Academy Awards show live blog

We just wrapped up the Oscar red carpet live blog, and it's time to switch to a fresh new post for the Academy Awards show live blog. Follow along here and enjoy the ride. During the commercial breaks, click through the Oscar red carpet photo gallery.

8:30 p.m.: Interesting opener. Having the 10 nominees for Best Actor and Best Actress walk out together. Well, at least it was different.

8:31: NPH! NPH! NPH!

8:34: Alec Baldwn and Steve Martin together on the same stage. This is an "SNL" dream come true. They're ripping Meryl Streep right now. "Meryl Streep holds the record for most nominations. Or, as I like to say it, the most losses."

PHOTOS: Academy Awards show

8:36: Martin: "Oh look, there's that damn Helen Mirren." Baldwin: "Steve, that's Dame Helen Mirren."

8:38: Martin: "Gabourey [Sidibe] and I have something in common. In our first movies, we were both born a poor black child." For those of you not in the know, Martin was referring to "The Jerk."

8:41: Martin: "In the movie, Christoph Waltz played a Nazi in search of Jews." He then threw his arms out into the crowd, playing to the stereotype that Hollywood is run by Jewish people. "The motherload," he said. Amusing work.

8:44: Here comes Penelope Cruz to present for Best Supporting Actor. Let's hope Waltz wins.

8:47: That's a bingo! Waltz wins Best Supporting Actor for his work as Col. Hans Landa in "Inglourious Basterds."

8:48: Waltz: "Penelope Cruz and an Oscar. That's an uber-bingo."

8:49: ABC has returned to Cablevision. The live blog will continue, so keep your laptop going.

8:50: Ryan Reynolds is here to present "The Blind Side" for Best Picture. No way it can win, but it does a lot for sports movies to even score the nod.

PHOTOS: Academy Awards show

8:55: Cameron Diaz and Steve Carell here to present Best Animated Feature. Who else out there (aside from kids) prefers real movies to animated movies?

8:59: And the Oscar for Best Animated Feature goes to . . . "Up." No shocker, given that it's also nominated for Best Picture. If it lost Best Animated Feature yet was nominated for the best movie of 2009, that would be somewhat awkward, don't you think?

9:00: Martin: "Our next presenters are two young actresses who have no idea who we are." Here come Amanda Seyfried and Miley Cyrus.

9:03: Best Song goes to Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett for "The Weary Kind" from "Crazy Heart."

9:05: "District 9" presented for Best Picture.

9:06: Not really sure how I feel about this whole presenting for Best Picture thing. I know they've been doing it for a bit now, but is it really necessary? I'd rather hear the actors say something during their acceptance speech. Or at least have the chance to say something that we can talk about tomorrow at work. If a colleague says to you on Monday, "Hey, did you see that presentation of that movie for Best Picture?" don't talk to that person for the whole rest of the day.

PHOTOS: Academy Awards show

9:12: Actor Robert Downey Jr. and writer Tina Fey to present. Great comedic duo to present for Best Original Screenplay. YouTube it in a little while. It's nice work.

9:15: The winner is Mark Boal for "The Hurt Locker." Oooh, Tarantino looked furious doing the obligatory loser clap. He should see my face. I'm equally furious.

9:16: Wow, Molly Ringwald! What? Ah, yes, a John Hughes memorial. Nice touch.

9:18: "Bueller? Bueller?"

9:19: Ooooh, I hope the producers aren't going to skip out on the In Memoriam dead people montage. That's the best reason to watch the show. It's so good.

9:20: I'm proud to have been raised on John Hughes movies. "Sixteen Candles," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "The Breakfast Club," "Weird Science," "Pretty in Pink." That's the filmography of my youth right there.

PHOTOS: Oscar red carpet

9:28: Zoe Saldana and Carey Mulligan walk down about 35 flights of stairs in long-train dresses and high heels to present for Best Short. They should win an award just for that.

9:31: "Logorama" by Nicolas Schmerkin won for Best Animated Short. The clip they showed features Ronald McDonald driving around on the "Grease" logo motorcycle. This looks like something I'm going to need to see. It probably pokes fun at Corporate America, I'm guessing.

9:33: More Best Shorts to be handed out. Sounds like time for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

9:34: "Music By Prudence" from Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett wins for Best Documentary Short. 

9:35: Best Live Action Short Oscar goes to "The New Tenants" by Joachim Bach and Tivi Magnusson. No idea what the short is about, but props to them for reaching what is the highlight of their moviemaking career so far.

9:37: Ben Stiller. Get ready to not laugh.

9:37.30: Stiller is dressed in "Avatar" gear and is talking a little Navi.

9:38: Stiller: "It was either this or the Nazi uniform ["Inglourious Basterds" reference] but the showed seemed a little Hitler heavy." I giggled.

9:40: "Star Trek" wins for Best Makeup. No comment on the backwards Kangol-esque hat.

