme cold that's blanketed us belatedly.

We had a really nice time - the food was tasty, and the atmosphere was part nautical (the round windows and sparse wood decorating) and part Soho chic (the buttery yellow lighting and hipster coat-check girl.) What was most amusing, however, was that despite its air of pretentiousness (the wine-pouring guy, for example, who nearly had an aneurysm when he walked by our table and noticed Jackie was REFILLING HER OWN GLASS) they managed to serve Jackie the wrong appetizer and Beth the wrong dessert. I doubt any of us will come back anytime soon unless someone else is paying.

We parted ways, planning to TRY and do cheap drinks at POB's tomorrow, followed by brunch and thrift-store shopping Saturday morning before I head to L.I. to see Katt, and I decided to splurge on a cup of "designer" coffee to keep my eyes open on the half-hour ride home. Which was good foresight on my part, as it soon turned into an hour ride home. I got back in my apartment just in time to catch the end of "Men in Trees" and to eat the remaining three cookies in the bag my roommate and her friend were sharing. They taped "Grey's Anatomy" for me - score - so I plan on catching that tomorrow morning while doing my laundry, before going to brunch. It's going to be tricky -- I've got a packed weekend planned, including Super Bowl Sunday -- but really, it just serves to perfectly compliment my overloaded workweek.