Live Blog: 2009 Oscar Winners and Commentary

Here we are… the big night… the night I have been flapping my gums about since September 2008 when I launched The Contenders. You have either followed me along the way adding your thoughts and ideas to the prediction process or are brand new. Either way, welcome to a night of live blogging and instant winner announcements.

If you haven’t checked the results from our click here for the results as Slumdog Millionaire has been predicted by RopeofSilicon users to take home seven of its nine Oscar nominated categories.

As you can obviously see, in the right hand column I will have the winners listed as they are announced and I will also be highlighting them in yellow inside the actual blogging. It’s 4:00 and the Red Carpet events are already going on and I may chime in from time to time until the actual red carpet arrivals are covered at 5:00 PM PST and then the big show begins at approximately 5:38 and is expected to run for about 3 hours and 45 minutes. We are in for a long haul and I am glad you have chosen to join me. Let’s have some fun and hopefully a few surprises.

4:16:55 PM: It feels so wrong to be paying attention to this show this early, but I am prepped and ready to go and don’t have any other prep work to do. So now I sit watching Ryan Seacrest interview Robert Pattinson… What fun!

4:18:13 PM: Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick are giving Ryan the chat about… Broderick looks like he would rather die than be here as Parker gives the spiel on how she knows nothing about Sex and the City 2.

4:19:24 PM: Seth Rogen at the Oscars… he definitely deserves to be there more than Pattinson.

4:20:02 PM: Word is they are letting a few stars in through the backdoor so as to not spoil the surprise. Will the mysterious atmosphere around the presenters pay off?

4:21:35 PM: I should warn you now, I will be keeping tabs on the Wake Forest vs. Duke game that starts at 4:30. So be on the look out for periodic score updates throughout this live blog.

4:26:43 PM: Marisa Tomei is 45 and could pass for 25, what a gorgeous woman. By the way, Natalie Portman was shown and my goodness is that woman a bombshell.

4:28:07 PM: Wait, Mickey Rourke just said he has never been to the Oscars. Isn’t that amazing?

4:31:31 PM: Queen Latifah is singing a song tonight during the In Memoriam moment. That’ll be interesting, I don’t think they have ever had singing over it.

4:32:58 PM: Already have some comments from Russia, Dominican Republic and DC… Love it… As for crashing the server… keep those fingers crossed I hope I took care of that this time around. Nice to see everyone back!

4:35:59 PM: Ron Howard just said the Arrested Development movie is “looking good”.

4:36:54 PM: Evan Rachel Wood looks like someone that should have been acting in the ’30s… she’s really got that old school Hollywood look going.

4:38:25 PM: Angelina and Brad Pitt just showed up and E! is excited because they say they have the “first shot” of their arrival. Uh, does that matter?

4:43:32 PM: Kate Winslet is here and looking damn spiffy…

4:47:48 PM: Duke vs. Wake Forest is underway with Wake out with an early 2-0 lead.

4:53:43 PM: E! still employing Ben Lyons… How is that possible?

4:55:03 PM: Abandoning the E! coverage for a quick check on the Duke/Wake game then on over to the 30 minute build-up on ABC… It’s almost time folks.

4:56:19 PM: Wake is up 13-11 on Duke… I still think Duke is going to take this one… Really wish the ACC and the Academy would have worked together on the timing of these two events.

5:00:18 PM: ABC coverage is underway, once the red carpet garbage is over I will toss in a page break and we can act like it never happened.

5:03:50 PM: ABC is just wishing everyone luck, not a lot of conversation going on here.

5:05:37 PM: Duke takes the lead 22-15… Can’t believe I am watching Frank Langella talk about nothing instead of this game… that’s dedication folks. Oh, and for Connor… die hard Heel fan right here too!

5:09:43 PM: Now ABC is chatting with Valentino… designer of the stars. Not that interesting.

5:10:56 PM: TONS of people from the Slumdog Millionaire cast are here. They have a massive podium holding them all.

5:13:23 PM: We all want Ledger to win, but just imagine if Downey won and came out in blackface to accept his Oscar. Just brainstorming here…

5:15:07 PM: Miley Cyrus, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgeons are here and it just doesn’t feel like the Oscars. Miley just said Angelina Jolie is one of her “favorite people in all history”. Huh?

5:17:56 PM: Duke is up 31-19 on Wake now. Maybe it won’t matter I missed that game.

5:28:01 PM: Okay, here we go… commercial break and the show is coming back. Let’s do a page break and forget the red carpet ever happened.