OSCARS 2025

I didn’t get to watch most of the arrivals, because live-tweeting about them, (which I did @MajorCelebrity,) took up a lot of my time. But I watched every second of the long show, of course.

And my bottom lines to this year’s Oscars are:

Conan O’Brien was the perfect host, which actually surprised me—I’ve never really thought he was very funny before.

And, though I feel bad for her, I’m thrilled that Demi Moore did not win Best Actress—she sooo has not deserved any of the awards she has won for the dreadful The Substance!

And although I’m happy for everyone to look their best by losing weight, these idiots really need to stop denying that they’re using weight loss drugs!!! You are not fooling anyone!

And what were the Oscars producers thinking when they had sub-par performers, (outside of Raye, who was still not her usual great self that night,) sing very old James Bond songs, but not let us hear any of the nominated ones for this year??? That was just insane! (When they were announcing Best Song, without anyone singing the nominees, which is usually a highlight of the Oscars telecast, I told Mr. X that I was going to have a heart attack!)

And, most importantly, there was one major star there with whom I once smoked a joint. Possibly the biggest one, actually. (The star, not the joint.) Try to guess who it is, and I’ll let you know the answer somewhere in this review.

I’ll get to the rest of the actual show soon, but first I have to go in order of the proceedings on Sunday day and night.

THE ARRIVALS SHOWS

The coverage was so crazy with how early it started. Some of the TV channels began in the morning, with nonentities rehashing the same old stuff we’ve heard all year.

And just who would show-up three hours early to the Oscars??? People who are desperate for publicity, that’s who. It’s usually lower cast members or even crew, who would never be interviewed later.

None of the arrivals show hosts had anything new or interesting to say. Or ask. I think local ABC did the best.

E CHANNEL

Diane Warren is so successful, but always genuinely puts herself down! I don’t get it, but I also do that. I met her once, and she was exactly the same insecure that she seems on TV, but in a nice way.

It was interesting to finally hear Ariana Grande’s boyfriend, Ethan Slater, talk. I was a tad surprised that he has a good voice and speaks well. But the moronic interviewer asked him why people like him! What an idiot!!!

LOCAL ABC

Marlee Matlin is always so beautiful and classy. Her dress and jewelry were perfect. Even Mr. X exclaimed, “Wow,” when he saw her, and said that she “never looked better!”

How are people so rude to wear outfits that will obstruct the people sitting behind them??? Wait—I just realized why. It’s because they are nobodys who are just desperate for attention, and therefore, will be relegated to the back row of the balcony to begin with!

I love that Jeff Goldblum is always himself and not a phony ever.

Boyd Holbrook from A Complete Unknown said the Dylan era was “probably the most pinnacle time in music.” Did he never attend English class???

I was perhaps the most happy to see ninety-five-year-old June Squibb. The one-time Oscar nominee was the most charming, lovely, vibrant, and appropriately-dressed person there!

I cried my guts out just seeing John “Divine G” Whitfield on the red carpet. He’s the guy who was unjustly incarcerated for almost three decades, whose time in Sing Sing was portrayed in the incredible film of the same name as the prison, and was up for a Writing Oscar for it!

Why were Cynthia Erivo and Whoopie Goldberg double-holding hands through their entire interview??? That was so creepy.

That young Russian guy from Anora, Mark Eydelshteyn, went nuts over the “soft carpet!!!” Adorbs.

While nominee for Best Actress, Fernanda Torres, was standing there waiting to be interviewed, the very impolite hosts were excitedly drooling over that Demi Moore was there! That was so incredibly rude of them. And Fernanda was so nice about it!

I loved seeing Walter Salles, the director of I’m Still Here, which wound-up winning the Best Internationals Feature Film Oscar later that evening, and his star Fernanda Torres loving each other so much.

Jesse Eisenberg seems so nice and regular and non-phony. He’s as neurotic as heck, but he has all the good traits, too.

NATIONAL ABC

I hated that this brief arrivals show, (the official Oscars one,) showed three pix on the screen at once, demonstrating that they’re pandering to only the attention-challenged viewers. Shame.

I can’t believe that in one of those side pictures, they showed a not-good-looking nor famous girl, whose name is Rachel something, but they wrote the wrong last name on it! “Rachel Zegler“ is what they wrote, and she’s semi-famous, having starred as Maria in West Side Story in a recent year. ABC needs to hire competent people, pronto.

President of the Academy, Janet Yang, was rocking a good outfit, which was very appropriate for her position.

And those are all the arrivals I had time for on Sunday. Now on to the show:

THE SHOW

The opening about movies based in LA was powerful; it made Mr. X and me applaud, and made me cry.

The bit of Conan O’Brien coming out of Demi Moore’s back was brilliant.

The announcer introduced by saying, “Welcome four-time Oscar viewer, Conan O’Brien!”  That cracked me up more than anything else that night. I wonder how many other people actually got it. (You can let me know if you did in the Comments section below this review.)

Most viewers haven’t seen any of these mostly obscure movies, so they wanted to see clips from them when the nominees were listed before the winners were revealed, not hear Robert Downey, Jr.’s (and those of the other presenters,) personal observations about them! That was just creepy, and added much too much time to the show.

