The stars began to arrive Sunday just after 3 p.m. PT for the prelude to the 82nd Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre. Despite slightly overcast weather and intermittent rain drops, the stars shone brightly on the red carpet and the Academy Awards show began promptly at 5:30 p.m.
After an introduction to the best actor/actress nominees, the show got off to a rollicking start. Neil Patrick Harris opened the show with a jaunty Broadway-style tongue-in-cheek number called "No One Wants to Do It Alone."
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin descended from the rafters to begin co-hosting the show. They showed natural chemistry together and had the house warmed up and laughing from the get-go.
Not many were spared from the duo's combined wit. Baldwin corrected Martin for calling out to that "damn Helen Mirren" ... "That's 'Dame,' Steve."
Martin and Baldwin managed the difficult feat of keeping it fast-moving and funny, with just enough edge to the delivery to keep the opening spicy. They took on all the contenders in the room.
Targets included James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow, Gabby Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Sandra Bullock and Woody Harrelson, among many others. They recalled what a "great threesome" it was to act with Meryl Streep in It's Complicated.
It came time to direct the funny at George Clooney. But the best-actor nom glowered at them from his seat, which produced a faux-uncomfortable silence in Martin and Baldwin, much to everyone's laughter.
AND THE WINNER IS ...
Penelope Cruz introduced the Best Supporting Actor category, and announced Christoph Waltz won for his work in the movie Inglourious Basterds.
Cameron Diaz and Steve Carell introduced Best Animated Feature, which went to Up.
Miley Cyrus and Amanda Seyfried introduced Best Original Song, which went to Ryan Bingham and T-Bone Burnett for "The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)."
Robert Downey Jr., dressed in a natty blue bow-tie and blue-lensed eyeglasses, and Tina Fey presented Best Original Screenplay after a bit of funny give-and-take about the strained dynamic between writers and actors. Fey hopes actors will one day be computer-generated, with the ability to tweak technique with the click of a mouse on a computer, alone. Mark Boal wins for The Hurt Locker.
Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick introduced a posthumous tribute to John Hughes. Then Macaulay Caulkin, Jon Cryer, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy, all Hughes film alums, appeared on stage to further the tribute and to introduce Hughes's family sitting in the front row.
Carey Mulligan and Zoe Saldana presented the award for Best Animated Short. The winner is Logorama. Mulligan and Saldana also presented Best Documentary Short winner Music by Prudence, and winner of Best Live Action Short, The New Tenants.
Ben Stiller, made up in full Nav'i blue face paint, tendril wig and tail, walked out on stage to present the Best Makeup award. Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow win for Star Trek. "I'll stand as far away as possible so as not to diminish your achievement," said a cat-eyed Stiller before opening the envelope. Before he could open it, his tail began to dance wildly, until he yanked an attached fishline and a fishing rod fell from the rafters.
Rachel McAdams and Jake Gyllenhaal presented for Best Adapted Screenplay. The winner was Geoffrey Fletcher for Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire.
Robin Williams introduced Best Supporting Actress winner Mo'Nique for her work in Precious.
Sigourney Weaver presented for Best Art Direction. Avatar won.
Steve Martin introduced two "clothes whores." Baldwin corrected him. "Horses. Clothes horses." "I don't think the plural of whores is horses," said Martin. Tom Ford and Sarah Jessica Parker presented for Best Costume Design. Sandy Powell won for The Young Victoria.
Twilight stars Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner presided over a tribute to horror films featuring great scary moments over the decades. The Exorcist was the last horror film to win Oscars, back in 1973. Exorcist was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, and took home two, one for Sound and the other for Adapted Screenplay, to William Blatty.
Zac Efron and Anna Kendrick revealed the award for Best Sound Editing. Paul N.J. Ottosson won for The Hurt Locker. Best Sound Mixing also went to The Hurt Locker and Paul Ottosson and Ray Beckett.
Sandra Bullock presents Best Cinematography Award to Mauro Fiore for Avatar. That puts the Oscar count at two for Avatar, three for The Hurt Locker, and two for Precious.
Demi Moore introduced the annual "in memoriam" tribute to luminaries who passed away over the last year.
Sam Rockwell and Jennifer Lopez introduced the award for Best Music (Original Score) to Michael Giacchino for Up. That gave Up the same amount of awards, two, as Best-Picture contenders Avatar and The Hurt Locker.
Gerard Butler and Bradley Cooper presented the award for Best Visual Effects, which went to Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew Jones forAvatar.
Matt Damon introduced The Cove as the winner of the Best Documentary Feature award.
