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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Oscars Open Thread

Reader Interactions

180Comments

  3. 3.

    some guy

    Did any of our terrorists allies get a shout out for their string of successful car bombs yesterday in Syria on the Sunday gabfests this morning?

  7. 7.

    JKormac

    That’s funny you posted that, because Zoe and Catherine just called me to see if I’d like to play sandwich after the ceremony. Weird, man!

  12. 12.

    Drunken hausfrau

    My hubby won,t let me watch… We are watching 60 minutes… seal who killed OBL is telling the tale.

  13. 13.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @lamh35:

    Ha from the brilliant Guardian Liveblog

    Whoa there! So I was all set to write about Anne Hathaway’s incredibly chic but uncomfortably restrictive and a bit too “hey there, I’m a modern day Audrey Hepburn with this new haircut, you know” dress. But I’m afraid she then gave me two black eyes with the extraordinary nipple protrusions from her gown so I’m now blinded and can’t do my job. Thanks a lot, Hathaway.

  14. 14.

    JPL

    @SFAW: Her dress flared from the hips down.. If you were closer than three feet, you’d step on it.. okay exaggeration..two feet.

  15. 15.

    Bruuuuce

    The trends towards long trains and beige are not doing it for me this year. Kristen Chenoweth, however…wow!

  18. 18.

    PsiFighter37

    Your sandwich is favorable to my tastes, although can I replace Catherine Zeta-Jones with Yvonnne Strahovski? Being a Chuck fan yourself, John, I’m sure you’d understand.

    PF37 +7 / about to grab some Indian curry and turn the stank temp up #tmi

  20. 20.

    Roger Moore

    @lamh35:

    Is it cold in LA,

    Not super cold, but not sultry hot. I’m probably a bit warmer than they are at the Nokia, and my thermometer says 68.

    ETA: Oops, it’s at the Dolby, not the Nokia. And Weather Underground says it’s around 60 in that neighborhood.

  21. 21.

    Cassidy

    Ooooohhh….someone’s going to get fed some soup and pet a kitteh. Romance…WV Cole style.

    I’m kid because I care.

  25. 25.

    dance around in your bones

    Couldn’t care less about the Oscars or the nips or the dresses. (Now, the sandwich image is stuck in my brain – shakes fist at Cole!)

    I happen to be watching the final episode of Downton Abbey {{{sob}}} due to my best friend visiting and me forgetting to watch it last weekend. We be all busy gabbing and etc.

  28. 28.

    Paul W.

    Oh my lord, I’ve had the hugest crush on Catherine Zeta-Jones for years. She’s honestly one of the most beautiful women ever to be in a film and I’ve thought so ever since she took my breath away in Zorro.

    Just more proof that I’m reading the right blog, thank you Cole.

  30. 30.

    Violet

    @Paul W.: Catherine Zeta-Jones took my breath away in Zorro too. She was stunning in that film. Her slinky cat moves through the laser obstacle course in that movie with Sean Connery were pretty hot too.

  35. 35.

    Elizabelle

    So glad you’ve got an Oscars thread up.

    Kristen Chenowith and Adele. Adele looks like she’s 7 feet tall, in comparison.

  37. 37.

    Robert

    Kristin Chenoweth could be a new unit of measurement. Adele is two Chenoweths. Rolls off the tongue and makes life easy.

  38. 38.

    The Dangerman

    @lamh35:

    …cause Anne Hathaway is gonna put someone’s eye out…

    Isn’t she the one that forgot to wear underwear at the last awards show?

  41. 41.

    dance around in your bones

    @Gin & Tonic:

    The Oscars? Oh hell, you know I am going to be following along here.

    Now, Downton Abbey? Shut the fuck up!

    eta: re Downton Abbey, so far there seems to be an awful lot of wild Scottish dancing involved.

  42. 42.

    Bruuuuce

    @Mnemosyne: Adele says she’s about 6’1″ in her shoes, and Kristen Chenoweth is about 4’11”, so it does make for a dramatic difference

  46. 46.

    Violet

    Anne Hathaway’s dress looks like a apron. She’s got side boob going on, in addition to the Madonna nipples. That’s got to be one of the fugliest dresses so far.

  47. 47.

    PsiFighter37

    I’m watching “Big Bang Theory” on My9. This particular episode makes me want to drink even more.

  49. 49.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Guardian again

    Hey, here’s George Clooney and his beard. And isn’t his beard lovely? So stylish and silvery, slim but not too slim. What a lovely beard George Clooney has. Seriously, this joke will never get old. (HF)

  50. 50.

