As it happened: 12 years a slave, Gravity are big Oscar winners

10.28 am: 12 years a slave wins best film award Finally an upset. Right at the end. 12 Years a Slave. And Obama is president. America’s race problem has finally been dealt with? Thanks Steve McQueen for finally for mentioning that 21 million people still suffer in slavery. And slavery is a problem that is not just part of history and ended because 12 Years a Slave has upset Gravity at the Oscars. It may not have won much this year, but Steve McQueen’s film about a man sold to slavery has got top honours. Brad Pitt takes the mic, saying “It’s been an absolute privilege to work on Solomon’s story” before bringing the “indomitable” Steve McQueen to the forefront. “I’ve all women in my life and they’re all the most powerful,” McQueen said in his acceptance speech. He dedicated the Oscar to those who were and continue to be victims of slavery. “Everyone deserves not just to survive, but to live.” Thanks to the Oscars producer for the gratuitous shot of Benedict Cumberbatch. And with that, it’s a wrap. Now let’s follow in the Oscars’ footsteps and get some pizza… . 10.20 am: Matthew McConaughey wins best actor We are deeply thankful that Jennifer Lawrence didn’t pretend to trip or actually trip while walking up to present the ward for Best Actor. And it turns out that we were right when at the start of the evening, we wondered whether the seating arrangements were spoilers. Matthew McConaughey, seated in the front row, wins the Oscar for Best Actor. “It’s a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates,” says McConaughey who takes this opportunity to preach a little, reminds us that he’s a boy from the American South. He says that his hero is himself ten years away. Ok then. McConaughey is also probably the only person in the entire Dolby auditorium who is trying to put on weight. By the way his acceptance speech. Is this the first time in the entire evening we have heard someone refer to God and thank Him? That’s actually quite something come to think of it. Thought Bruce Dern would get it because Hollywood tends to honour its great actors when they get precariously old. But Matthew it is: because he deserves it and because the Academy loves a great AIDS movie. And extra points for making his audience very uncomfortable with all that talk about God 10.12 am: Cate Blanchett wins best actress award We’re coming to the end and it seems Ellen DeGeneres will be the most relieved when the Oscars are over. But first, Daniel Day Lewis is here to present the award for best actress in a leading role. And the Oscar goes to Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine. She’s got a standing ovation, but what’s the bet that all everyone wants to know is if she’ll say good things about Woody Allen “Sit down you’re too old to be standing,” says Blanchett and then generously compliments each of the other nominees individually. To Julia Roberts, she says “Hashtag suck it.” And yes, she did mention Allen: “Thank you so much, Woody, for casting me.” Her Chopard earrings, by the way, are massive and distracting. They dangle mightily. Ooh a bona fide India mention at Oscars. Cate Blanchett says Judi Dench isn’t here because at age of 79 she is shooting b_est exotic marigold hotel_ in India. Finally we can rest. By the way why does every Best Actress nominee feel compelled to salute all the other nominees by name? Let’s see if the Best Actor does the same. 10.00 am Alfonso Cuaron is best director, Gravity wins 7 Alfonso Cuaron has just won the seventh award of the night for Gravity, making us all want to learn Spanish. The loudest cheer was for Martin Scorsese though. Best Oscar moment so far: the secret handshake between Cuaron and Poitier. Cuaron says that Gravity was a transformative experience, adding, “What really sucks is that for a lot of these people that transformation was wisdom. For me, it was the colour of my hair.” He also thanks his son, Jonas, Sandra Bullock (“You are the soul and heart of the film.”), George Clooney and others. Jolie, by the way, was utterly charming in the way she helped the elderly Poitier. 