Montage of best supporting actress awards, which leads to last year's supporting actor winner, Alan Arkin, stepping out to present the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. And the winner is...Tilda Swinton, for Michael Clayton! A mild upset, as Ruby Dee or Cate Blanchett had been expected to win. But Swinton - wow! She's stunned and says the Oscar looks exactly like her agent, who deserves the award. She also said Michael Clayton writer-director Tony Gilroy walks on water and mentioned George Clooney wearing the Batman suit on set ("You rock!"). She's awesome - if you haven't yet, see her in The Deep End or Orlando.
Jessica Alba, in a lovely third trimester gown, mentions the Scientific Academy Awards handed out a few weeks ago. Insert a joke about the pregnant actresses and Jack Nicholson's virility. Then Josh Brolin and James McAvoy, after riffing on previous famous movie lines, present Best Adapted Screenplay to Ethan Coen and Joel Coen's adaptation of No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. They previously won best original screenplay with Fargo.
Sid Ganis, the Academy president, tries to enlighten the average non-Hollywood Joe or Jane about the Oscar nominating and voting process with a montage (of course a montage) about the, uh, process, but not the Price Waterhouse Coopers part. The Academy's voting is super secret - as the Barbra Streisand-Katharine Hepburn tie in 1969 showed, votes can be close (Streisand reportedly only joined the Academy that year and probably voted for herself - had she not voted, she would have lost by one vote!).
Then the third song nominee - it's the second of three Enchanted songs. Kristen Chenoweth, Broadway star and actor on ABC's Pushing Daises, sing "How Do You Know?" with a cast of characters. She has a terrific voice and stage presence.
