Slumdog top winner at Oscars
By Alexandra Heilbron on February 23, 2009 | 13 Comments
Slumdog Millionaire took home eight Oscars out of the ten it was nominated for, including Best Picture, and Best Director for Danny Boyle. Not bad for a low budget British movie, which, as Boyle said, had “no stars, no power or muscle.” It was no surprise when Heath Ledger won Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal as The Joker in The Dark Knight, but the emotion that swept through the audience while his parents and sister accepted the award on behalf of his young daughter Matilda, was sobering. Tears flowed from the eyes of those who’d known and worked with him, such as Anne Hathaway, while others, who didn’t know him as well, still had tears in their eyes. Coincidentally, it was 13 months ago last night that Ledger died of an accidental prescription drug overdose. Penélope Cruz won Best Supporting Actress for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, while Kate Winslet won Best Actress for playing a German woman in The Reader. Sean Penn spoke out for gay rights while accepting his Best Actor Oscar for portaying a gay politician in Milk, calling out, “You commie homo-loving sons of guns!” Hugh Jackman, the first non-comedian to host the Academy Awards in years, did a great job. His first musical number, done tongue-in-cheek “on a shoestring budget due to the recession,” was hilarious, especially when he joked that he hadn’t seen The Reader, and did a generic song-and-dance to represent it. A later musical number with Beyoncé also featured stars from High School Musical 3 and Mamma Mia. The presentation of the acting awards dragged, with each nominee receiving praise from a previous winner instead of just showing clips from their nominated performances, but overall, it was the most entertaining Academy Awards ceremony in years. For a complete list of nominees and winners, click here.
When was there a non-comedian host in the past? Who was it?
the last non-comedian host was Jack Lemmon over 20 years ago (I had to google that one, didn’t have a clue!)
I thought Jackman did a really good job last night.
sorry guys, ladies, me above!!!!
I loved the Ocars! Hugh Jackman did a great job hosting.
Yes, I agree sk8tergirl. I loved Jennifer Aniston’s dress as well as Natalie Portman’s pink gown and Halle Berry’s dress as well. Absolutely HATED Jessica Biels dress and Whoopie Goldberg…whoa…what the heck was with her dress? It was awful! LOL.
Oh, and Ben Stiller’s impersonation of Joaquin Phoenix….HILARIOUS! Distracting but hilarious none the less.
List of non-comedian Oscar hosts:
1987 Goldie Hawn, Paul Hogan (w/Chevy Chase)
1986 Alan Alda, Jane Fonda (w/ Robin Williams)
1985 Jack Lemmon
1983 Liza Minnelli, Dudley Moore, Walter Matthau (w/ Richard Pryor)
1977 Warren Beatty, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda (w/ Richard Pryor)
1976 Goldie Hawn, Gene Kelly, Walter Matthau, George Segal, Robert Shaw
1975 Sammy Davis Jr., Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra (w/ Bob Hope)
1974 John Huston, David Niven, Burt Reynolds, Diana Ross
1973 Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Charlton Heston, Rock Hudson
1972 Helen Hayes, Alan King, Sammy Davis Jr, Jack Lemmon
1964 Jack Lemmon, Tom Jones
1963 Frank Sinatra
1959 David Niven, Laurence Olivier, Mort Sahl, Tony Randall (w/ Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis)
1958 James Stewart, David Niven, Jack Lemmon, Rosalind Russell (w/ Bob Hope)
1957 Celeste Holm
1956 Claudette Colbert (w/ Jerry Lewis)
1955 Thelma Ritter (w/ Bob Hope)
1954 Donald O’Connor, Fredric March
1953 Conrad Nagel (w/ Bob Hope)
1951 Fred Astaire
1950 Paul Douglas
1949 Robert Montgomery
1946 James Stewart (w/ Bob Hope)
1945 John Cromwell (w/ Bob Hope)
1942 Wendell Willkie
1941 Walter Wanger
1939 Frank Capra
1937 George Jessel
1936 Frank Capra
1935 Irvin S Cobb
1934 Will Rogers
1932 Conrad Nagel
1931 Lawrence Grant
1930 Conrad Nagel
1930 William C de Mille
1929 Douglas Fairbanks, William C de Mille
Hahahaha! Good one Tribute! You should have filled it full of spelling errors for them too! LMAO.
Slumdog Millionaire won!! What I say? Eh?
Overall, good Oscar night. I think all the right people won and some of the skits/bits were genuinely funny. I was right about all my guesses, except for Best Actor. But Jackman did good, maybe too much singing and dancing but he delivered!
*another jab, Nancy. things were going fine. people talking to people and Tribute was nice enough to offer information and you just had to.
*I’d have loved to see Fred Astaire host. Oooh!!
I absolutely couldn’t resist! 😉 My name wouldn’t be Nancy if I let THAT obvious one slide!! Jeeze, “anyone with half a brain” (LMAO) knows the purpose of that list!
Good show, I agree, ke, I actually got the best actor right (that was the one I really wanted to win too) but went in favour of Milk over Slumdog, although I was not surprised to see the outcome. Jackman was better than I thought he would be but I could have done without the camera’s constant showcasing Brad/Angelina…those two didn’t pick up a single award at any show this year, interesting…
I am going to watch The Changeling tonight though, I heard from many it is good…we’ll see…saw Benjamin Button and can say I wish I didn’t…overly long, would have perhaps liked it better had they shortened it by like an hour…did you see Slumdog yet?
are all those named above hosts or some are presenters? curious…
The above named are all hosts. Some years had multiple hosts. And some years had no host at all.
so, last non-comedian host was over 20 years ago? Good for Jackman!