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Full Academy Award coverage here

Leah, 7:07 p.m.: Here are my opening red carpet comments, for what they're worth:

First off, the Ryan Seacrest hate-on needs to stop here. He is very talented at what he does, which is fill up empty air space with semi-amusing celebrity chatter. I think we all know the feeling.

Does Jack Nicholson have a new girlfriend… oh wait, that's his daughter.

Note: See our Red Carpet photo gallery here

Leah, 7:10 p.m.: Also: this is the year of sarcastic hair: see Jessica Alba and Helena Bonham Carter.

Tralee, 7:22 p.m.:

My favourite moments so far:

I'm 50-50 on Keira, who admitted she can't walk in the thing to some mike-holder. Should be interesting if she takes a trip to the stage. One fellow in my crowd weighed in: "She'd look good covered in spiders."

Tralee, 7:29 p.m.: Don't forget the pressing issue of whether Hilary Swank is wearing her wedding ring. Telephoto lenses are at the ready. I'm not kidding.

Tralee, 7:43 p.m.:

Did you spot the first man broach on Hustle & Flow's Terrance Howard?

In other gender-bending news, Felicity Huffman went for non-trangendered glam in a beyond plunging black Zac Posen gown you'd expect J.Lo to bust out. But it works. And as my resident fashion guru put it, she has about five seconds left to pull it off.

Leah

Tralee, 7:53 p.m.: Wow - I thought we were being mean down here on Queen Street. I see where this night is going. Another postive comment: Jake Gyllenhaal looks like a dude in his slim-leg 60s tux. I even forgive him his scruff.

So, tell me about your Oscar party. We're dishing up chili. It is the Superbowl of celebrity after all.

8:01, p.m.: The Oscars are under way.

Leah, 8:01 p.m.: Things up here are good. My friend Meredith just brought over a giant hunk of home-steamed smoked meat. Chardonnay is aflowing. Can you deal with the Bush nephew? Yikes. We're having heated debate over Crash -- was it a balanced race issue movie or a smug affirmation of liberal values. Party is dividing into two camps.

Tralee, 8:05 p.m.: More of the smugs over here. So, the lame Brokeback Mountain jokes have started. Billy Crystal and Chris Rock in a tee-pee. We should keep a running tally, eh?

Leah, 8:10 p.m.: And Jon Stewart's "Ladies, Gentleman, Felicity..." ugh.

8:10: Monologue still under way. Stewart greeting just about every nominated actor/director.

Liam, 8:11 p.m.: Hi everyone. A fairly feeble start. Hmmm. A "return to glamour" theme that opens with Jon Stewart getting a woodie joke. Still waiting for a zinger. Another lame gay joke about Capote. (2). I liked his Spielberg Jewish joke and the Cheney lines though.

Tralee,

Tralee, 8:15 p.m.:Welcome Liam, this Western montage is pretty funny. Can you name those films, Liam?

Liam, 8:15 p.m.: The Western clip was inspired, though I think the correct description of the Western is "homosocial." The clips included Howard Hawk's Red River, with Montgomery Clift was used a couple of times. And Big Country with Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston. They've both been cited a few times in the last year as subliminally gay-themed classic Westerns.

Leah, 8:16 p.m.: The Bjork-being-shot-by-Dick-Cheney joke went over well here. And c'mon, The gay innuendo Western montage was priceless. And Nicole Kidman looks better than any other human in the room -- possibly the planet. Can anyone deny?

Tralee, 8:17 p.m.: Anyone else think the wan, pale Nicole Kidman is wearing the wedding dress she should have saved for Keith Urban?

Tralee, 8:19 p.m.: (To Liam) I figure I should learn something tonight.