9.55 am: 12 years a slave wins best adapted screenplay 12 years a Slave has just picked up its second award of the night, for best adapted screenplay. Best Original screenplay has been won by Spike Jonze. “This is an amazing moment. I have 42 seconds to speak, so I better hurry,” says Jonze, and then proceeds to fumble for words, but adorably. Did that open letter in the New York Times blog cost Woody Allen his best original screenplay Oscar for Blue Jasmine? That’s the question that will overshadow Spike Jonze’s actual Oscar. More on the pizza saga meanwhile… Kevin Spacey just tipped Ellen DeGeneres. Lupita Nyong’o has given her lip balm in exchange for pizza. Harvey Weinstein shelled out $200 while Brad Pitt gave only $20. Clearly, Pitt is not the man to go dutch with if you’re out for a meal. Penelope Cruz and Robert De Niro are here — Goa Police, we hope you’re watching — to present the Oscar for best adapted screenplay. The Oscar goes to John Ridley, for 12 Years A Slave. He’s in tears. “All the praise goes to Solomon Northup. Those are his words,” he says. This is just fun: https://twitter.com/VH1/status/440340403376496640 9.48 am: ‘Let it go’ from Frozen wins award for best original song Jamie Foxx and Jessica Biel are here to present the Oscar for best original score. Foxx providing Biel a soundtrack — Chariots of Fire? Really? — is one of the lamer moments of the evening. Meanwhile, Gravity picks up yet another Oscar: Steven Price gets his first Oscar for his outstanding compositions. “Mum, Dad, Jenny, sorry I made so much noise while growing up,” says Price in his acceptance speech. Biel and Foxx are still here to present the best original song. Fortunately, Foxx isn’t singing them while the nominations are read out. “Let It Go” wins the Oscar. Robert Lopez has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony, apparently known as “EGOT”. “Happy Oscars to you, Let’s do Frozen 2”, trill Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. Adorable. 9.44 am: Gravity wins its sixth award Gravity wins its sixth award, for best score. With Gravity nailing the smaller awards, the chances are higher that it won’t get the big one. Then again, they cut off Alfonso Cuaron… because they plan to give him his big moment later? We crashed and broke Twitter," Ellen DeGeneres informs us. “We’re all winners tonight.” Sadly, this can’t be said for DeGeneres who borrowed Tina Fay and Amy Poehler’s Golden Globes joke by calling Goldie Hawn, “Holdie Gawn”. Hawn’s dress looks vaguely like a curtain from a really opulent hotel room. John Travolta introduces Idina Menzel, who is here to perform the song “Let It Go” from Frozen, the Oscar-winning animated feature. We were wrong about Hawn’s dress. Its shoulder embellishment was stolen from the set that’s on now for Menzel’s song. But who cares about the set when Menzel is belting it out as powerfully as she is? 9.33 pm: Fun fact: Those Oscar pizzas were not props! That was a real pizza delivery guy, not an actor, who helped Ellen DeGeneres pass out those pies to the Oscar audience. The show host met him in a backstage hallway to check out the goods. “Is it hot?” she asked him. He assured her it was. “What kind we got here?” she asked. Cheese and veggie with no cheese, he told her. “Ok. Let’s go!” She said, leading the delivery guy onto the Oscar stage. 9.28 pm: First U2, now Bette Midler - this is yesterday once more Ah Glenn Close, lovely as ever in her severely-cut black dress with a mermaid’s tail flare. She’s here to introduce the In Memoriam section. RIP and a fond farewell to legends like Peter O’Toole, Richard Griffiths, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, James Gandolfini, Saul Zaentz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Roger Ebert, Gilbert Taylor and others. Bette Midler takes the Oscar stage with “Wind Beneath My Wings.” Seriously? Bette Midler?! Time to start whining like a 5 year old: Are we there yet? Not all of the delicate flappy hand gestures can distract us from the fact that Midler is distinctly wobbly and off-tune in parts. Gosh this is indeed a Yesterday Once More version of the Oscars. Btw India watchers at the Oscars can finally relax. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala got a mention in the In Memoriam series. Ok not Indian-Indian but close enough, na for the India-spotting types? 9.22 am: The tally so far… So, at the moment, Gravity’s leading the Oscar race with five Oscars. Guess who’s in second place? The Great Gatsby. Didn’t see that coming, did you? Chris Evans wants us to remember “unforgettably defining moments” — actors really should stick to their lines. More interestingly, Evans has a rather hipster beard. 