Andrew Garfield was so good and kind to Goldie Hawn. The poor woman—it cannot be easy to have been the cutest girl ever, and now look your age, no matter how much hair you try to hide your wrinkles with. I really feel for her

Paul Tazewell, the Costume Design winner for Wicked, was the most grateful winner! I could feel his heart in his speech.

We definitely did not need a total waste of time tribute to James Bond! Especially after they sold the franchise to Amazon that week, and everyone was still upset about it. And no one knows who the singer who obnoxiously calls herself just “Lisa” is! Doja Cat can’t sing at all! Her song was brutal. She made my ears bleed. (And her nerdy shoes hurt my eyes. And sensibilities.) Neither woman has anything to do with movies, so they should not have been on there. But at least Raye, despite being music less than her usual great self, showed them how to do it!

The orchestra conductor was wearing a doo-rag! To conduct at the Oscars! How rude to the occasion!

I was a bit surprised that the rarely-seen Daryl Hannah looked like her old self, which Mr. X pointed-out is still not great.

Sean Baker edited his own film!!! You have no idea how amazing that is. And he won the Oscar for editing. Even though Anora is basically soft porn with a story, and no ending, I’m happy for him to have swept his four categories. (Directing, editing, writing, and Best Picture!) That is a pretty amazing achievement.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph—it was good to see someone who isn’t on Ozempic.

Isabella Rossellini was acting like a shy schoolgirl when she was announced as a nominee. What was up with that?

But it was cute that she wore a blue velvet dress as her tribute to her late friend and director, David Lynch.

I’m sure that daughters of good mothers everywhere understood this: When Zoe Saldana, who is a mother of three herself, accepted her Oscar for Best Supporting actress, the first thing she did was call out to her “mommy!” I loved that. (But it was funny that she is not a pretty cryer.)

The current situation of Karla Sofia Gascon is so sad to me. After getting Best Actress nominations from just about every awards entity, questionable old tweets of hers surfaced, and she became a pariah in the business. I’ve seen a few that don’t seem to be as bad as portrayed, and English is not her native language, so, as she says, some have been meant jokingly. I’m not really familiar with them. But she had to sit there, lonely and unfeted, and I just felt for her.

Now, to bring the room back up a bit, here’s the answer to which big star shared his joint with me back in the day: it’s Mick Jagger! I’ll have to finish my book already for you to find-out the circumstances.

All three other songs were better than the two from Emilia Perez, so, of course, one of those two won. And the worse one at that!  The song from Sing Sing was the best, but I really wanted Diane Warren to finally win. Shame.

At least the guy winner mentioned Karla Sofia Gascon in his speech, no matter how quickly.

But how is the woman writer of that team, Camille, a working singer??? She very stupidly sang, (or tried to,) something after they accepted the award, but she sings worse than I do! And that’s saying something.

The most powerful speech of the night was by Israeli and Palestinian winners of Best Documentary for No Other Land, which is a collaboration between filmmakers from both countries. Basel Agra spoke first, and then, when Yuval Abraham finished-up, Mr. X breathed-out and said, “Pretty heavy.” I’m actually crying right now again, just writing this. (If you haven’t seen their speeches, please try to find them.)

I was glad to see that the LA firefighters got the biggest reception of the night!  And their bit with the jokes was really funny. They all had excellent delivery for them. (That’s them at the top of this review. I’m so glad that Conan didn’t block any of the heroes from view! Photo by Karen Salkin.)

I hate to say it, but Miley Cyrus looks like a middle-aged hooker. And Miles Teller got good-looking.

It was sooo rude of the producers to cut off one of the winners for Best Sound, without allowing him to say even a brief “Thanks!” But they had time for a lot of baloney in the show. Grrr.

Rachel Zegler walks like a goon!!!

I know that she and Gal Gadot are in a new movie together, but Rachel should never stand next to tall, stately, gorgeous Gal!  Actually, no one should!

Timothée Chalamet has grown on me over this awards season.

Ana de Armas is so pretty, despite the shape of her face looking like that of Betty Boop.

Victoria Warmerdam, the producer of Live Action Short Film winner, I’m Not a Robot, was very sweet. She’s Dutch, naturally.

Morgan Freeman’s left hand is still gloved, all these years later, after a severe car accident. I believe that he’s said he can’t use that hand, and the glove is a compression one to help with the pain. Poor guy.

I dread all the In Memoriam segments of awards shows more and more, worrying that I’ll see a pal I didn’t know had died. It’s really troubling now. Of course I knew about my longtime pal, Disney composer extraordinaire, Richard Sherman, had died last year, but seeing him in this Oscars tribute really hurt my heart.

Of Anora’s two wins (at that point of the show,) Conan quipped, “I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian.” That was the line of the night. Good for him.

Is Daniel Blumberg, who won for Best Score as the composer of The Brutalist, really Nosferatu???

I know they’re popular, but Oprah Winfrey and Whoopie Goldberg just look like two very unattractive old women on Ozempic. [Note: The picture of them is several paragraphs back. Photo by Karen Salkin.]

I hate to end my Oscars coverage on that note, but I must—I have so many more fun articles to get cracking on for you!