Another one bites the dust....

I can't tell you how sad it makes me to hear that New Yorker Films (no connection to the magazine) is closing up shop.

New Yorker releases were a big part of my education, and I guess I should be grateful that I grew up a time when a distributor whose product line was entirely composed of documentaries and art movies (mostly foreign-language) could not only stay in business, but actually did well enough that they had their own theater — The New Yorker — on Manhattan's Upper West Side, where I grew up.

It was just a block or two away from my favorite Chinese restaurant, the gloriously old fashioned Chun Cha Fu (complete with its own tiny cocktail lounge); their orange beef totally ruined me for anyone else's. I vividly remember having it there after seeing Jerzy Skolimowski's The Shout at the New Yorker. Both are long gone, but not forgotten.

(Apparently I'm not the only person with swooningly fond memories of Chun Cha Fu)

This trailer is a blast — I love its effort to sell an arty, philosophical horror film (a la The Last Wave or Fragment of Fear) as a shocker in the tradition of the The Omen and The Exorcist.



And can you believe John Hurt was ever that young?

Best Picture... the prize everyone wants

...so of course you get Steven Spielberg to present it.

And God damn if it didn't go to Slumdog Millionaire! Yeas, it was the odds-on favorite after it began winning every pre-Oscar award in sight, but think back to two months ago: It would have seemed impossible that this little picture about Mumbai slum kids would sweep this year's Academy Awards.

And now it's on to best actor, to the theme from The Magnificent Seven...

God, how did I forget that Michael Douglas had a best actor Oscar for Wall Street? Oh right... I tried really, really hard.

Adrian Brody's incredibly gracious, respectful speech about Richard Jenkins and The Vistor is going to go down as one of my favorite moments of this broadcast. He's not going to win, but my God, Jenkins was great and it's a real pleasure to see a veteran character actor get his moment in the sun..

Can you say "bleached blond battered bruiser" five times fast? I can't.

The evening's first unpset: Sean Penn gets best actor for Milk! Not that he doesn't richly deserve it, but comeback-kid Mickey Rourke was the sentimental favorite for The Wrestler and I really believe Penn's surprise that the Academy's "commie, homo-loving sons of guns" went with him. And good for him for coming out (as it were) in support of gay marriage and for taking the time to praise Rourke.

He's a pain in the ass and he knows it, but Penn has the courage of his convictions whether or not they're in line with popular opinion.

It's best actress time!

...and Anne Hathaway looked every bit as thrilled as she should have when the legendary Shirley MacLaine told her she had a great voice and should keep on singing. Yes, there is hope for the youth of today.

And who do you get to sing the praises of Meryl Streep without sounding like a grovelling sycophant? For my money, Sophia Loren is a hell of a good call. And she looks marvelous.

The Oscar goes to Kate Winslet for The Reader, which is no huge surprise... but I can't help but think that it must be a little awkwward for her, since early favorite Revolutionary Road, which she made with her husband, Sam Mendes, was so totally shunned.

Are her foundation garments too tight? She is seriously hyper-ventilating. Nice whistle from her dad, though, even if he did look a little dodgy in that hat.

AQnd now, during the commercial break....

May I take a moment top observe that this show is moving like a freight train? It isn't even 11:30 and there are only three awards left.

Way back in 1990, I did a long interview with Bill Condon for my book Filmmaking on the Fringe. Back then he was directing made-for-TV thrillers and low-budget genre films; today he has an Oscar for Gods and Monsters and is one of this Oscar telecast's two producers (the other is Lawrence Mark).

Bill was a hell of a smart, nice, movie-loving guy then and I'm willing to bet that he's exactly the same now. So Bill, congratulations!