    Mnemosyne

    It’s a little disturbing to me that movie stars who are my age are showing up at the awards with their college-aged children in tow.

    (Okay, Jamie Foxx is two years older than me. Still.)

  51. 51.

    MikeJ

    the salute to the second Doctor is pretty good. I never liked the original Doctor Who until the reboot, but the special is pretty good.

    What I want is a Blake’s Seven reboot.

  55. 55.

    Heliopause

    Zoe Saldana, and Catherine Zeta Jones.
    I want to be in the middle. Mind you, I have NO FUCKING IDEA what I would do

    Just FYI I’ve been there. Mediocre to be honest with you. Saldana especially always seems to have her mind somewhere else. Can’t imagine why. Might I recommend Meryl Streep and Kathy Bates? They sell it.

  56. 56.

    RedKitten

    Charlize looks good with her new hair. Mind you, considering how physically flawless she is, most any hairstyle would look good.

  66. 66.

    burnspbesq

    @Mnemosyne:

    s Adele standing on a box, or is she really that much taller than Kristen Chenoweth?

    Kristen is seeriously short, probably no more than 5’2″.

  68. 68.

    phoebes-in-santa fe

    Kristin Chenowith is one of the most repulsive people in public life. Her voice is awful and she calls everyone “baby”. I don’t know if I can get through the rest of this show.

  70. 70.

    Mnemosyne

    @Gin & Tonic:

    It is a little weird that she keeps having to stretch her arm above her head to get the microphone to where her guests can talk into it.

    @Redshirt:

    I’m wearing Royal Robbins (t-shirt) and Target (sweat pants). You?

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    I’m not hating Seth McFarlane as much as I thought I would. Kinda like with Ted.

    ETA: Though all of his plastic surgery has given him a strong resemblance to Donnie Osmond, of all people.

  77. 77.

    trollhattan

    Jerry gets real at the National Governors Association meeting. I’m certain the Very Special Governors (i.e., Republican) are now huddled in a corner, chugging Bud Lites and snickering at the Krazy Old Man from CommieCalistan and his krrrrazy klimate idears, which are really an excuse for taking everybody’s magical gunz.

    Gov. Jerry Brown urged the nation’s governors today to take action to combat climate change, warning weak environmental policies could prove catastrophic.

    “I know there’s not a lot of policy action going on in most places, but this is a real problem,” Brown said at a meeting of the National Governors Association. “We know we’re playing Russian Roulette with our climate, and I believe we have to take action.”

    In his only formal speaking engagement of the weekend, the Democratic governor distributed to other governors a copy of a December report by White house science adviser John Holdren.

    “It’s clear, it lays stuff out,” Brown said. “You see there’s real harm.”

    Brown, who has promoted alternative energy since he was governor before, from 1975 to 1983, touted his effort to expand the state’s reliance on renewable electricity, including a requirement that utilities obtain one-third of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

    “But we can’t do it alone,” Brown said. “We need other states. America can’t do it alone. We need China, we need India.”

    Brown’s remarks came at a committee meeting focused on extreme weather events. Many conservatives believe the effect of global warming is overstated, and they argue stringent environmental regulations have hurt economic growth in California. Brown said California is facing early snow melts and a longer fire season, and he said a rising sea level threatens the cities of San Francisco and Oakland.

    “This is a serious problem,” Brown said. “If people don’t believe in the science, we ought to debate it. But at some point, we’ve got to talk about what do we do. Because just like the debt that’s piling up and at some point becomes absolutely unsustainable, the debt of carbon buildup will become unsustainable.”

    Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/02/video-jerry-brown-warns-nation-is-playing-russian-roulette-with-climate.html#storylink=cpy

  78. 78.

    dance around in your bones

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’m wearing Royal Robbins (t-shirt) and Target (sweat pants). You?

    I’m wearing vintage Old Navy – faded black yoga pants and a luscious plum colored thinnest t-shirt on the planet (also Old Navy).

    I’mma cheap like that.

    ETA: Ok, just saw the end of Downton Abbey and I just died a little bit.

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    @Violet:

    G thinks he looks more like Bobby Brady. I don’t know why he did it, but he’s been pretty open about it.

    I kinda like that the audience is comfortable booing him and not just sitting in uncomfortable silence.

  85. 85.

    Argo

    @raven: The Oscars have yet to begin and already the sweet smell of success is being overtaken by another, less edifying odour. Apparently the loos have overflowed inside the Dolby theatre.