9:47: Jake Gyllenhaal and Rachel McAdams here to present Best Adapted Screenplay. She looks good. I still can't spell his name correctly without Googling it.

9:50: "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" wins Best Adapted Screenplay. Props to Geoffrey Fletcher. Could be the start of a big night for the "Precious" crew.

READ: List of Academy Award winners so far.

9:54: Round of applause for Roger Corman and Lauren Bacall.

9:55: Business just picked up. Here comes Roger Williams. He's here to present Best Supporting Actress. Nominees are Penelope Cruz ("Nine"), Maggie Gyllenhaal ("Crazy Heart"), Vera Farmiga ("Up in the Air"), Mo'Nique ("Precious"), Anna Kendrick ("Up in the Air."

10:00: And the Best Supporting Actress goes to  . . . Mo'Nique. No surprise there, she was the favorite. Props to her, though. Awesome change of public image. She's not just an over-the-top sometimes funny comedian. Heartfelt speech from Mo'Nique. Well played. 

PHOTOS: Academy Awards show

10:05: Art Direction Oscar time. Hard to get excited about this category, but still, we give props to the nominees for achieving the pinnacle of their career industry. If there's a Live Blog Award, I'd hate to have someone rip on me when I win it.

10:06: "Avatar" wins Best Art Direction.

10:09: Best Costume Design time. Tom Ford and Sarah Jessica Parker to present. Both are considered fashion brainiacs, or as Steve Martin said: "clothes[something I can't print]." Oh, btw, "The Young Victoria" wins the Oscar.

READ: List of Academy Award winners so far.

10:17: The sleeping in a hotel bed skit with Baldwin and Martin is why they're hilarious.

10:18: Whoa, is that Kristen Stewart in a dress? Wait, you mean she's not all pouty teen'd up tonight? Impressive. Can't wait to see her work as Joan Jett in "The Runaways" coming out April 9.

10:19: Oh, goodie, a tribute to horror movies. Arguably the worst genre of movies to pay tribute to. But that's just my opinion. People out there love them, so I'll keep watching. . . . And bam, it paid off - a Johnny Depp sighting! He's gotta be furious right now.

10:21: Not horror movies: "Edward Scissorhands." "Twilight: New Moon."

10:22: It appears Zac Efron didn't follow along on our red carpet blog. He still hasn't combed his hair. It's the Oscars, pal, not the MTV Movie Awards.

10:24: Oscar for Best Sound Editing goes to "The Hurt Locker." Someone get them a supermarket cart to wheel out all the Oscars they're going to win in the last hour.

10:26: Oscar for Best Sound Mixing goes to "The Hurt Locker." Not sure I totally understand the difference between these two awards right now.

10:27: Elizabeth Banks was pretty funny when she presented the smarty pants Oscars, aka the science and technical awards.

10:28: John Travolta here to present "Inglourious Basterds." Gotta love Johnny T. I was once in a pizza joint in the city and saw Johnny T's photo on the wall. I mapped out the table he was at and ate my slices there. True story.

READ: List of Academy Award winners so far.

10:35: Sandra Bullock here to present Oscar for Best Cinematography. And the Oscar goes to Mauro Fiore for "Avatar." Hello, shocker!

10:36: With a name like Mauro Fiore, you cannot speak perfect English with no trace of an Italian accent. I'm so furious right now. C'mon, paisan.

10:37: Whoa, dude, where did the rest of Demi Moore go? I guess Twittering is a great calorie burner.

10:37.30: Dead people montage time!!!!! Shhh, no talking!

10:40: Dead people montage very disappointing. Among the highlights: Patrick Swayze, Dom DeLuise, Brittany Murphy, Ron Silver, Karl Malden, David Carradine, Michael Jackson.

10:40.30: Um, Academy, you left out Farrah Fawcett. Maybe she wasn't a big movie star, but neither was Michael Jackson. This is an outrage. An outrage! Please don't make me boycott the show next year.

READ: Great story about the making of "In Memoriam."

10:45: Jenny from the Block always looks good, but doesn't her dress kinda look like bubble wrap? Not a pot shot at our dear J.Lo. It just looks like bubble wrap from a distance on television. Want more Oscar red carpet fashion commentary?

10:48: If there are any dancers or dance instructors out there reading this, please email me immediately to help explain this interpretive dance stuff I'm watching right now. 

10:50: When people complain that the Oscars ran too long, I think I know what they're going to point to for time-trimming purposes.

10:51: Some impressive twirly-whirly stuff there in the finale of whatever that dance stuff was to introduce the Best Original Score. The Oscar goes to "Up" by Michael Giacchino.

10:55: Best Visual Effects Oscar goes to . . . hold your breath . . . wait for it . . . "Avatar." Big night for the nerds on this movie (term used affectionately because let's face it, they raked in more than $720 million so far in America), but can it win Best Picture?