9.15 am: Ellen just showed up in a gown! OMG Ellen Degeneres finally showed up in a gown at the Oscars and everyone cracked up. [caption id=“attachment_1416433” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image courtesy Reuters[/caption] She’s dressed as Glinda, the good witch, which just goes to show that even a married lesbian puts on a pretty dress when Benedict Cumberbatch comes on stage. Ellen’s outfit changes are marvelous, and befitting a Bollywood dance number. All she needs next is a teensy blinged-out choli! Cumberbatch and Jennifer Garner are here to present the Oscar for production design. Catherine Martin and Beverly Dunn win the Oscar for The Great Gatsby. No doubt they did a wonderful job, but we can’t help wondering whether Her was robbed of this award. On an aside, What’s with these strange Oscar montages this time? Now about defining heroes. Aren’t 99 percent of films about some kind of defining hero or the other anyway? And to be honest, they all look like hastily assembled fillers. The greatest hits compilation of greatest Disney movies, bio-pics, heroes…. um… 9.12 am: Whoopi Goldberg just won the entire Oscars Ok, best Oscar moment so far: Whoopi Goldberg raising her skirt to reveal striped tights and shiny red shoes. Now to see whether Pink can wake up this crowd at the Dolby Theatre. She’s wearing a sparkly, red dress and singing “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, to celebrate 75 years of The Wizard of Oz. So yeah, Pink’s looking red. Jokes apart, this bird can sing. Well deserving of the applause and standing ovation (unlike U2). 9.00 am: Gravity’s haul goes up to five You like me. You really really like me: That’s what Gravity should be saying right now channeling Sally Fields. The movie has just picked up its fifth award. And look! Nasa tweeted at them! https://twitter.com/NASA/status/440327764546035712 The fourth Oscar for the film was for cinematography and went to Emmanuel Lubezki. The sweep has officially started. By the way, Lubezki has a fantastic Instagram feed, for those so inclined: http://instagram.com/chivexp The fifth was yet another technical award. This is the first director for Alfonso Cuaron, who also directed the film, and Mark Sanger. Cuaron has the distinction of being the first person to be orchestra-ed off. All he got to say was, “Hi.” Or was it “Bye”? Continuing the high school feel of this year’s Oscars, a man’s shown up with boxes of pizza. Really? We’ve got to watch pizza being passed around? This is what we’ve paid our cable TV bills for? You’d think that all the people who have dressed up and made an effort would demand classier cuisine, but then again, Hollywood actresses aren’t really known for eating. The only good part of this gag: Ellen DeGeneres just asked Harvey Weinstein to pay for the pizza. 8.43 am: Lupita Nyong’o wins best supporting actress Well Lupita Nyong’o has just beaten Jennifer Lawrence in what may be the first Oscars surprise. This is also the first win for 12 years a slave. Steve McQueen and Liza Minelli give her bear hugs. How totally fitting that she’s wearing a dress inspired by champagne bubbles. And look! A standing ovation! From Nyong’o’s heartwarming speech: “So much joy in my life is due to so much pain in someone else’s. … I’m certain that the dead are standing about you and are watching and they are grateful, and so am I. When I look down at this golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that your dreams are valid.” https://twitter.com/MKTWgoldstein/status/440325289709932544 Hatti McDaniel from Gone With the Wind might be smiling. And then there’s this: https://twitter.com/sandipr/status/440327064202117120 Second big gaffe of the evening: Ellen DeGeneres calls Christoph Waltz, “Christopher”. Waltz is here to present the award for best supporting actor. if the clips are anything to go by best supporting actress category seems to all about women on the verge of a nervous breakdown… except for octogenarian Jean Squib. Meanwhile Oscar for best sound editing goes to Gravity’s Glenn Freemantle. Gravity’s haul goes up to three. Fun fact of the morning: no one’s been orchestra-ed off stage so far in this year’s Oscars. 