Hollywood’s Biggest Night

The glitz, the glamour, the fashion, the suspense. The Stars aligned at the 85th Annual Academy Awards last night, and despite mixed reviews, this year’s Oscars were one for the books!

Seth MacFarlane, the creative genius behind Family Guy, opened the show with slightly lackluster opening monologue. While I found most of his jokes to be pretty hilarious, the majority of his quips didn’t land. The one that really set people off was comparing Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained to the Rhianna and Chris Brown domestic violence scandal, but the momentum picked up as Captain Kirk assisted Seth. Why they chose William Shatner to “predict the future” is beyond me, but the jokes landed with more success. Seth utilized is musical talents to poke fun at all the women in Hollywood who have appeared topless in their films in a song called “We Saw Your Boobs”. After the laughs died down from that performance, Shatner suggested a song and dance. MacFarlane serenaded a somewhat awkward dance between Channing Tatum (queue the chorus of “omg he is SO HOT”) and Charlize Theron with “Just The Way You Look Tonight”. Then Seth and Shatner switched gears, poking fun at the Denzel Washington film Flight with sock puppets (which I thought was absolutely hysterical!). The gears switched back to music as Joseph Gordon Levitt and Daniel Radcliffe joined MacFarlane on stage with a quick song and tap dance, during which my fangirl nature hit a high—I mean, it’s Harry Potter and the very attractive Robin dancing! How could it get better? After a quick stupid spiel with Sally Field, Seth turned back to music with an awesome Oscar’s themed rendition of Be Our Guest.  And then the awards began!

 Auburn alum Octavia Spencer, looking just a little too bridal in her gown, presented the award for Best Supporting Actor to Chrisoph Waltz for his role in Django Unchained. This was the second Oscar for Waltz, who won previously for his role in Tarantino’s Nazi-era film Inglorious Basterds.

Breaking from tradition, the Academy continued with all the less popular, yet just as important, awards. But luckily they brought out the great presenters to liven the low-hype awards. Paul Rudd, Melissa McCarthy, the male cast of Marvel’s The Avengers (Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans looking absolutely delicious), Channing Tatum and Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington, Ben Affleck, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Radcliffe, and others presented the various awards for Animation, Cinematography, Design, Documentary, Editing, and Production.

Then finally the awards everyone really cares about were presented. The always charming Christopher Plummer presented the Best Supporting Actress award to Anne Hathaway for her role in Les Mis. I’m sorry Anne, but your dress was just not cute. The back, gorgeous, the darts on the front absolutely awful! It’s just not classy to draw attention to certain parts of your body and get them their own Twitter account.

Richard Gere, a gorgeous Catherine Zeta Jones, Queen Latifah, and a possibly wasted Renee Zellweger presented the award for Best Original Score to Life of Pi, and the Oscar for Best Original Song to the gorgeous Adele for her absolutely amazing song Skyfall, which she performed beautifully during the ceremony.  Adapted Screenplay went to Argo, Original Screenplay to Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained.

Then, the moment we had all been waiting for, the biggest awards of the night. Legendary actress Jane Fonda, looking absolutely stunning in her slimfit yellow gown, presented the award for Best Director to Ang Lee for his epic film Life of Pi.  A stunning Jennifer Lawrence snagged her first Oscar for her role in Silver Linings Playbook, gracefully accepting her award after a not so graceful fall. But it’s no secret that I absolutely adore her so she really could’ve been awkward and I wouldn’t have noticed! Daniel Day-Lewis, also an acting legend, won for his work in Spielberg’s Lincoln.  After a super weird presentation by Jack Nicholson, aided by the completely random appearance of the First Lady via camera (like why, I just don’t understand), a teary Ben Affleck accepted the award for Best Picture for his film Argo, emotionally thanking his wife Jennifer Garner, who looked absolutely beautiful, and his three adorable children!

The night was broken up by a really cool tribute to the fifty years of James Bond films, followed later by a spectacular tribute to musical theatre with performances by Catherine Zeta Jones (who appeared to be lip-syncing and stiffly dancing her way through “All That Jazz”), Jennifer Hudson, the cast of Les Mis, Adele, and the always perfect Barbara Streisand. All in all, I would say last night’s award show was pretty successful. Maybe because of Seth’s younger humor, or possibly because of the spectacle of the performances. Or maybe just because I’m obsessed with all things celebrity. But hopefully next year’s show will feature a faster pace, less awards that no one really cares about, and bigger performances. A nomination and win for the severely underrated Leonardo DiCaprio wouldn’t hurt to shake things up either!