12.58…hot chocolate, popcorn and Corona’s ready, I’m really hopeful all the highlights occur in the 1st hour, the prospect of work in the morning is looming large

1.00…Sky Premiere has Claudia Winkelman and Gok Wan doing commentary from the UK, please make them stop talking

1.10…Kate Winslet has an air of Grace Kelly about her

1.12…Still fashion talk, I know its important but for the love of god, talk movies

1.19…Why won’t people take their seats?, dont they know Im waiting. This I suspect may be my first post in which I curse

1.28…Few minutes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, mood helped!

1.31…We’re off

1.33…Jackman, tuxedo, music from ‘The Big Country’

1.34…He’s going for humour, OK so far

1.35…a recession inspired opening number

1.36…its getting theatrical, dancing troupes, a mention for the Dark Knight, Anne Hathaway dragged on stage

1.40…he hasn’t see ‘The Reader’, neither have I

1.41…goes for a big finish, he’s Wolverine

1.42…there’s a real intimacy to the stage, Jackman lets Rourke know there will be a 20 minute delay should he need to make an acceptance speech

1.45…5 previous Best Supporting Actress winners onstage to introduce each nominee for the award, this new approach could be drawn out

1.48…this approach is drawn out, very drawn out

1.49…Penelope Cruz wins, she threatens she may faint, slowly gets more emotional, her Spanish accent become more evident, her speech is too empassioned to mock

1.58…Tina Fey and Steve Martin on stage, they’re funny, every blank page was once a tree, Scientology gets a dig. They manage to find an excerpt from ‘In Bruges’ without an expletive.

1.59…’Milk’ for Best Original Screenplay, Irish interest Martin McDonagh loses out, pity. Speech is full of equality, gay rights and such stuff.

2.01..I had planned to go to bed at this point. I’m getting into it now though.

2.02…Adapted Screenplay for ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. So it begins.

2.04…Jack Black and Jennifer Aniston introduce a 2008 Yearbook; first up – animation.

2.08… Wall-E wins Best Animated Feature. The best of what was 3 strong entries (‘Bolt’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda’)

2.09…Le Maison en Petit Cubes wins Best Animated Short; no one cares. Toilet break.

2.15…Sky Premiere has a Hugh Jackman argument – condensed – he is cuddly v. the approach is awful, I get a vodka

2.16…Sarah Jessica Parker and Daniel Craig introduce Best Art Direction – ‘Benjamin Button’ wins – ‘The Dark Knight’ aside, this movie has the greatest technical accomplishment of all the evenings movies, there will probably be more wins for awards like this that wil be edited out of tomorrow nights highlights

2.19…Moving on to Costume Design, Daniel Craig fluffs his lines again, ‘The Duchess’ wins, worst speech yet

2.23…Parker and Craig still on stage for Make-Up – Benjamin Button was always going to win this and it does

2.25…Pretty young people from ‘Twilight’ and ‘Mamma Mia’ give us an insight into how romance was portrayed in the movies in 2008; lets hope their movies are not included

2.27..No such luck. And to make matters worse ‘High School Musical’ and ‘Sex and the City’ also get a look in.

2.28…the categories are introduced as a logical progression through the stages of making of a movie.

2.32…Natalie Portman and Ben Stiller, with a ridiculous beard parodying Joaquin Phoenix introduce Cinemtography.

6. Hugh Jackman is on hosting duties this year. Dr. Cox for one will not be looking forward to this, I reserve judgement. The clip below is from 3 years ago, when Jon Stewart hosted, with an appearance from some of his predecessors.

5. 1977, Stallone and Ali spar on stage before announce Best Supporting Actress. Watch the clip here. Read here the controversy surrounding Jodie Fosters nomination that year – based on her performance in Taxi Driver, John Hinkley decided to attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan to impress her!

4. 6 Oscar related quotes
Billy Crystal, 76th Academy Awards
…and when I say funny, I mean threatening to my career.