PHOTOS: Academy Awards show

10:59: I can't even talk about that "Modern Family" promo skit. Ridonkulous.

11:01: Matt Damon to present Best Documentary Feature.

11:03: Oscar for Best Documentary Feature goes to "The Cove." FYI: Fisher Stevens, the guy who gave the acceptance speech, played Hawk in the 1984 Matt Dillon classic "The Flamingo Kid." I'm just saying.

11:04: Speaking of documentaries, if you're a sports fan, make sure you check out HBO's "Magic vs. Bird" that premiered this weekend. It's awesome.

11:06: Tyler "They just said my name at the Oscars" Perry here to present for Best Editing. "The Hurt Locker" takes home another one. Kathryn Bigelow is chillin' right now. Her ex-husband James Cameron, not so much.

11:08: Keanu Reeves. Ugh. No comment. Wait, was "ugh" a comment?

READ: List of Academy Award winners so far.

11:12: Seems I'm not the only one enraged over the omission of Farrah Fawcett from the dead people montage. The Pet Rockette checked in immediately after its conclusion. Now, during this commercial break, a Pet Rocker sent me this email: 

"Who was responsible for omitting Farrah Fawcett from the memorial tribute tonight?  What a huge mistake.  She died the same day as that awesome actor Michael Jackson , but she was not recognized.  I know the Burning Bed was just a tv movie, but what about Extremities?  At the very least I'm positive Robert Altman's movie Dr. T and the Women was a theatrical release. Shame on the academy."

I'm with you, pal. Let's not forget about "The Cannonball Run." See Fawcett's entire resume.

11:14: Best Foreign Film Oscar goes to "The Secret in Their Eyes."

11:20: The world is aflutter over the Farrah Fawcett snubbery. So here's a Farrah Fawcett photo gallery to pay tribute to her, since the Oscar producers opted not to do so.

11:24: Tim Robbins, Colin Farrell, Vera Farmiga, Julianne Moore and MIchelle Pfeiffer out to represent the five nominees for Best Picture, all of whom co-starred with the nominees. In order: Morgan Freeman, Jeremy Renner, George Clooney, Colin Firth, Jeff Bridges.

11:30: Not sure if I iike this co-star version better or last year's previous winners version. Might need a day to decide.

11:32: The Oscar for Best Actor goes to Jeff Bridges for "Crazy Heart." Another favorite takes the Oscar.

11:33: This is awesome. Gotta love when long-time actors get their first taste of Oscar success late in their careers. They give such moving acceptance speeches. It actually feels honest, one of the few things in Hollywood that does. Sure, it makes the Oscars like watching an NBA game. Just tune in for the last few minutes for the best stuff, but who cares. It's worth it.

11:35: Bridges still going. No orchestra chase-out music.

11:36: Commercial break. Bridges apparently done.

11:39: Here to introduce the nominees for Best Actress: James McAvoy, Forrest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Stanley Tucci and Peter Sarsgaard. The nominees are Helen Mirren, Sandra Bullock, Gabourey Sidibe, Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan.

11:46: Sean Penn, last year's winner for Best Actor, here to present this year's Best Actress Oscar. And the Academy Award goes to . . . Sandra Bullock.

11:48: The Sandra Bullock snubbing of Meryl Streep was amusing. In case you missed it, she went in for a hug, then walked away, like when you fake a high-five with someone.

11:49: "To everyone who was mean to me . . . George Clooney threw me in a pool a long time ago, and I still hold a grudge." Nice work, Sandy.

11:51: Bullock still going. Good speech, too.

11:52: Barbra Streisand out to present Best Director. I'm so vaklempt.

11:54: And the Oscar for Best Director goes to . . . Kathryn Bigelow  . . . which pretty much means "The Hurt Locker" will win Best Picture in a moment or two. Props to Bigelow for becoming the first woman to win the Academy Award. Pretty cool note to what has otherwise been a very predictable Oscars.

11:55: What's going through James Cameron's wife's mind as she thinks about what's going on in James Cameron's mind as they watch his ex-wife win for Best Director. I understand they're on very friendly terms, but still. Perhaps just a bit of awkward?

11:58: "The Hurt Locker" wins Best Picture. Somewhat surprising, but not really.

11:59: Cheer up, James Cameron. A look at the box office numbers for "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker": $720+ million domestic for "Avatar," and $21.3 million worldwide for "The Hurt Locker." Not too shabby.

12:01 a.m.: Steve Martin: "This show is so long that 'Avatar' now takes place in the past." That's how you wrap up a show!

12:02: I'd like to thank the Academy, all my colleagues and all 7,500-plus readers for sticking around for this live blog. See you at the movies . . . provided you don't sit in the row in front of me because I like to put my feet up.

Here are some Academy Award things you should strongly consider clicking on:

Red Carpet photos
List of Academy Award winners
The Oscar fashion report
Academy Awards show
Complete Oscar coverage