And Jonathan, you’re totally correct about the power of the Oscar, especially as concerns young actresses’ careers. Oscars help attract work initially, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it builds a solid career. Oscars don’t make star images; but sometimes — as in the case of both Roberts and Bullock — an established and incredibly likable star image can swing the voting pendulum in your direction.

I’m still not sure what the story of Bullock could or will be after this year…like Julia Roberts, she hadn’t had a hit in some time, begging folks to question whether she still had “it” or not (the same is being said of Julia, aside from the flashes we may have seen in Valentine’s Day…) So certainly she’s a modest star this year, but who knows what will come up for her next…

I’m also not entirely sure if Bullock herself is the source of the “dangerousness” that you attribute to her – I’m actually more offended by her portrayal as a “Canadian” (and a badly rendered Torontonian no less) – than her imitation of a real-life figure, but but perhaps that’s a conversation we could (and should) have another time.

Though there were not so many surprises in the end, I think that it’s worth recealling that the story of this year’s crop of Best Pictures all seem to be little movies that could or that were underestimated and importantly, not many of them had “stars” in the traditional sense.

Neither the Blind Side nor Hurt Locker nor Precious were expected to do the business that they did nor were they expected to win the big awards for the year. Crazy Heart wasn’t supposed to go anywhere. Who had even heard of Christoph Waltz? The same was true of Up (critics weren’t sure that the story of a 70-year old man would appeal to anyone) and everyone thought that Crazy Uncle James Cameron would lose his shirt (just like he was supposed to with Titanic)…I guess my point is that it’s hard to remember that all (if not most) of these movies were (and perhaps are still) small.

A final note on “liveness,” I actually think that Steve Martin had the best line of the night, after Geoffrey Fletcher’s Best adapted screenplay win – he announced “I wrote that speech”.

However, I do have one quibble:

“others (read: Cameron Diaz) can’t even read the teleprompter — or improvise when the teleprompter forgets to change the name of the presenter.”

Diaz didn’t entirely LAND the joke, but I believe the intention was that the opening dialogue of the bit indicated that Diaz and Carell were both intensely beautiful people, which would have made more sense (or sense at all, if you buy into the joke) if Law had been presenting with her. Thus, her confusion was to give the earlier remarks humorous context – it got a bit muddled, but it had more potential than most of the presentation humour.

Here are some decent-enough moments:
– the whole bit with Tina Fey and Downey; best scripted patter all night
– the John Hughes tribute (lots to ruminate on stars and memorializing here, as the middle-aged bodies of my Gen X cohort (plus Mac Culkin) trundled on-stage like a surreal high school reunion)
– the Kanye-like dispute at the podium over Prudence
– Jeff Bridges soaking it in
– Kathryn Bigelow blown away
– Cristoph Waltz’ textbook classy acceptance speech
– Michael Giacchino’s genuine (if cliched) call for letting kids be creative (overdue award for him; I’m a big fan!)
– Sandy Powell’s plea for more recognition for low-budget and contemporary costuming
– the dancing in the score category was refreshingly rough around the edges
– the lead-up to the actor and actress awards (with colleagues introducing all nominees) worked better this year than last; oh, that saucy Helen Mirren!

My biggest complaint: doing away with the best original song performances. Yes, they slow the show down. Yes, only a couple of the songs are decent enough any given year. But they’re a nice part of the legacy of live TV, and I missed it this year. Moreover, I’m really surprised ABC/Disney let slip past an opportunity to pimp the Princess and the Frog DVD with a double performance of their nominated songs. No, James Taylor covering the Beatles does not cut it.