Roses for everyone....

It being Rose Monday and all... So here are virtual ones, and give all of them to the people I love.

Was up in the middle of the night cleaning, and had the live transmission of the Academy Awards on the tee-vee. I thought Hugh Jackman did a nice job of hosting. I was thrilled that Sean Penn got best actor.

Have been watching this shindig since I was a kid, it is always fun, being a full-fledged movie fan. Am NOT usually a fan of Ben Stiller, but his edgy imitation of Joaquin Phoenix's appearance on David Letterman had me in stitches. Although am not sure if he isn't going to get flak on that.

Everyone else seemed to be on their best behaviour, so that made it all the funnier.

Robert De Niro addressing Sean Penn and wondering how he got all those heterosexual roles before this nomination was such a zinger, I guffawed.

'Milk' only got one other award for best screenplay. The young man who wrote it gave a chilling acceptance speech about his Mormon background, and encouragement to the GLBT community that moved me muchly.

The musical numbers were better than usual.

So I enjoyed myself while dusting and organising junk that has been accumulating and needs to be thrown out.

A word about the Swarovski 'curtain' that framed the stage. Beautiful. I do not even want to think about what that cost. It is an Austrian company, and I have a few Christmas tree ornaments from them, and the cost is shocking, I tell you, shocking. Fiona (the owner) must have been off the charts for overjoyed, getting all that free publicity....

I felt terrible for Jerry Lewis. I had known he has been very ill, but was saddened to see how very badly his illness has diminished his body. He probably held the shortest acceptance speech of any Jeanne Hershell award for humanitarian activities I have ever seen. But it was from the heart and brought me nearly to tears.

Facit: after years of blah broadcasts, this was really one of the better ones. And who knew that Anne Hathaway has a terrific singing voice? When Shirley MacLaine compliments and encourages her, that is praise indeed. And I have seen Shirley MacLaine live, and she is one professional entertainer.

So it was fun and took my mind off of my mindless tasks of tidying up....

Haven't seen most of the nominated films, but enough to know I would have voted differently on a lot of them.

And Penelope Cruz looked delicious and wonderful.