I’m just catching up on all of the reviews of Sunday’s Academy Awards telecast and I guess I missed the part where the show was a mess – at least according to plenty of folks.
I thought it was such a good time and the fact that it was the highest-rated Oscars in 14 years doesn’t surprise me. And I love that there is so much buzz and energy about it days later – still news about the all-star selfie and Travolta’s name mangling and Ellen’s Liza joke.
So whatever.
I choose to love this Oscar show – I was so relaxed and happy watching it and never bored.
Ellen has posted this behind-the-scene video which shows her amazingly relaxed throughout the whole thing.
Kentucky’s Attorney General Jack Conway is featured today because he took a stand this week against his state’s ban on gay marriage.
And, well, because he’s super handsome too!
He announced in an emotional press conference yesterday (see video below)
A Catholic and a Democrat considering running for governor in 2015, Conway knew the decision was risky but he felt that if he were defend the marriage ban, ‘I would be defending discrimination. That, I will not do.’
‘I prayed over this decision,’ he said, choking up. ‘I appreciate those who provided counsel.’
He paused to collect themselves and said that in the end, ‘It’s about placing people over politics. For those who disagree, I can only say that I’m doing what I think is right.’
He went through a lot on his way to becoming Chaz but now that he has, the only child of Cher and the late Sonny Bono seems happy at last.
Chaz Bono turns 45 today and has been pursuing an acting career since appearing on Dancing With the Stars a few years back.
Chaz, slimmer than ever, has appeared in some plays in LA in the past year and Michael Musto reports that he is playing ‘Jerry, an eccentric junkie hoarder’ in a new movie thriller called Dirty.
The character was born biologically male meaning a trans man has been cast as a non-trans man in a movie!
If the Ellen DeGeneres all-star selfie from Sunday’s Academy Awards wasn’t already iconic, it certainly is now.
The shot featuring the Oscar host with the likes of Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts and Bradley Cooper has been given the royal animated treatment by the creator of The Simpsons.
Matt Groening gives a ‘wider view’ of the epic shot with an illustration he posted on Twitter on Tuesday (4 March).
It shows Bradley Cooper, who actually snapped the selfie, keeping Homer Simpson out of the shot by planting his foot firmly on the side of the cartoon dad’s large head.
It also includes all of Jared Leto and his luscious locks which were not fully captured in the original photo (see below). The group selfie has been retweeted more than 3.2 million times.
The Simpsons version has a lot of catching up to do!
The @HomerJSimpson Twitter accounts states: ‘The ugly true story of that Oscar® selfie can finally be told! Let’s break Twitter again. Look for Bart.’
Have just watched this again and started laughing about it all over again. I mean, how?
Anyway, John Travolta has finally spoken out about his legendary mangling of Idina Menzel’s name on Oscar night. For some reason, her name came out of his mouth as “Adele Dazeem.”
Of course he can’t explain it – how could you?
“I’ve been beating myself up all day,” Travolta said in the statement.
He used a clever reference to the song Menzel sang when urging the world to please move on.
“Then I thought … what would Idina Menzel say, She’d say, Let it go, let it go!” Travolta also said. “Idina is incredibly talented and I am so happy ‘Frozen’ took home two Oscars Sunday night!”
Idina is most likely thanking Travolta – this is the most the wickedly talented Tony Award winning star of Wicked has been talked about – ever.
That show, which also featured the pizza delivery man who made an unexpected appearance on the Oscars the night before, set a new ratings record for The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
The post-Oscar show drew 4.8 million viewers – easily the highest number in the Emmy-winning show’s 11 year history, according to The Wrap.
The blockbuster ratings are the continuation of a huge week for Ellen who during the telecast broke Twitter’s retweet record with an all-star selfie taken during the telecast.
The photo was retweeted more than 2 million times during the show causing so much activity that Twitter temporarily shut down.
The previous record for retweets was set by President Barack Obama whose photo with wife Michelle after his 2012 election was retweeted more than 800,000 times.
I thought Ellen DeGeneres’ joke at the Oscars about Liza Minnelli actually being a drag queen was mildly funny.
I mean, how many drag versions of Liza have we all seen in our lives? She’s like Cher and Diana Ross – awesome drag characters.
Well, it turns out Liza didn’t think the joke was as funny as her sister, Lorna Luft did. Lorna just roared with laughter (see video below).
Ellen in her opening monologue pointed Minnelli out in the audience and said it was ‘one of the most amazing Liza Minnelli impersonators I’ve ever seen in my life. Good job, sir!’
Liza told TMZ last night: ‘I think she thought it would be funny but she never stopped after she said it and said, "My friend Liza Minnelli." So I think it went a bit astray on her,’ Minnelli tells TMZ.com. But Minnelli is not holding a grudge. ‘I don’t think she meant any harm at all and she’s a wonderful lady.’