8:20 p.m.: Best supporting actor, winner: George Clooney

Liam, 8:22 p.m.: Well, I got that award wrong. I thought it might be Paul Giamatti, and as Clooney mentioned several times on the red carpet, he hasn't been taken home much at the various award shows so far. And while it sounds self-congratulatory, he's not wrong about Hollywood generally leading the way on social issues. There's a good book about it, An Empire of Their Own, about how the early founders of Hollywood, mostly Eastern European Jews fleeing persecution, imagined an idealized tolerant America. Hollywood showed the army as integrated, f or example, long before it actually was.

Leah, 8:23 p.m.

Tralee, 8:25 p.m.: As Stewart just put it, "how much more can that guy have?"

8:28 p.m.: King Kong wins for Visual Effects

Tralee, 8:29 p.m.: But I do think Clooney managed not to sound like a lot of movie stars when they try to make that point - like he'd actually thought about it. At the other end of the intellectual spectrum, Ben Stiller is boring me.

Leah, 8:30 p.m.: Liam: I agree that Hollywood has been a social pioneer, but an inadvertant one. It's about getting people to lay down money for entertainment. Thankfully, rich white WASPY men just don't know how to do it.

Clooney was a shoe in for best supporting. There was no way they would have given it to Giamatti (PSH is going to get best actor and has the chubby character actor catagory covered), Gyllenhall has a long career ahead of him and Matt Dillon? I don't think so.

Liam, 8:31 p.m.: There will be maybe three King Kong craft awards I think, and maybe two Memoirs of A Geisha and none of them that anyone will remember.

8:32 p.m.: Wallace & Gromit wins for Animated Feature

Leah, 8:32 p.m.: Ooh, ooh, ooh i couldn't care less who wins best animated but reese witherspoon is so pretty. i love her dress, if only because it has two shoulder straps.

Liam: a male opinion on the dresses. Aren't we supposed to be talking about the dresses?

Liam, 8:34 p.m.: Nick Park has won the other Oscars for shorts. This was the first feaure version of Wallace & Gromit and it was pretty much a sure thing. The Corpse Bride was pretty good too.

Leah, 8:36 p.m.: Is Naomi Watts dying of psoriasis or is that just her dress? Mark Anthony is chewing gum.

Tralee, 8:38 p.m.: Ah - my Oscar pet peeve. No chewing gum please. And I want to love Naomi's dress, but you're right - it's just too raggedy. Looks like she's been to the Empire State Building in the grips of a giant ape.

Liam, 8:39 p.m.: Oooh. Look at the set. Ruins of Roman columns in an undersea cafe that's been exposed to Agent Orange, with some Paisley swirls embellished across the surface. So counter-intuitive to the Hollywood glamour theme. So retro-future billious.

Leah, 8:41 p.m.: and speaking of naomi: did she show up with liev? i didn't seem them together. does this mean they've broken up? or maybe he's just boycotting on account of the critical drubbing his first feature took. personally i didn't think it was so bad. then again, it's true i am madly in crush with him.

8:44 p.m.: Six Shooter wins for short film, live action

Tralee, 8:44 p.m.: You're right - I tend to tune out the sets they're so heinous. Those swirly gold-painted columns look like they're made of styrofoam. You know what I long for? The opening scene of Goodnight and Good Luck. Minus the smoking, of course.

8:47 p.m.: Moon and the Son wins for Short Film, animated

Liam, 8:48 p.m.: Short film category -- first pee break time.

Tralee, 8:48 p.m.: Okay, we're now debating whether we should be watching the broadcast of live shorts that we'll never be able to see. Is an Oscar for a short really equivalent to an Oscar for best feature film? Leah? Liam? Leah? (Yes, I'm having a Letterman Uma-Oprah moment.)

Liam, 8:51 p.m.: "Just like his music Johnny Cash's life was full of fire and so were the costumes created by..." Good God. Fire the writer.

8:51 p.m.: Memoirs of a Geisha wins for Costume Design

Tralee, 8:52 p.m.: Or grab the fire extinguisher.

Liam,: 8:54 p.m.: I believe the theme is actually that many movies have been based on real life people. F-a-s-c-i-n-a-t-i-n-g-zzzzzzz

Tralee, 8:56 p.m.: Easier than actually writing characters, I suppose. But no montage-with-violin-music necessary while congratulating yourselves, people. Sheesh.