Tyler Perry presented for Best Film Editing. Bob Murawski and Chris Innis won for their work on The Hurt Locker. Locker then led the race with four Oscars.
Pedro Almodovar and Quentin Tarantino presented for Best Foreign-Language Film. Argentine production El Secreto de Sus Ojos ("The Secret in Their Eyes") won.
In an echo of last year's show, past colleagues delivered homages to current contenders in the top categories.
This year, five stars took the stage and each spoke about their working relationship to nominees. In the Best Actor category it was Michelle Pfeiffer on Jeff Bridges; Vera Farmiga on George Clooney; Julianne Moore on Colin Firth; Tim Robbins on Morgan Freeman; and Colin Farrell on Jeremy Renner.
In the Best Actress category, it was Forest Whitaker on Sandra Bullock; Michael Sheen on Helen Mirren; Peter Sarsgaard on Carey Mulligan; Oprah Winfrey on Gabourey Sidibe; and Stanley Tucci on Meryl Streep.
Kate Winslet came onstage to announce the winner of the Best Actor in a Lead Role: Jeff Bridges for his work in Crazy Heart.
Sean Penn announced the winner of the Best Actress in a Lead Role: Sandra Bullock for her work in The Blind Side.
Barbra Streisand presented the award for Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow for directing The Hurt Locker. Bigelow is now the first woman to win the award in history.
Tom Hanks presented Best Picture of the Year: The Hurt Locker wins the Oscar.
RED CARPET ARRIVALS
Although the sun was shining Sunday morning, the plastic tent was up just in case of rain later in the day. Light raindrops dotted windshields around the L.A. area just before 3 p.m. Sunday. An hour later, the sun was shining again.
Spotted on the red carpet: Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick from Up in the Air; Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver from Avatar; Maggie Gyllenhaal from Crazy Heart; and Mo'Nique and Mariah Carey from Precious.
The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner brought his mom to the show, and Quinton Aaron from the The Blind Side appeared. Quentin Tarantino, Diane Kruger and Eli Roth of Inglourious Basterds all showed up together. Best Supporting Actor Nominee Christoph Waltz was also in attendance. Morgan Freeman, who starred as former South African president Nelson Mandela in Invictus, arrived with two ladies on his arm.
The Blind Side Best Actress Nominee Sandra Bullock arrived wearing a glamorous silver dress with husband Jesse James dressed in a crisp outlaw-black suit.
George Clooney created quite a stir when he arrived. He exited his limousine and instead of heading toward the red carpet, he took time to walk down the street and greet fans, shake hands and sign autographs.
Best Actress Nominee Carey Mulligan from An Education and Best Actor Nominee Colin Firth from A Single Man could be seen on the red carpet. Best Actor Nominee Jeff Bridges of Crazy Heart moved through the throngs with his wife.
The Hurt Locker Director Kathryn Bigelow was striking in her red carpet appearance. Robert Downey Jr. appeared on the red carpet in a tuxedo and sporting sneakers on feet.
The page went out over the loudspeakers shortly before 5 p.m. asking attendees to take their seats inside the theater. The Academy Awards broadcast was prepared to begin.
It came down to the wire as to which film would win Best Pic. Part of the drama stemmed from adding five more movies to the usual five selections, bringing the total to 10, something not done since 1943, the year Casablanca won Best Picture.
Best-Pic voting was also different this year, with Academy members asked to rank their favorite movies from 1 to 10 in the "instant-runoff" style of voting. Usually members just vote for their best-pic choice, but this year the rankings were figured in to the final determination.
During a live stream of the red carpet goings-on on ABC7.com, viewers from around the world took part in the interactive show. Twitter followers and live-chat participants wrote in from far and wide, including from Romania, Italy, Abu Dhabi, Egypt, Canada, Sweden, Finland and the Philippines.
Thousands of flowers lined the red carpet, and final preparations behind the scenes were made as the countdown began to the beginning of the awards show.
Crews had to break out heavy-duty vacuum cleaners to suck up all of the water on the red carpet from Saturday's rain.
The bleachers for fans to watch red carpet arrivals were almost full by midday, and even those who couldn't make it inside gathered outside just hoping to get a glimpse of some of their favorite stars.
"We tried to get bleacher-seat tickets, but it's a one day thing, and we missed it," said Oscar fan Faith Winiecki. "I want to see Kate Winslet, but doesn't look like it's going to happen 'cause they're going to tell us to move pretty soon."
Reporters and photographers from all around the world lined up along the red carpet. The Oscars is watched in 200 countries worldwide.
