Pre-Oscars Post

As you might’ve heard, the Oscars are tonight.



The big show starts at 8:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. PT on ABC — whose Go site has a complete list of nominees. If you’re into seeing Oscar hopefuls, presenters, and other celebrities on the red carpet, you’ll want to check those good ol’ local listings.

I’ll probably pass on a review of the show; then again, I’ve thought that before and yet — after a bout of Oscars poetry in 2009, when the blog was all of a few days old — I ended up doing post-Oscars posts in 2010, 2011, and 2012.

The Academy of Motion-Picture Arts & Sciences website has a history of the awards, with bullet-point milestones and a brief slideshow of images — including the first Academy Award ever given and the marquee from the 35th annual ceremony 50 years ago as seen above. NBC aired the inaugural Oscar broadcast a decade before that, honoring films released in 1952, with Bob Hope as emcee in Hollywood and Conrad Nagel co-hosting from New York.

Several nominated actors stopped by Funny or Die’s Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis recently to be verbally abused by the comedian and Hangover star (or to verbally abuse him in kind). Its Oscar-Buzz Edition: Part 1, 6 minutes long, features Naomi Watts, Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, and Jennifer Lawrence; Jessica Chastain, Bradley Cooper, Sally Field, and a surprise guest who is not Daniel Day-Lewis show up in Part 2, just over 5 minutes. [Warning: Discomfort humor and crude language.]

There was supposed to be more here, but to resurrect an old refrain on this blog the technology is not cooperating. While my Internet connection has mostly been fine since Apple finally replaced my lemon of a laptop, its recent congestion mirrors my own during this persistent cold. The only upside to my supremely frustrating inability to stay online reliably is more time to write offline, at least as my stuffy head permits, so the pipeline should remain stocked for a bit.


Related: Oscars Beat • The Bloom Is Off the Gilded Lily • Pre-Oscars Post (2012)