Leah, 9 p.m.: Re: shorts. I've polled the party and people here feel that regardless of who sees the work, it's important to showcase the best in the craft. Spoken by a bunch of Canadian screenwriters/directors.

9:00 p.m.: Narnia for makeup

Leah, 9:02 p.m.: (To Tralee:) I agree. The real theme to this show (and all academy award shows for that matter) should be: A return to old fashioned Hollywood self congratulation.

Leah, 9:03 p.m.: Rachel McAdams looked quite lime flavoured. Icky lighting.

Liam, 9:04 p.m.: Amy Adams was my favourite performance by a woman this year. I wish a few more people had seen Junebug.

Tralee, 9:04 p.m.: Everyone here has pledged to see the movie based on that cute weird clip.

9:05 p.m.: Rachel Weisz for Supporting Actress

Leah,

Tralee, 9:12 p.m.: I would agree - no big Oscar moment yet. Stewart needs to insult one of Sean Penn's friends right about now. Lauren Bacall just showed up...such a dame.

Tralee, 9:13 p.m.: But Bacall's not doing so hot....

Leah, 9:16 p.m.: Oh God, the horror of seeing Lauren Bacall shaking and flubbing her words. Can't stand these gratuitous tribute sequences. Just a chance for all those people to go refresh their drinks and re-do their lipgloss.

Tralee, 9:21: I'm digging the best actress clips by Steven Colbert...those were clever.

9:20 p.m.: A Note of Triumph wins for Documentary Short

Liam, 9:21 p.m.: Yeah, I liked the Best Actress bit too but I feel like we've been undergoing an awfully long stretch of filler. What's with the "attention must be paid"? Is there any reason to drop in lines from Death of A Salesman when dealing with short documentary subjects?

9:22 p.m.: March of the Penguins wins for Documentary feature

Liam, 9:22 p.m.: (To Tralee:) Memwah?

Leah, 9:22 p.m.: Charlize's theron's bow is trying to eat her head. And her breasts have already left for the Vanity Fair party.

Liam, 9:23 p.m.: Speaking of self-congratulatory, is it right for all these guys in black and white suits to award a film with birds that look the same?

Leah, 9:26 p.m.: (On the March of the Penguins winners) Being French is no excuse for toting stuffed penguins on stage.

Tralee, 9:27: Now the set is on fire in addition to the Line of Fire costumes....

Re Theron's monster dress: I agree, Leah, just didn't work. What is working: props from the winners in lesser categories. The Best Doc crew and their stuffed penguins, the Wallace & Grommitt guys and the goofy bow ties. As one of my guests said, "They're not getting invited to any parties. They might as well go for it."

Tralee, 9:28 p.m.: (To Leah on the penguins): I respectfully disagree.

Leah, 9:29 p.m.: As to the reader who asks who will win best actress, the general consensus is Reese. Yes Huffman was excellent, but a good performance has never been the deciding factor in an oscar win. For all those who particpate in polls: Don't vote for who you think should win but who you KNOW WILL win. It's amazing how many people let their heart interfere with their oscar betting... sentimental fools.

9:35 p.m.: Memoirs of a Geisha for Art Direction

Liam, 9:35 p.m. Regarding C Hollingworth's note:

Cynicism can sometimes be close to ignorance. I'm no apologist for Hollywood but you're just wrong in several of your assumptions. Nobody, frankly, claims these are the best movies released in the last year -- as if there could be a standard to determine that. They're just the ones picked by the 6,000 or so members of the Academy.

As for box office, they're nothing like the most most profitable movies. Chicken Little made more money than the top five nominated pictures this year. None of them has been a blockbuster and four of the five cost less than $15-million.