8.34 am: This is going to be the most retweeted selfie: Aah this Oscars is the homage to the selfie. As if Hollywood was not already self-obsessed enough. From self-obsessed, Hollywood goes selfie-obsessed. https://twitter.com/LanceUlanoff/status/440321872086171649 Ok, we weren’t with this selfie thing, but finally, the shot with Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper, Brad Pitt, Channing Tatum, Lupita Nyong’o, Angelina Jolie — who is wearing all the silver tinsel leftover from Christmas — and others looked very sweet. It’s just the kind of thing that you expect to see from a bunch of kids graduating from high school or college. Oh wait. This isn’t a high school party. It’s the Oscars. Hm. The gorgeous Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth, in a wine-coloured jacket, are here to present the Oscar for sound mixing. Theron makes the first big gaffe of the evening when she looks like a deer in headlights at the prompter and asks, “Is this me? Oh!” Finally a human moment at the Oscars. The Oscar goes for sound mixing goes to Gravity. Oscar number two for the film. 8.28 am: Outsource best song performance category to Bollywood! They should really really remove the Best Song performance category or just outsource it to Bollywood. Question: Who was the standing ovation for? The image of Nelson Mandela or Bono’s excruciatingly dull performance? And we’re not alone on this one: https://twitter.com/tylerkonarik/status/440320532978728960 Meanwhile Mandela’s face smiles benignly down at the Kodak theater. Oscars is blessed and everyone can feel good now. From what we can tell, the real fun is happening backstage, in the press room where presenters and winners are talking to the press. https://twitter.com/HadleyFreeman/status/440317723332341760 Ellen deGeneres’s efforts to keep herself and us awake continue: she’s now wearing a blindingly white tux-type…thing. Brad Pitt was entrusted with introducing U2, who are now performing “Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. We’re trying to focus on the song, but so far this is all we’ve registered: - Adam Clayton, U2’s bassist, has seriously aged. - Bono wears shoes with proper heels (a couple of inches at least). Who’d have thunk Bono and Salman Khan have something in common? U2 gets a standing ovation for their performance of “Ordinary Love”. 8.20 am: The Great beauty wins best Foreign Language Film Ewan McGregor and Viola Davis are presenting the award for the Best Foreign Language Film. If The Great Beauty doesn’t win, we’re going to wail mightily. But we don’t have to because The Great Beauty has won the Oscar. Paolo Sorrentino and Toni Servillo (who played the lead in The Great Beauty) come on stage to accept the award. Aside: OMG The Good Road didn’t win. Wait, The Good Road wasn’t even nominated. Yet another Barfi moment for Indian Oscar watchers. 8.14 am: Why were the honorary Oscars moved? Really they moved the honorary Oscars offsite?… poor Angela Lansbury at 88! Should she not have actually been allowed to come to the Kodak theater and get a standing ovation? It doesn’t matter what Kevin Spacey says, we still love him. This is probably why he’s here to talk about the honorary awards that no one in the audience cares about. Among the recipients of the honorary Oscars are Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin and Angelina Jolie. Geoffrey Rush’s introduction to Lansbury and Jolie’s emotional acceptance speech sound lovely. It’s a shame the Oscars is only letting us hear excerpts. We just saw Christian Bale, looking quite lovesome with his natural head of hair and a little goatee, yabbering to his neighbour. 8.00 am: The Lady in No 6: Music Saved My Life, wins for best documentary short subject The Lady in No 6: Music Saved My Life won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject. It’s a beautiful little film, which you can see here. There is a reason why you don’t invite subjects of your documentary on stage during the Oscars. They might just end up getting the standing ovation instead. #20FeetFromStardom Ok, when the host wants to order pizza, this is not a good sign and not just because the evening is clearly boring everyone, including the host. I mean, come on Ellen, there’s going to be an after-party. You eat greasy, fatty food after the mad drinking. Not before. 20 Feet From Stardom wins the Oscar for best documentary feature. 