The Academy Awards: Live Blogging Part 3
Posted 02.22.09 by Ryan
8:02 Heath Ledger's family spoke backstage about the late actor's Oscar going to his daughter Matilda. According Heath's father, Kim Ledger: "With the Oscar you're all aware what they do in this special
circumstance for somebody when somebody passes away, then the next
of kin, in this case Matilda, will be the recipient really. But she
can't sign for it until she's 18, so it stays in trust here or in
Australia. We'll work that out, but possibly in trust here until
Matilda turns 18." Onstage, Slumdog wins for the 6th time, this time with Best Song winner "Jai Ho."
8:08 Backstage, Richard King, winner in Sound Editing for the Dark Knight said those who worked on the movie "wanted director Chis Nolan to be nominated." Onstage, Japan's Departures wins for Foreign Language Film. Domo Arigato again, Mr. Roboto. Wherever you are.
8:15 Resul Pookutty, Sound Mixing winner for Slumdog, talked about the "history" he spoke of in his acceptance speech. "No technician from India has been nominated," he said. "I am the first technician from India to be nominated and to win. It is an honor." Another feel-good story from the feel-good movie on a hot streak of wins.
8:23 Best Director presenter Reese Witherspoon, whose dress made it look like she was wearing a backpack, gave out the award to...Danny Boyle for his incredible work on 28 Days Later, er, Slumdog Millionaire, making the tally a strong 7 awards, clearly the movie with the most awards. Sorry, Button. There's still the Actor in a Leading Role and Best Motion Picture awards.
8:29 Time for the big run-out of awards, with both Leading Actor and Actress awards, and Best Motion Picture. First up, Leading Actress. And the Oscar goes to...Kate Winslet for The Reader, winning over 15-time nominee Meryl Streep."I'd be lying if I didn't say I'd practiced this speech before, I think I was probably eight years old and staring into the bathroom mirror. This [the Oscar] would have been a shampoo bottle. Well, it's not a shampoo bottle now," said Winslet.
8:37 Now it's time for the men. This year's version of clips from the actual performance, the round table of big name presenters, here included Michael Douglas, Ben Kingsley, Robert DeNiro, Anthony Hopkins and, well, Adrian Brody, as well. Sitting behind Mickey Rourke is Twilight's Robert Pattinson, who could not look more bored. And the award went to...Sean Penn for Harvey Milk. "You commie, homo-loving sons of guns," Penn told the crowd. " Then Penn went political, talking about the "signs of hatred" which were held by protesters near the Oscars saying such loving quotes as "God Hates Obama" and had no love for the gay community. Penn ended with a shout-out to "brother" Mickey Rourke, who many thought would be the winner tonight, a small reward for the upset.
8:50 The Best Motion Picture category went back to clips, before handing the award to the clear favorite...Slumdog Millionaire. Hope you enjoyed a great Oscars. Stay tuned to Reelz.com for Oscars wrap-up!