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HOLLYWOOD — The red carpet is all rolled up. The borrowed diamonds have all been returned.
All that’s left is Nagging Oscar Questions: 2010 Edition.
We all know about Kathryn Bigelow becoming the first woman in Oscar history to take home best-director honours, but did the evening produce any other entries for the record books?
Yes, as a matter of fact.
In addition to Bigelow’s big night (although how lame was the orchestra playing Helen Reddy’s I Am Woman when she walked off the stage with Barbra Streisand?), there were a couple of other milestones.
Her film, The Hurt Locker, will go down in Oscar history as the lowest-grossing ($14.7 million in pre-telecast tickets sold) best-picture winner, ever.
And while Precious director Lee Daniels failed to emerge as the first African-American to win an Oscar in that category, adapted-screenplay winner Geoffrey Fletcher became the first black screenwriter to take home an Oscar.
Interestingly, those who first caught the film at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival (when it was known as Push) seem to recall a different name also listed in the writing credits — one Damien Paul, to be exact.
But somewhere between Park City and Toronto, where it took home TIFF’s People’s Choice Award, the former adjunct professor at NYU felt it was safe to drop the pseudonym.
Speaking of Precious, when supporting-actress winner Mo’Nique thanked the Academy for “showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics.” To what politics was she referring?
Specifically, the media flap she had created early on in the Oscar campaign by reportedly refusing to do the traditional awards lobbying — the talk shows and public appearances that usually go with the territory — unless she was paid extra to do so.
Needless to say, despite her undeniably powerful performance, there were many in her camp who felt a little “Push” wouldn’t hurt.
FOR THE DOLPHINS
So what happens if you text “DOLPHIN to 44144?”
That’s what was on the sign briefly held up on the Oscar stage by Ric O’Barry, the former Flipper-wrangler-turned-activist featured in the Oscar-winning documentary, The Cove.
While the Academy frowns on such displays of political propaganda, following those instructions would keep you regularly abreast of O’Barry’s fight against fishing practices in the Japanese village vilified by the film.
FOR WINNERS ONLY
Meantime, were we imagining things, or were folks really saying, “And the winner is…” as opposed to “And the Oscar goes to….?”
For the first time in more than two decades, most presenters reverted back to the old catchphrase, as opposed to the deemed-more-politically-correct “we’re all winners” inference.
According to the Academy, that change was made by this year’s producers, Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic, and didn’t reflect any official policy change.
However they choose to say it, it’s still fun watching the looks on the faces of all those losers ... uh, non-winners.
Michael Rechtshaffen, a Canadian entertainment reporter based in Los Angeles, writes Wednesdays and Sundays.