8.00 am: The best part of the Oscars so far? The music So far, this year’s best Oscar moments have been during the musical performances. Pharrell dancing with Lupita Nyong’o while he sang “Happiness” was, simply put, happy-making. Now, Karen O, accompanied by Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, sang “The Moon Song” from Her. It’s not like this Oscar show needs to pause — it’s pretty darn unthrilling so far and Ellen DeGeneres isn’t able to do much about it — but “The Moon Song” made everything slow down in the best possible way. Meanwhile, Ellen DeGeneres has been spotted in different parts of the theatre. It’s like she’s trying to hide in the audience. Helium wins the award for the best live action short film. 7.56 am: Gravity wins for best visual effects, surprising no one Sandra Bullock, thanks for filling our visual effects with life says the Visual effects team for Gravity after winning the Oscar. True, actors these days are often just filling in visual effects. This might be the most important category in film these days. Now if we could only remember the names of the winners. Aside: The “hauntingly beautiful” million miles away song is not helping wake us up in India. At the one hour mark, the dan-dana-dan ads for Goibibo.com are the liveliest moments of the Oscar broadcast on Star Movies in India. 7.47 am: Frozen wins best animated feature film Frozen wins the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film, which was expected but still worth a cheer. This was one of the most charming cartoon films in a long time and it had the best female lead pair that we’ve seen in a while. Yay! “Sorry, lot of emotion, I have to take a paper,” said in a French accent by Laurent Witz, after winning the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. So cute. 7.40 am: All hail Kim Novak! Meanwhile For those wondering who that husky blonde was co-presenting with him, Matthew McConaughey subtly reminds youngsters in the audience Kim Novak was in Vertigo. It’s lovely to see former bombshells like Novak as senior citizens – to know they have lived a full life without being consumed by their own beauty. The anti-Marilyns. Ladies considering plastic surgery and other kinds of “enhancements”, please see Novak and see the light. If you haven’t seen photos of her when she was young and un-enhanced, Google her to know how lovely she once was. It’s really sweet how Matthew McConaughey is keeping his arm around Novak, who was quite obviously rather nervous to be on stage. 7.39 am: The Oscars so far… not so fun Public service announcement: Harrison Ford is still pretty darn delicious. And now, there’s a background of what looks like massive roses for Channing Tatum while he talks about people that no one really cares about. None of this is helping make this year’s Oscars particularly fun. It’s come to the point where Ellen DeGeneres has to literally pop her head between Leonardo diCaprio and Sandra Bullock in the audience, presumably to wake them up. While we have an ad break, could we ask for a moment’s sympathetic silence for American Hustle, whose make-up team must have thought that this award was theirs for the taking, given all the crazy hair in that movie. 7.30 am: Naomi Watts and Samuel L Jackson are the epitome of style… not. Naomi Watts and Samuel L Jackson are presenting the Oscar for best costume. Considering Watts’s helmet hair and Jackson’s no-hair, it is so perfect that they are presenting the award for make-up and hairstyling. Catherine Martin won the Oscar for best costume, for her work in The Great Gatsby. Martin’s husband, incidentally, is Baz Luhrmann. The Oscar for best make-up and hairstyling went to Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews, for Dallas Buyers Club. 7.25 am: Is Ellen going to insult everyone on stage tonight? Our first white presenter is Amy Adams says Ellen introducing Amy Adams. Citizen Kane. Lawrence of Arabia. Ace Ventura. Our next presenter acted in one of those says Ellen introducing Jim Carrey. She already called Liza Minelli a drag queen version of herself. Now if Ellen keeps this up and disses every single presenter these Oscars might just get more interesting than usual. Decorating the stage are clusters of semi-transparent models of enormous Oscar statues. It’s a bit unnerving. It’s like they’re cryogenic cocoons out of which thousands of Oscar soldiers will burst out and neutralise anyone who dares go over the time allotted to them on stage. Erm, does Pharrell Williams have a really odd-shaped head or is that a hat malfunction? Fortunately, “Happiness” is a song that totally lives up to its name. This is a good note on which to start the morning. 