Looking good:
Charlize Theron, Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, Jackie Weaver, Hugh
Jackman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Queen Latifah, Anne Hathaway,
Halle Berry, Kerry Washington, Jennifer Lawrence, Sandra Bullock,
Catherine Zeta-Jones and really a wow-- Jennifer Aniston.

Best spots: Charlize Theron and Channing Tatum dancing, Daniel Radcliffe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt singing and dancing.

Standing Ovations: Shirley
Bassey singing “Goldfinger” and reaching that note at the end. Jennifer
Hudson sang “And I Am Telling You” from “Dreamgirls”. The “Les
Miserables” cast, including Russell Crowe, did a medley of songs from
the movie and got their standing ovation. Out of place, but she looked
and sounded great, was the ovation Barbra Streisand got for singing “The
Way We Were” as a salute to Marvin Hamlisch. Daniel Day-Lewis the only
actor to win 3 Oscars for Best Actor and Ang Lee who won his second as
Best Director also got standing ovations as did Jennifer Lawrence
winning as Best Actress or could have been for her recovering and not
losing her cool when she tripped and fell on the steps going up for her
award.

Musical numbers: Along
with the numbers mentioned above Catherine Zeta-Jones did an excellent
job on “All That Jazz” from “Chicago”. The disappointing numbers were
the competing Oscar contenders including Adele singing “Skyfall” which
she co-wrote. Her voice was excellent but the song, and the background,
couldn’t compete with what came before in the previous salutes. The
ending song with Seth MacFarlane and Kristin Chenoweth was too little
too late.

Best acceptance speeches: Jennifer Lawrence and Daniel Day-Lewis

Wasted time: Bill
Shatner in the opening number which made the opening number too long
and almost brought the show to a stop before it even started. Also the
“We Saw Your Boobs” number should have been cut.

Host: Seth MacFarlane was better with his adlibs than with his prepared script. He was pleasant.

My best moment: “Armour” winning Best Foreign film.

My worst moment:  Showing a pivotal scene from “Armour” that should only be seen in the context of the film.

The
producers, Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, put on a smart show, keeping it
moving on great sets, bringing it in at 3 and 40 minutes (if you stayed
tuned for the last song) which is still too long and if you were/are a
glutton for punishment you watched the hour and a half red carpet show
before the actual Oscar show.

Now until the Tony Awards--the classiest award show!