Also: Liza had tried to get into the all-star selfie but ‘all the men just pushed me out of the way. It made me laugh so hard.’
Asked if she managed to snag a slice of the pizza Ellen was passing around Liza said: ‘I’m on a diet!’
I had posted that Liza seemed wobbly on the red carpet. Well, she is wobbly here too so it’s clear she has some kind of hip, leg or knee problem as she has had in the past.
Yesterday’s episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show kind of reminded me of when I was in college.
After a night of partying, me and my suitemates in SDSU’s Zura Hall would gather in our lounge and rehash the night before.
How late did you stay out? Who did you see? Wasn’t it funny when (fill in the blank) happened?
I’ll never forget when I held court after my girlfriend’s sorority formal and told everyone how I had thrown up on a guy’s tuxedo in the bathroom of the Hilton Hotel in La Jolla.
Anyway, Ellen had three of the night’s acting winners on for a Zura Hall-type morning after rehash and it was a lot of fun with everyone bleary-eyed but just damned happy.
Super cool and humble best supporting actor winner Jared Leto (I really like this guy!) and Ellen dished about the all-star selfie that has now been retweeted more than 3 million times.
Leto dashed from his seat to be a part of it and managed to get his eyeballs in the group shot.
Supporting actress Lupita Nyong’o laughed at her younger brother scoring a prominent place in the photo which has made him instantly famous. She said he is a college freshman who has acting aspirations.
A photo of Nyong’o getting a big hug from Liza Minnelli as she left her seat to accept her Oscar was also shown. The actress admitted to DeGeneres that she had only just met Minnelli that night because they were seated across the aisle from each other.
Best actress winner Cate Blanchett let her Oscar be passed around the audience and it ended in the hands on DeGeneres’ mother, Betty, who did not seem in a rush to part with it.
Leto complimented DeGeneres for being a great host and making it a fun evening for everyone and told the audience that his mother had danced with Madonna at one of the after-parties.
He also dished a bit about what happened when the pizza was being passed around. It seems that Harrison Ford grabbed a slice, took a big bite then had part of the pizza fall onto his tuxedo.
I’m a day late on this but wanted to weigh in about Kim Novak’s appearance on the Academy Awards on Sunday.
The star of such films as Picnic, Pal Joey , The Man With the Golden Arm and Alfred Hitchcock’sVertigo presented the Best Animated Feature Oscar to Frozen.
Twitter exploded with snark.
Among the tweets: ‘Kim Novak’s face just won for Frozen’ and ‘Kim Novak was just safely transported back to the Hollywood Wax Museum. #Oscars’
Good grief, even that bitch Donald Trump weighed in tweeting: “Kim should sue her plastic surgeon!’”
C’mon! The lady is 81 and she rarely makes public appearances. Yes, her cheeks looked a bit too plump – as did Goldie Hawn’s! – but she’s one of our few stars remaining from the golden era and deserves some respect.
I remember another Oscars telecast Miss Novak appeared at – in 1979 – and she was the night’s sensation because she had not made a movie in a long time and looked absolutely dazzling.
Ronan Farrow said it best on Twitter last night: “Half the people being cruel about Kim Novak are ten years away from being Kim Novak.”
Hollywood pizza joint Big Mama’s and Papa’s Pizzeria continued its sudden high-profile when Oscar telecast delivery guy Edgar appeared on Ellen DeGeneres’ post-Oscar show today.
Edgar co-owns the pizza place with his brothers and we learn from this interview that he had no idea what he was walking into when he delivered the pizzas to the Dolby Theatre last night.
Ellen bought a lot more pizzas today – for her entire studio audience! In addition, Edgar got the roughly $600 Ellen collected in tip money from A-listers during the Oscars and she added $1,000 to the total.
Here is video of their interview plus others from today’s show:
The smugness is on my last nerve. If not for Blake Berris’ sexy pillow lips during some of these close-ups, I would totally lose my mind.
Anyway, Mr. Smug who continues to think he is holding all the cards, and Sonny have a bit of a showdown during which Sonny barks: “Stop with the innocent act – I’m tired of it. I know what you’re up to and I’m not going to let you screw around with our lives again.”
Then our sweet Sonny undergoes a personality change when he growls to Nick: “I’m a Kiriakis which means I get what I want – no matter what it takes.”
Nick has a good comeback: “I don’t care what your last name is. You’re shooting blanks Sonny and all I have is bullets – one for Kate, one for Sami and two more for the happy couple if I need them.”
Nick has Will and Sonny pinned as accessories to murder except for one glaring fact: He’s not dead!
