Hello, everybody. "Boyhood" was coming into the 87th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday as the odds-on favorite; but in the end, Best Picture of 2014 belonged to "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" which, along with "The Grand Budapest Hotel", walked out of the Dolby Theatre with four Oscars apiece. "Birdman's" other wins were for Cinematography, Original Screenplay, and Director (Alejandro G. Innaritu); while "Budapest Hotel" collected Original Score, Production Design, Makeup, and Costume Design.
"Boyhood" did get a rightfully deserved Supporting Actress win in Patricia Arquette (its only award of the night), while J.K. Simmons easily earned Supporting Actor for "Whiplash". Best Actor was awarded to Eddie Redmayne, and after four previous tries...Julianne Moore finally claims her first Oscar: Best Actress for "Still Alice." Other winners include: "Big Hero 6" (Animated Feature), "Ida" (Foreign Language Film), and "Selma" (Original Song, and how about the performance that left everybody in tears?)
Neil Patrick Harris left us entertained all throughout in his first stint as host, shedding light to the lack of diversity as far as the acting nominees were concerned calling the Oscars "Hollywood's brightest and whitest night." There were a lot of standout moments during the show such as Lady Gaga paying tribute to "The Sound of Music", Arquette standing up for women's equality, Graham Moore's "Stay weird, stay different" speech, Joan Rivers omitted from the In Memoriam montage, and Oprah Winfrey being given a Lego Oscar during the "Everything Is Awesome" performance. Oh yeah, and Harris in his tighty whities.
Not even a downpour prevented the stars from displaying their ultimate Sunday best on the red carpet. Dakota Johnson, still riding high from the success of the uber-steamy "Fifty Shades of Grey", was in a shade of Yves Saint Laurent red; we also had Scarlett Johansson in Versace; last year's Supporting Actress Lupita Nyong'o in Calvin Klein; Lady Gaga (designer unknown); and Margot Robbie in Van Cleef & Arpels.
Overall, I thought Julianne Moore outshone them all in Chanel couture; as for Reese Witherspoon? One of the sexiest Oscar winners ever was unsexy in her Tom Ford.
Now the ubiquitous suck-up: Once upon a time, we started seeing her not once, but twice as Frannie and Sabrina Hughes on "As The World Turns", earning her an Emmy. The late Robert Altman's "Short Cuts" would put her on the map, followed by "Nine Months", "The Lost World: Jurassic Park", "Boogie Nights", "The Big Lebowski", and channeling Jodie Foster's Clarice Starling in "Hannibal."
She really made a name for herself with "The Forgotten" followed by her turn as Sarah Palin in "Game Change" and recently, alongside Jennifer Lawrence in "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay". But in the end, it was her performance as a college professor stricken with early Alzheimer's Disease that would earn her the praise she's been waiting for. At long last, after 30 years with four previous attempts along the way, Julianne Moore finally got the ultimate reward: Oscar gold!
Everything was truly awesome at the 87th Academy Awards...except that we never got to Best Original Sauce. But whatever; it was legen -- wait for it -- dary. So long, stay strong, and God bless.
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