Oh Yes...The Oscars

The day after the night of the Academy Awards is often a bit of a blur to me. So many awards handed out over several hours with montages and performances wedged in between...Anyway, let's see what I can recall:

First off, I remember seeing the cute and adorable Anne Hathaway coming onstage to present an award for Best Animated Feature with some comic actor by her side. As I recall, the award went to some film about a cooking rat. That is, rather, a rat that cooks. Sorry, I didn't mean to traumatize anyone with that awkward description...


Soon thereafter, we were treated to the first of the Best Song nominees from Disney's "Enchanted", as performed by the star of that film, the cute and adorable Amy Adams, with her big blue eyes and red hair. I think Amy Adams has now supplanted my previous favourite cute and adorable actress, Meg Ryan. Hey, I was loyal to Meg for the last 20 years or so, since seeing her in "When Harry Met Sally". I think it's time to trade up. (Sorry Meg.) Actually, I think Amy Adams should have been nominated herself for her role of "Giselle", the cartoon fairy tale princess who ends up in live-action form in contemporary New York. She played the part to the hilt, giving a note perfect interpretation of what a Disney princess should be. Anyway, here's cute and adorable Amy singing "The Happy Working Song":



Sometime later, the second of the nominated songs from "Enchanted" was performed, this time by Broadway star, the cute and adorable Kristin Chenoweth. If anyone was going to sing "That's How You Know" instead of Amy Adams, I couldn't ask for a better substitute than Kristin, who, as you can tell, is just as cute and adorable as a southern baked cherry pie! I saw Kristen on Jimmy Kimmel's show not long ago. Not only is she cute and adorable, but she's TINY too. She looked like a little girl with her legs dangling over the seat without touching the floor. Anyway, here she is performing a real showstopper from last night's show:



Later on in the telecast, they handed out the award for Best Actress. In what proved to be a real surprise, the award went to French actress, the cute and adorable Marion Cotillard. The role she won for was that of legendary chanteuse, Edith Piaf, in the film, "La Vie en Rose". This was one of my favourite films last year and I was so happy for Marion, who seemed to be as shocked by her win as anyone when she delivered an emotional acceptance speech in her cute and adorable French accented, broken English. Prior to seeing her on the Academy Awards last night, I had not actually seen what Marion Cotillard really looked like, as she is practically unrecognizable as the poor wretched "Little Sparrow", Edith Piaf, who, despite her massive talent, was frankly not exactly that cute and adorable herself. (No wonder the film's makeup artist also won an Oscar last night.) Anyway, here is Marion Cotillard's acceptance speech. And yes, she's not merely cute and adorable - she's GORGEOUS!!



And that's all I seem to recall of last night's Academy Awards.....

Addendum: It appears that all three of those videos have now been pulled. I wonder if it was AMPAS or Disney's decision?

Spare Some Change?

I did this sketch a couple weeks ago from the last debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on CNN. It seems everybody's running on a message of "Change", but with good reason: after eight long years of enduring George W. Bush, not just America, but the whole world could use some!

The majority of we Canadians have historically always favoured the American Democrats, so it should come as no surprise that I'm hoping to see either Barack or Hillary in the White House come next year. I personally prefer Barack Obama, as I remember seeing him interviewed a couple years ago on PBS' Charlie Rose show and he struck me as a guy with intelligence and integrity. Seeing him in the debates, he seems to be less biting in his attacks towards his opponent, as if that sort of mudslinging makes him uncomfortable. I like Hillary Clinton too, but I do have some reservations about her as she has been rather ruthless in her attacks on Obama. But that's just the nature of the game of politics and I'd be happy with either one of them as President. I figure no matter which one wins, that they'll surround themselves with wise counsel to keep them in check.

Actually, things are shaping up pretty good on the Republican side this time around too. It looks like the majority of Republicans have smartened up since eight years ago, and are now backing the more moderate and honourable John McCain. Fact is, I think they should have made him their man back in 2000, as many Democrats would have found him worthy of their vote too, being a straight up kind of guy who doesn't blindly toe the party line. Had McCain been president, I doubt that America would ever have ended up in the Iraq quagmire we have today.

In short, I think this is an exciting Presidential race with the top three contenders all being worthy candidates for the job. I hope Americans realize just how lucky they are in their choices leading up to the November election.