7.18 am: Leto thanks the ‘dreamers’ in Ukraine and Venezuela. Eye roll. Dear golly. Are the protesters in Ukraine watching the Oscars too, Jared Leto? But thanks for the thoughts. “We’re thinking of you tonight”, says Jared Leto to “dreamers” in “Ukraine and Venezuela”. No, Jared, you’re not really and neither is anyone else, because if you were, you wouldn’t call people engaged in a political struggle “dreamers”. This is why you should think very hard and do a little bit of research before taking yourself entirely too seriously. Meanwhile Jim Carrey is wearing a metallic blue jacket. His problem is that he can’t stop being Jim Carrey even for a second, on or off screen. Thank you, Oscar producers, for not placing him and Ellen DeGeneres in her blue, velvet jacket in the same frame and the same time. First Anne Hathaway’s dress, now this jacket — the Oscars seems to have taken the decision to dazzle us a little too literally. 7.13 am: Jared Leto wins best supporting actor And look at that Jared Leto won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Dallas Buyers’ Club. So now we know who’s winning Best Actor. Aw, Jared Leto. Still pretty after all these years. How sweet, he was holding his mother’s hand for good luck as the nominations were announced. And thanks his mother and the best big brother to boot. Who knew Jared Leto was such a family man? But we’re shedding a tear for the very lovely Abdi who’s 15 minutes just ran out. Holy mother of god. What on earth is that on Anne Hathaway’s, er, chest? It’s she ran into a discoball on her way to stage. A moment’s silence for the dead discoball. 7.10 am: Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto in front row…spoiler?? This year, the theme of the show is ‘Heroes in Hollywood’. Since Ellen DeGeneres isn’t really setting their night and our morning in fire with her opening monologue — the one good joke so far is saying the Oscars are Hunger Games — here’s what else we’ve noticed: Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto are in the front row. Ooh. Is that a spoiler?? 7.00 am: Ellen DeGeneres channels her inner ‘mean girl’ Ellen’s continuing the gents’ Inventive neck wear campaign, which is teamed with a velvet jacket. Whoa. Which essentially means she gets to do the boring dinner lounge tux penguin act like all the actors. But she’s channeling her inner mean girl. Poor Liza Minelli is going to remember being called out as a male drag queen impersonator of herself for a very long time. About Lupita Nyong’o’s lovely Prada gown: it’s in “Nairobi Blue” and it was inspired by champagne bubbles. Which aren’t blue, the last time we checked, but if you’ve drunk enough champagne, we figure they could be. Among those who are a no-show at this year’s Oscars: Judi Dench and George Clooney. 6.50 pm: Oscars 2014… the year of the triceps? New drinking game: How many Michelle Obama-style triceps can you spot? Muscles are a girl’s new best friend etc.. etc.. Speaking of, there’s Sandra Bullock. “The person that went into Gravity was not the person that came out”, she says. Sometimes the less you know about roles you enjoyed on screen the better you can enjoy them. 6.38 am: Leonardo sounds utterly blah It’s quite fascinating. Leonardo di Caprio and Chiwetel Ejiofor, two of the front-runners for the Best Actor Oscar, just got interviewed. They’re two outstanding actors, they’ve given some brilliant interviews about their roles, they’re handsome but here’s the Red Carpet Effect: both sounded utterly blah. [caption id=“attachment_1416003” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Hey Leonardo… Getty images[/caption] For a brief moment, there was Steve McQueen in the background. He was beaming, which is cute. Someone else who appeared briefly was Best Supporting Actress nominee Lupita Nyong’o, who looks absolutely gorgeous in a pale blue, diaphanous creation with a plunging neckline that makes her look like she’s floating. Julie Delpy hasn’t showed up on our tv screens, but we have seen photos of her dress. The lady may not be enamoured by the Oscars — she recently slammed the Academy in an interview for being old, out of touch and biased — but she’s pulled out one awesome dress for the evening. It probably takes French je ne sais quoi to carry off that massive rhinestone-ish thing on your stomach, but Delpy has it in spades. Salut! Ah, Lupita Nyong’o