    This, surely, is not the start the organisers would have wanted.

  90. 90.

    PsiFighter37

    Why didn’t Leonard stay with Priya on BBT?

    Maybe it’s only me, but I would take Priya over Kaley Cuocco ANY FREAKIN’ DAY.

  92. 92.

    PeakVT

    Mind you, I have NO FUCKING IDEA what I would do,

    You know exactly what you’d do: grin like an idiot for thirty seconds and then run off to change your underoos.

  94. 94.

    CaseyL

    Oh my god, this is awful. It’s like they put it together in someone’s garage. Re-splicing home movies… and old TV series.

  96. 96.

    RedKitten

    Well, the dance scene with Theron and Channing was lovely.

    Oh yay!!! Daniel Radcliffe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt!

  97. 97.

    General Stuck

    One of the travails from living off the beaten path. Haven’t seen a single nominated picture yet. And it seems like any more,all the best pics are timing themselves to open late in the year, nearest to the Oscar night.

    That’s okay. There’s a drone thread down below, and most of the usual suspects are there, but I’ll have to settle for the joy of never having voted for GWB. That’s enough, for now.

  99. 99.

    Jay C

    OK nine minutes in and we already want to change tithe channel

    Too bad Capt Kirk didn’t just phaser blast the whole thing right now

  101. 101.

    Mnemosyne

    I’m amused and yet impressed that Daniel Radcliff has turned himself into a song-and-dance man. He got raves on Broadway for “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”

  108. 108.

    John O

    I can’t have anyone talking smack about my latest serious heart throbber, Anne Hathaway.

    I say the dress was sewn to create that look, and it sure worked for at least one rapt viewer.

  111. 111.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @PsiFighter37: Priya went back to India, IIRC. As far as my preference, I think it’s a tossup between her and Penny. I’ve always been partial to tall blondes and short brunettes. I might need John’s sandwich to figure it out.

    The later seasons have been less focused on Sheldon since they expanded the cast. And it looks like Raj might be gettin’ a girlfriend finally, as of the Valentine’s Day show last week.

  114. 114.

    Comrade Mary

    I hate this attempt at having it both ways. Boob jokes from the future, then “classy” song and dance, doesn’t redeem the boob jokes.

    But MacFarlane is a decent singer. I’ll give him that.

  121. 121.

    CaseyL

    When the camera lingers on all the nominees as the award is given, I can never watch. I always feel bad for the people who didn’t win. It doesn’t help that I know they’re trying to keep iron control over their expressions, hoping their disappointment doesn’t show.

  127. 127.

    Mnemosyne

    @CaseyL:

    I think the only one who I saw let the mask slip was Bill Murray. He was PISSED when he lost for Lost in Translation and he made no attempt to hide it.

  135. 135.

    MikeJ

    @PsiFighter37:

    Why didn’t Leonard stay with Priya on BBT?

    She slept with a guy back in India. I think he had slept with somebody else too, but we never heard any of the conversation after she said that. I think the most charitable reading is they just couldn’t make long distance work.

  139. 139.

    dance around in your bones

    @CaseyL:

    I feel the same way, It’s hard to watch people stifling their disappointment/sadness/anger.

    @Mnemosyne: I’ll have to look up that clip – I was out of the country with no TV, but I loved that movie.

  140. 140.

    CaseyL

    This is amazing: I’ve actually seen both the Best Animated Short and the Best Animated Feature films.

  142. 142.

    Mnemosyne

    I was hoping for “Ralph” to win (more booze!) but I have no problem with “Brave” — I really liked it.

  143. 143.

    Comrade Mary

    I missed the red carpet. Anne Hathaway seems to be wearing a pink satin sack. Not the red carpet gown?

  144. 144.

    Suffern ACE

    Hmmm. Would have gone with wreck it Ralph. I’d actually seen all the animated features, and didn’t think brave offered anything different from Tangled a few years back.

  145. 145.

    gogol's wife

    @dance around in your bones:

    We re-watched the last episode of Downton Abbey and then switched to the Oscars. The contrast just blew our brains out, we couldn’t stand looking at that McFarlane guy after all the nice faces on Downton. How can you stand it?

  148. 148.

    Mnemosyne

    Ah, one of the reasons I love George Clooney — no matter what they throw at him at awards shows, he always goes with it.

  152. 152.

    dance around in your bones

    @gogol’s wife:

    Actually, by reading Balloon Juice, surfing the web for actor’s reactions to losing the Oscar that they so deserved, and …ah, drinking a bit of wine.