The claim that there are more headlines about Oscar than major news stories is a mistake as well. Oscars happen one night a year. Beyond the possible argument that people shouldn't care about imagination, beauty and playing dress-up once in a while, it's just not that pertinent to this year's choices: Movies about racism (Crash), drug dumping (The Constant Gardener), vengeance as foreign policy (Munich), homophobia (Brokeback Mountain) and journalistic ethics (Good Night and, Good Luck) and Capote.

Note: Readers can check out Liam's chat on the Oscars that we did on Friday.

Tralee, 9:37: Hear, hear, Liam. We were gearing up for the heavy lifting, but you cover it all there. Except the quality of my education and whether I'm putting it to good use. I'm still chewing on that one.

Leah, 9:39 p.m.: Well said liam. wish i could share this creme brulee i whipped up while you were composing that very thougtful response...

okay: Oscars so boring everyone at my party vacated to the kitchen to sing lullabyes to a friend's newborn baby. had to shout, "Reese Witherspoon's dress just ripped to the waist" in order to get them back in front of the TV. now they are here talking about anything other than what's on the screen. very distracting...

Liam, 9:41 p.m.: Well, it hasn't all been good. There's the legacy of Birth of a Nation lots of racial and sexual stereotyping that Hollywood has also responsible for. This section seems to be a low-key way of aknowledging the whole Hollywood vs. America debate that's been going on through the Bush administration, the stuff that Jon Stewart joked about in his monologue.

Tralee, 9:43 p.m.: At least Stewart got in a mini-skewer after the social-issues montage mysteriously linking Thema and Louise, Looks Who's Coming To Dinner and Phildelphia: "And none of those issues were ever a problem again."

Leah, 9:43 p.m.: Finally the defining moment. After the incredibly self-congratulatory montage of "issue" movies, Jon Stewart says, "And none of those issues were ever a problem again." Brilliant. So glad someone is taking the piss...

Liam, 9:44 p.m.: "There is nothing like the experience of watching a movie....and sharing the experience..." Blah, blah blah. This is about last year's box office drop-off and the issue of people waiting for the DVDs to come out instead of going to the noisy, crappy theatres to listen to people talking on their cell phones.

About New Orleans: Instead of shooting movies, maybe they could be building homes??

9:50 p.m.: Brokeback Mountain wins for Original Score

Tralee, 9:52 p.m.: Indeed. Clearly we all have a love-hate relationship with Hollywood.... There are certainly no cellphones ringing in my living room right now.

Liam, 9:59 p.m.: Okay -- now the theatre promotion is getting a bit obnoxious. Hollywood makes more money from DVD and video than it does theatrical. This may go down as the Year of the Interminable Montage.

Liam, 10:01 p.m.: Whoops. I should have held my breath for Jon Stewart's comment.

Leah, 10:02 p.m.: Finally got a chance to check out Jake G's fantastic tux. Too bad he can't pronounce "heroine." Heeeroin? Freudian slip? God I'm a bitch tonight. Nothing makes me bitchy like the Oscars. Can you believe only an hour in?

10:03 p.m.: Achievement in sound mixing for King Kong

Leah, 10:05: Two. But it's all a boring blur.

Liam, 10:05 p.m.: The less interesting the award, the longer the list of thank-yous.

10:06ish: Robert Altman getting an honourary Oscar

Tralee, 10:07 p.m.: (On the actresses introducing Altman) Meryl Streep and Lili Tomlin. FUNNY. And a Peyote joke. Hysterical. And they both look awesome.

Leah, 10:10 p.m.: Could you believe the New Zealand-born chest thumbing, mother-worshipping sound mixers? Oh dear.

But hey, Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep are a thousand trillion times funnier and more glamorous and watchable than anyone else in the room. But wait... they've been going on for an awfully long time. They're running out of the stuff to say and looking up desperately, wishing for a cue. Why won't someone shut them up? Start the music Grrrr. Why do the Ocar people have to ruin every single good thing?

Liam, 10:14 p.m.: (On Altman) His first Oscar. Amazing, isn't it? But then Hitchcock and Scorsese never won a directing awards either.