has been spotted by the red carpet hosts. Yesterday was her birthday and she celebrated by attending the Independent Spirit Awards, where she won an award for her performance in 12 Years A Slave. Not bad at all. Nyong’o is wearing a Prada dress that she apparently helped to design. Fashion-forward people, educate us. Why have so many Hollywood leading ladies signed up for the Soft Furnishings for Fashion campaign? Julia Roberts is wearing what looks like Gran’s lace table cover, dyed in black. Plus, it doesn’t fit. Givenchy-shimonshi. Sana Tailors in Bandra would do a better job. Bill Murray! “I come from a very large extended family,” he says, when the crowd behind him cheers for him. We loves. What a great bow tie! Instead of the standard block, it’s got slabs of turquoise and blue on it. Omg. The red carpet host just called Julia Roberts, “Jessica Roberts”. Lovely. Clearly, everyone feels as awake as we do. 6.34 am: More red carpet musings… You are only as young as your fondest memory of Jared Leto. Who knew the high school hottie who broke Claire Danes heart in My So-Called Life would grow up to be a scraggly bearded indy grunge? But lets face it, the red carpet is already tedious without an extended ad for Disney animation masquerading as content. Barkhad Abdi being gushed over for now rolling up in a limo as a nominee at the OScars for Saving Captain Phillips when he was once a limo driver. It’s like the Hollywood red carpet dream story. Except The Wrap revealed he earned $65,000 for his performance in the film, but that was two years ago and he has not acted in a movie since then. And is broke. Captain Phillips star Barkhad Abdi’s charmingly crooked teeth offered a refreshing jolt in a see of silicone and botox. Except when you realise he likely can’t afford to go to a doctor, leave alone a dentist. 6.15 am: From Jennifer Lawrence to Blanchett, what the actresses are wearing For a second, it looked like Best Actress nominee Jennifer Lawrence’s dress bright red Christian Dior dress had pockets. As it turns out, they’re a frill on the hips, which isn’t quite as cool. But it’s pretty. Lawrence informs us that she’s rehearsed walking up to the stage and that she tripped on a cone during rehearsal. Bless. Sally Hawkins, nominated for Best Supporting Actress, is wearing a dress wearing soft furnishings. There is an unfounded rumour going around that her dress was last seen on a sofa in Kolkata. Another one for the Soft Furnishings for Fashion cause is Kerry Washington, who is definitely wearing a bed sheet. Cate Blanchett is not wearing bright red lipstick. Damn. Generally Blanchett picks gorgeous dresses for these events. This time though, the Armani dress looks like it had a bucket of rubbish sequinny stuff chucked at it. It also looks vaguely like a the nude catsuit that Britney wore in her video for “Toxic”. That is perhaps not the connection Blanchett wanted to make. 6.00 am: What’s the hurry Matthew? Anna Kendrick, on the other hand, looks rather beautiful. Black dresses are a dime a dozen, but hers looks lovely. The back — mostly not there, but for a few gracefully-located strips of fabric — is particularly eye-catching, particularly when she coyly gives the photographers her over-the-shoulder look. Nicely done. Naomi Watts, incidentally, is wearing helmet instead of hair. It’s not everyday that you notice hair over diamonds. This is one of them. It looks like Matthew McConaughey was in a bit of a rush to get here. He’s wearing a white jacket with black waistcoat and pants. Then again, considering how boring men’s formalwear is in the West, why not? 5.45 am: Sorry… what is Laura Dern wearing? There is, admittedly, there is some satisfaction to watching people coiffed and bejewelled for a show that you can watch with your bed hair, puffy, barely-open eyes and disreputable nightwear while the Hollywood stars have had to clean up and wear haute couture. Laura Dern, however, seems to have come out, wrapped in her bed sheet. This is a little annoying given we made the effort of leaving the bedding behind us. Oscar nominee Amy Adam’s shown up on screen wearing a Gucci dress in a navy blue most of us in India associate with school uniforms. It’s not a particularly memorable dress, but the teardrop Tiffany earrings with their bright pink centre are gorgeous. 