Academy Awards have begun

A few quick thoughts on the Academy Awards so far, at 9:15 p.m.

Up until a year or two ago, I wasn't too crazy about Ellen DeGeneres. I don't have any specific reason; her humor just didn't hit my funny bone. But, there's more to Ellen than her humor, and I realize that now. But, she's funny! Ten minutes into the show, she makes a funny joke about Al Gore and his being elected by America, but being at the Academy Awards. I don't really remember the whole joke, but it was funny.

Speaking of Al Gore (Above, with wife Tipper, arriving at the show), I'm really, really pulling for his film, An Inconvenient Truth, to take the two awards its up for tonight. And of course, I'm really hoping for an announcement by Al tonight along the lines of "I'm running for president." That would be great. I realize that it almost certainly won't happen, but it would be awesome, and historic, too.

I'm looking forward to hearing Melissa Etheridge (Above, Right, with partner Tammy Lynn Michaels) perform "I Need to Wake Up" tonight. I hope the theme song for An Inconvenient Truth wins, but either way, it will be cool to see it sung live. I flat out love Etheridge, but even moreso for contributing such a great song to a great movie.

Lastly, I'm reeeeallllly pulling for Martin Scorsese. The greatest living American director is more than overdue to win an Oscar. I hope tonight's the night. And I still haven't seen The Departed, so I need to get my act together.

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Melissa's performing now - she's awesome. And they are displaying the words from the end of the movie with her performance. 'Way cool!

Okay, Gore was just on stage with Leo DiCaprio, and no announcement, but they did make a joke out of it. I'm not giving up hope on Gore running in '08, though. You can urge him to run by clicking Here.

Back to blogging - more after the show.

Photos from AP