The Oscars – what you missed

Posted by Charles on Monday 25 Feb 2008

Filed under: Ethan Coen, George Clooney, Joel Coen, Tilda Swinton, Woody Harrelson

Assuming, like most sane people, you didn’t stay up until 5am to watch the Oscars, here’s what you missed. Well, the bits we can remember, anyway…
 
1. So what did Woody Harrelson do to upset the cast and crew of No Country For Old Men? Director-writers the Coen brothers thanked cast members Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Kelly Macdonald, but no mention of Woody, and Best Supporting Actor winner Bardem omitted him too. The same thing happened at the BAFTAs a couple of weeks ago. Most mysterious.
 
2. At the BAFTAs, Tilda Swinton said she would never have worn that outfit if she thought she might win. We take it she was similarly expecting to lose at the Oscars. Still, you gotta love her for it. The world needs fashion mavericks. And we also love her for teasing George Clooney for wearing his Batman rubber-nippled outfit under his real costume on the set of Michael Clayton.
 
3. Aww, host Jon Stewart brought Best Song co-writer Marketa Irglova (Once) back onto the stage after the orchestra struck up before she could get a word out. Bless!
 
4. Juno scriptwriter (and former stripper) Diablo Cody wearing a dress that showed off her sexy upper-arm tattoo, thanking her family for “Loving me exactly the way I am”, and then bursting into tears as she walked off the stage.
 
5. As the Coens make one of their three trips to the stage for No Country For Old Men, this time for Best Director, Joel’s wife Frances McDormand beams encouragingly at them as if they were her children at a school prize-giving going on stage for the first time. Will Ethan say more than two words this time? Nope.
 
6. No Country For Old Men producer Scott Rudin accepting the award for Best Picture, naming his boyfriend among his thank yous, then calling him “honey”. Which just goes to show that gay men can make macho psychopathic killer movies just as skilfully as their straight counterparts. Time for bed…