    The TV is just background noise.

  154. 154.

    JGabriel

    @Elizabelle:

    Christoph Waltz for Best Supporting Actor, second win in the category for him.

    Cool. I thought Waltz’s performance was the best in that category, but figured it would go to Tommy Lee Jones instead.

    Glad Waltz got it.

  156. 156.

    Mnemosyne

    So is the “Life of Pi” cinematographer going to mention the pissed-off EFX artists protesting his movie outside?

  157. 157.

    Randy P

    Not exactly watching, but just found a live blog on the WaPo website.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2013/02/24/oscars-2013-live-academy-awards-coverage/

    Best animated short was “Paperman”, which is from a little independent studio called “Walt Disney”.

    For some reason the animation this year was almost all American, and Pixar and Disney have been playing in this pool lately, crowding out the shoestring operations. Seems kind of unfair. Most years there’s been this delightful international indie flavor to the “Oscar-Nominated Shorts” (which get released to theaters in the beginning of Feb).

  162. 162.

    cckids

    Life of Pi winning all the visual effects-cinematography type awards, not exactly a surprise.
    Well done, tho!

  165. 165.

    Comrade Mary

    OK — the Jaws heme playing out winners was kind of funny – but they even cut his mic when he was mentioning the vfx strikers.

  166. 166.

    cckids

    @CaseyL: I enjoyed it, it was thought-provoking & moving. The idea of what is & isn’t real, what tricks do our minds play on us, was well done.

    Edit to add: and truly, wonderful to watch, whether or not you saw it in 3-D. Find it in a theater if you can, it is well worth it.

  168. 168.

    CaseyL

    @cckids: Thanks for the rec. I’ll have to see if it’s still playing in a real theater. Will probably skip the 3D, though.

    (Are we all going to the new Open Oscar thread?)

  172. 172.

    TGC

    @PsiFighter37: I thought the dress was one of the best.

    And if she’s seen a picture of Brad Pitt in the last 4-5 years she is sooooooo over him. Talk about losing the hot. He looks like a smelly old homeless goat. His baby mama looks like hammered shit too.

  173. 173.

    PsiFighter37

    @Mike E: Reading Market Terminal…they’ve got so much good comfort food there, it was hard to pass up. We ate at Original Turkey twice and Spataro’s Steaks once.

    Can’t beat a cheesesteak made in Philly, period.

  174. 174.

    Hobbes

    @MikeJ: I liked Blake’s Seven (even the terrible props and special effects had some charm) but I don’t believe they’d be able to remake it well .
    I think I’d prefer sequels to remakes for most of the older sci-fi.

  175. 175.

    Bill Murray

    @MikeJ: Priya slept with her old boyfriend. Leonard was going to sleep with a woman he met at the comic book store, but chose not to

  176. 176.

    VFX Lurker

    @Mnemosyne: I just got back from the VFX protest, so I’m missing the Oscars. All I know is my friends are pissed that the Academy cut off the Rhythm & Hues’ acceptance speech because it dared mention the R&H bankruptcy.

    I don’t think Hollywood films will offer quality VFX for much longer. Hollywood wants more and more for less and less, and it’s tearing apart VFX crews and studios and infrastructure in its reckless pursuit of lowering VFX costs.

    In AVENGERS 3, the Hulk will be played by a sock puppet…

  177. 177.

    Mnemosyne

    @VFX Lurker:

    They’re probably hoping to do what a lot of TV animation has done and move production overseas to places like India, but they probably should talk to animation people before they do that, because the Giant Evil Corporation has discovered that there are a LOT of downsides to doing it.

  178. 178.

    VFX Lurker

    @Mnemosyne:

    They’re probably hoping to do what a lot of TV animation has done and move production overseas to places like India, but they probably should talk to animation people before they do that, because the Giant Evil Corporation has discovered that there are a LOT of downsides to doing it.

    Yeah, Hollywood keeps trying, but it keeps failing. Partly because any time an artist in India gets super-awesome at what s/he does, a better-paying studio outside of India snaps up that artist for better pay. The best artists will move for the best pay.

    Things are getting rough, though. I think it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. In the meantime, the VFX quality will suffer.

  180. 180.

    Herbal Infusion Bagger

    @JPL:

    Jessica Chastain wore a copper color… You can do lots with beige, i.e. changing the name.

    WTF was up with Chastain’s makeup? Whoever did her makeup made her look unnatural and had been manufactured in a vat somewhere.

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