Meanwhile, a sweet scene with Will telling his great-grandma Brady about his engagement to Sonny. She says to him: “You don’t need my approval or anybody else’s – you just need to be in love.”
Did you watch Jimmy Kimmel’s post-Oscars special last night?
Hilarious. Kevin Spacey did perfect imitations of Johnny Carson and Jack Lemmon – loved that.
Also loved this opening sequence in which we see Ellen and Portia in bed, supposedly after the Oscars, and they have a surprise guest who has even brought his own fondue pot!
It’s a pity that when Matthew McConaughey won the Oscar that I had so confidently predicted for him back in October, he gave such a disappointing acceptance speech.
He did remember to thank God right at the start and the part about his dad was sweet: ‘I know he’s up there right now, with a big pot of gumbo…he’s probably in his underwear, and he’s got a cold can of Miller Lite, and he’s dancin.”‘
But to win his industry’s highest award for playing a man with AIDS in a movie all about AIDS and to not once mention AIDS in a speech that lasted more than three minutes is pretty ghastly.
Especially when you spend so much time talking about how your hero is yourself and blah, blah, blah.
I’ve posted a story over at Gay Star News about some of the well-deserved criticism being leveled at McConaughey today – especially when you compare them to the truly thoughtful and humble speeches given by Jared Leto and Lupita Dyong’o.
Lots of handsome guys at the Oscars last night because, well, this is Hollywood!
Of all the handsome movie star dudes, one that really stood out to me was Chris Evans. Not just because he’s so damned cute but because I do not ever remember seeing him with a beard before.
What did you all think if it?
I liked it!
Anyway, I’m reading that Chris was a replacement to introduce the tribute to superheroes for the previously announced Andrew Garfield. Not sure what happened to Spidey but I’ll take Captain America anytime, anyplace.
Below is the new poster for the next Captain America movie!
I did not know I had a crush on Spike Jonze until I watched him accept the best original screenplay Oscar last night for the film Her.
What a cutie!
And his speech was so natural and off-the-cuff but from the heart.
Just 44, Spike started his feature film directing career with 1999′s Being John Malkovich and 2002′s Adaptation, both of them written by Charlie Kaufman.
He then started making movies with screenplays of his own with Where the Wild Things Are in 2009 and last year’s Her.
Prior to films, Spike was well known for his music video collaborations with Fatboy Slim, Weezer, Beastie Boys, and Björk. He was a co-creator and executive producer of MTV’s Jackass.
Liza Minnelli was on the Oscars red carpet right now looking awfully blue. In addition to her classic Halston outfit, her hair has a blue streak!
What do you think of it?
Liza, best actress winner for Cabaret, was on hand for a tribute to The Wizard of Oz, which starred her mother Judy Garland. Her siblings, Lorna Luft and Joey Luft, appeared with her in the audience and were introduced by Whoopi Goldberg.
Below in a CNN interview with Liza and her half-siblings who she strangely calls step-siblings. She seems nervous and a bit medicated. Lorna is far more composed while Joey seems to have no desire for the spotlight.
Bette Midler got a standing ovation after her performance of Wind Beneath My Wings on the Oscars last night.
In watching the performance again, it’s easy to see why: she’s a great star who knows how to belt out one helluva number. Her stage presence, her hand gestures, her uniqueness.
I’m just crazy about her and about this performance. Below is a pre-show chat she had with CNN’s Piers Morgan.
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Kentucky’s Attorney General Jack Conway is featured today because he took a stand this week against his state’s ban on gay marriage.
Ellen DeGeneres is the ratings queen.
I thought Ellen DeGeneres’ joke at the Oscars about Liza Minnelli actually being a drag queen was mildly funny.
Was doing a magazine purge last night because it seemed like the legs of the coffee table were about to buckle under the weight of the stacks!
Yesterday’s episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show kind of reminded me of when I was in college.
I’m a day late on this but wanted to weigh in about Kim Novak’s appearance on the Academy Awards on Sunday.
Hollywood pizza joint Big Mama’s and Papa’s Pizzeria continued its sudden high-profile when Oscar telecast delivery guy Edgar appeared on Ellen DeGeneres’ post-Oscar show today.
I have never done Garrett Miller’s radio show before so not sure what to expect!
It’s a pity that when Matthew McConaughey won the Oscar that I had so confidently predicted for him back in October, he gave such a disappointing acceptance speech.
Lots of handsome guys at the Oscars last night because, well, this is Hollywood!
I did not know I had a crush on Spike Jonze until I watched him accept the best original screenplay Oscar last night for the film Her.
Liza Minnelli was on the Oscars red carpet right now looking awfully blue. In addition to her classic Halston outfit, her hair has a blue streak!