He's also directed six women who have won Oscars, Sally Kellerman, Julie Christie, Ronee Blakeley, Lily Tomlin, Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith.

Tralee, 10:14 p.m.: What is it about Altman? Why not? But then again I was one of the few who even liked Pret a Porter....

Leah, 10:14 p.m.: Really? you mean this is Altman's first oscar for directing? and who knew he was married to Margaret Atwood

Liam, 10:14 p.m. Altman's heart transplant had long been rumoured but he hadn't admitted it before.

Leah, 10:17 p.m.: Having seen Short Cuts I don't find it hard to believe the man has the heart of a 40 year old woman.

Tralee, 10:17 p.m.: Over here, we would have thanked the donor, even though he doesn't know who she is.

10:25: Best original song goes to 'It's Hard out Here for a Pimp'

Leah, 10:26 p.m.: Much as I am trying to like the Hustle and Flow song as a hip hop fan I have to admit the whole thing looks like a bad Saturday Night Live skit. It's embarrassing. As one die hard Ludicris fan here declared it: A blacktastrophy. The death of hip hop as we know it.

Tralee

Liam, 10:27 p.m.: Did she actually sing "a whole lotta witches jumpin' ship?"

What is this? Hustle and Flow or Macbeth? Oh please. the lyric is: "A whole lot of bitches talkin' shit."

Our first, "thank you Jesus." AND Moms and George Clooney.

Leah, 10:27 p.m.: You the man Liam.

Tralee, 10:28 p.m.: They certainly didn't get the black-tie memo for their turn at the podium. Baseball caps?

10:29: King Kong for Sound Editing

Leah, 10:30 p.m.: Re: Thank yous. Jesus is for the Grammies. Mom is for the Oscars.

My favourite was that actress from Law and Order, S. Epatha Merkerson, who thanked her divorce lawyer after winning the Golden Globe. We should have such honest tonight.

Liam, 10:31 p.m.: Thanks to M. Stobl for the amendment on the Oscar-nominated perforamances of women in Altman films.

Tralee, 10:32 p.m.: When Clooney refered to this as the middle of the show, all six of my co-viewers squealed, "MIDDLE??"

As much as I have mad respect for this annual montage, we are getting weary.

Leah, 10:33 p.m.: My friend Dave of George Clooney introducing the latest endless tribute sequence: "That guy gets laid so much he can't even pretend to be serious. Look at him. He doesn't care. He can't even wipe the smile off his face."

10:39 p.m.: Best foreign film: Tsotsi

Liam, 10:40 p.m.: This millions around the world claim is hype. The Oscar audience is about 40-million in Canada and the United States with a few million viewers elsewhere.

The potential reach (as in places where it's available) is in theory a billion but the numbers are nothing like that. The Superbowl, which draws about 90-million, plays the same game.

Re: The Tsotsi win.

In the future, everyone can say "Go to mymovie.com to see who I would have thanked." It will cut down the show to an hour and a half.

10:42: Film editing goes to Crash

Liam, 10:43 p.m.: So, you like Ziyi's frock?

Tralee, 10:44 p.m.: Re Tsotsi. I actually could have taken more from him. He and the hiphoppers seem like the only ones truly thrilled to be there.

Tralee, 10:45 p.m.: Yes. Necklace wrong, wrong wrong. And Hilary Swank? Dress way to low. And according to my fashion whiz here, just because Madonna wears a flip doesn't you have to. Or can. Or should.

10:46 p.m.: Best actor goes to Phillip Seymour Hoffman

Leah, 10:47 p.m.: Tsotsi won big at TIFF this year too.

Funny how the foreign catagory always illicits the most inspiring speeches. I'm a cynical grump until the Italian/Iranian/South African director starts shaking his fist, then I crack. I get a ver... ver... however you spell that word. My written yiddish sucks.

Tralee, 10:49 p.m.: Anyone surprised at PSH win?

Liam, 10:50 p.m.: Did you see Heath Ledger mouth to Michelle Williams: "He didn't thank his wife."?