Chris Rock
The only acting you ever see at the Oscars is when people act like they’re not mad they lost. Nicole Kidman was smiling so wide, she should have won an Emmy at the Oscars for her great performance. I was like, ‘If you’d done that in the movie, you’d have won an Oscar, girl!

Denise Robert, 76th Academy Awards
[on winning the award for Best Foreign Language Film] We’re so thankful that The Lord of The Rings did not qualify in this category.

Grace Kelly, 1954 Academy Awards
This is one night I wish I smoked and drank.

Angelina Jolie, Best Supporting Actress, Girl, Interrupted
I’m in shock. And I’m so in love with my brother right now, he just held me and said he loved me.

Russell Crowe, Best Actor, Gladiator
For anybody who is on the downside of advantage and relying purely on courage, it is possible….

3. The trailer for this years Oscars. Presenters are not being revealed and generally there is a sense of change of approach to the style of the show. The Oscars have been consistently slipping in the ratings over the years – will this years show with generally little buzz surrounding so many of its nominees be the success producers hope for? An interesting tidbit is that the combined box office returns of the 5 Best Picture nominations combined does not match the money made by ‘The Dark Knight’.

2. An excellent clip of each of the Best Picture winners for the past 80 years, with some highly questionable decisions made at times. ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ is usually top of the list for the best example of this. These types of montages really remind me of the magic of movies though. There are no doubt people who love every one of these movies.

1. And finally, from the only Oscars I’ve seen at a reasonable hour having been stateside that year, Adrien Brody lands one on Halle Berry. Find the clip here.

Heath Ledger, Best Supporting Actor for ‘The Dark Knight’ is not surprising, but very welcome. This category threw up the best surprise for me in the form of a nomination for Robert Downey Jnr. in ‘Tropic Thunder’ – its an all too rare sign of humour and a broad range of movies being considered by the Academy. Similarly, Best Supporting Actress has thrown up a nice surprise with Taraji P Henson being nominated for her heartful and charming role in ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’. I plan on seeing each of the big 5 before the awards but I just have an impression that ‘Button’ is over represented overall.

Irish interests are represented in the form of a Best Screenplay (Original) for Martin McDonagh for his work in ‘In Bruges’ – truly a dynamite script and ‘In Bruges’ is on top of DVDs I want to re-watch before the awards this time next month. There is also Irish interest in the Best Live Action Short Film category, where Steph Green’s ‘New Boy’ is among the nominees.

These highlights out of the way the list of nominees comes across as lacklustre – too many old reliables make an appearance – Meryl Streep who probably has her own car space at the Kodak Theatre as she receives her 15th nomination, while Philip Seymour Hoffman and

Today’s nominations include nods to films such as ‘Frost/Nixon’ and ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ which have yet to be released in the UK. There are some very flexible release date rules clearly. Also, intriguing is the inclusion of ‘In Bruges’ which despite being written and directed by an Irish man (playwrite Martin McDonagh) and having Irish leads is included in the ‘Best British Film’ category. Maybe such matters are dictated by where the money comes from. Similarly, ‘Hunger’ must be suffering from a personality disorder, it being nominated for ‘Best British Film’ by BAFTA and ‘Best Irish Film’ for this years IFTA awards. And only two technical awards

ACTOR
Richard Jenkins

The five movies nomintaed for best drama are all represented in the best director category, with British filmmakers Stephen Daldry, Danny Boyle and Sam Mendes facing Ron Howard and David Fincher.

Revolutionary Road’s Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio secured nominations in the best actress and actor section respectively. Other lead actors up for awards include Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon), Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) and Angelina Jolie (Changeling).

Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight), Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise (Tropic Thunder) are all recognised in the best supporting actor section.

In the TV categories, the best drama series will go to either Dexter, House, In Treatment, Mad Men or True Blood.

30 Rock, Californication, Entourage, The Office and Weeds have been shortlisted for best comedy or musical series.

Among the acting nominees are Hugh Laurie (House), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors), Steve Carell (The Office), America Ferrera (Ugly Betty) and Tina Fey (30 Rock).

The 2009 Golden Globes take place in Los Angeles on January 11 and are voted for by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA).