And the Oscar goes to...

...Hugh Jackman! For being funny! And handsome! And talented! And for SINGING! And for being a truly wonderful (and memorable) Oscar host! Anybody else think that his selection was a bit weird at first? I sure did, but I was sold from the moment his "made in my garage" opening number took off. And the Frost/Nixon bit with Anne Hathaway was grand. "Frank Langella was sitting right next to me!"

Other ruminations on the night:

• There seems to be a definite trend towards neutral coloured flowing, layered gowns, which I feels sort of ambiguous about, probably because I'm not sure I could pull the look off without looking really washed out. I'm also seeing more and more of the unsymmetrical look, with dresses that have two halves that are cut differently, have different straps or are different patterns of colours. I thought that Kate Winslet's version of this look was lovely. Reese Witherspoon's didn't work as well.
• Overall, the fashion winner of the night was Anne Hathaway. She looked stunning. Alicia Keys's lilac gown was beautiful too! Heidi Klum and Tilda Swinton tie for worst dressed, in my humble opinion.
  
• I laughed and laughed and laughed at Steve Martin and Tina Fey.
• I thought there were some really lovely speeches given last night, including those by Penelope Cruz, Sean Penn and Dustin Lance Black.
• I really liked the way they identified nominees and winners in the acting categories, but I wish that they had showed clips of the performances.
  
• I'm confused as to how The Curious Case of Benjamin Button won the awards for best make-up and also for special-effects. In the case of this movie, shouldn't it really be one or the other?? Either the make-up was really good or the special effects were really good. I must not know enough about it...
  

Overally, I really enjoyed the show, even though it ran a bit long. I think they took an evening in which there were going to be absolutely no surprises in the winners of the big categories, and turned it into a barrel of fun!