Tralee, 10:53 p.m.: Eagle eye. I was going to give him props for thanking his ma so much.... Maybe it's the Hilary Swank curse.

10:56 p.m.: Cinematography for Memoirs of a Geisha

Leah

And he's not married. He has one child with his girlfriend, Mimi O'Donnell. Not sure if that's the woman in the royal blue taffeta...

10:59: Best actress to Reese Witherspoon.

Tralee

Liam, 11:06 p.m.: You were right, Leah. I believe the score is now Mom: 6, Jesus: 1 in thank yous. I guess there's a rule that you can't actually write your speech ahead of time even if you know you're going to win as both Philip Seymour Hoffman and Reese Witherspoons surely did. At least Reese didn't start vamping Van Morrison lyrics.

Liam: 11:07 p.m.: Please Tralee. This is the Oscars, so it's about "glamorous women losing their SHIP."

Tralee, 11:09 p.m.: Right, I forgot

How about Dustin Hoffman's line: "It's easier to act than do this stuff." Brokeback starts a run??

11:10 p.m.: Brokeback Mountain for adapted screenplay

Tralee, 11:11 p.m.: Re the Brokback win. Wot??? Jeans? I don't care if this is a cowboy movie.

11:13 p.m. Screenplay goes to Canada's Paul Haggis for Crash

Leah, 11:15 p.m.: I love Larry McMurtry thanking books sellers and the culture of books. How refreshing. And check out Uma. Ethan eat your heart out. The woman is beyond gorgeous.

Tralee, 11:15 p.m.: A guy in a North Ridgeville Corn Festival T-shirt just declared this a Marathon of Taupe. But Uma looks like a babe. Perking things up around here. She looks young and un-prom-y. Does make up for the jeans I suppose.

Leah, 11:18 p.m.: She's got that rising-up-on-sea-foam look. Botticelli hair seems sort of popular this year.

Tralee, 11:19 p.m.: I always suspected you were a closet fashion critic, Liam.

11:20:

11:23: Best picture goes to Crash.

Leah, 11:22 p.m.: Okay that Wendy's commercial with the chicken guy never ceases to amuse. One guest here was in a movie with the chicken guy. It was called Sorority Boys. Her description: Good night and good luck meets Syriana set at UCLA.

Oh look, Ang Lee for best director. How appropriate. I hope he thanks his Mom.

Oh wait, he just did. It's the mother disease. One person does it and then no one else can avoid because of the guilt factor...

Liam

Tralee, 11:24 p.m.: Crash - anyone else shocked?

Leah, 11:26 p.m.: Best Picture CRASH? I'm speechless. What a total shocker. No sarcasm here. Is there a cute imodicom for that?

Leah, 11:27 p.m.: hey did you notice how the beginning of the oscar music cut off the speeches theme sounds like Oh Canada? a Paul Haggis conspiracy?

Tralee: Paul Haggis wuz robbed No time for his speech?

11:30: Oscars are over.

Leah, 11:34 p.m. Good says I. Oscars over pre-midnight = heaven.

Liam, 11:34 p.m.: With instant 20-20 hindsight, I guess Crash did have its Los Angeles setting in its favour. It's frankly a surprise though. Critically, the movie did very mixed reviews with some raves (Entertainment Weekly, The New Yorker) and some outright pans. (The metacritic.com score was 69 out of a hundred.) Generally the arguments against it was that it was too manipulative and dramatically mechancial for all its good heart.

Otherwise, a bit of a ho-hum Oscar I thought. Too many montages, too few surprises -- at least up to the last award. Jon Stewart had a few zingers but kept it relatively safe..

Tralee, 11:35 p.m.: Well, a pretty underwhelming Oscars all in all. But lovely to blog with you two.

Liam, 11:37 p.m.: Thanks Tralee and Leah. And now, I hear that Jon Stewart will be appearing on Jimmy Kimmel. Just in case we need a little bit more. Good night.