5.30 am: Up at the crack of dawn? Here’s something to help you along Let’s face it. We’re up because we’re either massive movie geeks or completely celebrity stuck, but it is still the crack of yawn… dawn… whatever. The red carpet is out in Los Angeles, the Hollywood stars are all dressed up for the Oscars and here in India, we’re here in our jammies. From the look of things, Sidney Poitier is feeling is about as awake as we are. Host: Tell us, who is your date? Poitier: Sorry, what was the question? But over the weekend we came up with a fun way that you (and perhaps Poitier) can be bright eyed and bushy tailed as you watch your favourite movie stars walk the red carpet, win, lose and do all those other things that movie stars do… If you haven’t seen it yet, check out our Oscars drinking game ! 5.00 am: Ready for the red carpet! Hollywood has counting down the hours as stars gather for the most fiercely contested Oscars show in decades, with three movies leading the field for Tinseltown’s most highly coveted prizes. Organizers were praying for the rain to hold off, after a huge storm hit just before the Academy Awards weekend, drenching the famous red carpet where A-listers were to strut their stuff. They awoke to gray skies but no downpours for the first time in three days, and a canopy protecting the Hollywood Boulevard runway leading into the Dolby Theatre was finally removed. Harrowing historical drama “12 Years a Slave,” 3D space thriller “Gravity” and 1970s crime caper “American Hustle” are hotly tipped to take the top prizes at Sunday night’s show, starting shortly. [caption id=“attachment_1415975” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  This is the most closely competed award show in decades: AFP[/caption] On the acting front, Cate Blanchett is favorite for her turn in Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine,” while Matthew McConaughey is widely fancied to strike Oscars gold for his portrayal of homophobic HIV-positive AIDS activist Ron Woodroof in “Dallas Buyers Club.” Jared Leto’s role as Woodroof’s unlikely transgender business partner has put him ahead of the field for best supporting actor, and Lupita Nyong’o could take home a statuette for her big-screen debut in “12 Years a Slave.” But experts agree that, while some categories may be seemingly settled, all bets are off for the big prize of the night, the best picture Oscar, which will be handed out at the end of the 86th Academy Awards ceremony hosted by US talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. “It’s been a very intense season because there’s been so many good films,” industry journal Variety’s awards editor Tim Gray told AFP in the run-up to the Oscars. “The very last envelope that’s opened is going to be very suspenseful.” The 6,000 or so voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences cast their ballots over 12 days starting on Valentine’s Day and ending on Tuesday. But the best picture race is so close that the winner could come down to only a few votes, under the Academy’s preferential voting system. Under the rules, voters rank all nine nominated films. They are: “American Hustle,” “Captain Phillips,” “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Gravity,” “Her,” “Nebraska,” “Philomena,” “12 Years a Slave” and Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.” (For a cheat sheet on the nominees and what we think their chances are, click here ) The Oscars in numbers: This one is for the stats geeks! Here are some details about the Oscars and the 86th Academy Awards show, in numbers. Voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: 6,028 Countries where 86th Academy Awards telecast can be seen: over 225 Feature films eligible for Best Picture: 289 Countries submitting foreign language movies: 76 Number of Oscar statuettes created for 86th Academy Awards: 50 Height of Oscar statuette: 13.5 inches (34 centimeters) Weight of Oscar statuette: 8.5 pounds (4 kilos) Oscar statuettes handed out since first Oscars in 1929: 2,900 Media organizations requesting credentials for this year: 766 Media organizations issued credentials: 289 Journalists on red carpet: 530 Fans on bleachers overlooking red carpet: 700 Length of red carpet: 500 ft (152 meters) Width of red carpet: 33 ft Dolby Theatre seating capacity: 3,300 Person who has hosted Oscars the most: Bob Hope, 19 times Longest Oscars telecast: 4 hours, 23 mins (2002) Shortest Oscars telecast: 1 hour, 40 mins (1959) First televised Oscars show: March 19, 1953