Live Blogging: Oscars 2007 Hour 2

[9:30] Sweet! Randy Newman playing piano and James Taylor singing "Our Town" from Cars. Jame Taylor is great. I'm afraid this song may be way too mellow to compete against the three rousing entries from Dreamgirls. But, I still like it.

[9:33] And now, Melissa Etheridge with "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth. Odd to have two Best Original Song nominees back-to-back. I thought they would have spread it out. The song's oka, but is the least of the five nominees. Melissa looks like Hillary Clinton. I wonder if that's intentional.

[9:36] Leo and Al Gore are up presenting. Leo asks Al Gore if he'd like to announce something (implying a presidential run announcement). That didn't happen. They're talking about the environment. Oh, Leo is prodding for a bigger announcement. He acts like he's going to announce his presidential run when the music interrupts him. Now, that's funny too. Oh, and they didn't actual present anything.

[9:42] Cameron Diaz presenting Best Animated Feature. My pick & prediction: Cars. The winner: Happy Feet. I didn't see it, so I can't complain too much. But, it's hard to believe it was better than Cars.

[9:46] A film about how writers have portrayed in film history. Kind of a boring clip montage.

[9:49] Holy crap. Jack Nicholson has no hair.

[9:50] Tom Hanks and Helen Mirren presenting Best Adapted Screenplay. My picks (tie): Children of Men & Notes on a Scandal. My Prediction: The Departed. The winner: William Monohan for The Departed.

[10:00] Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway presenting Best Costume Design. My pick: Dreamgirls. My prediction: Devil Wears Prada. Oh, cool, they actually have people on stage wearing the costumes. Didn't see Devil Wears Prada, but since the movie was all about fashion, I'm guessing it's a strong contender. Dreamgirls was just so costume-intensive though. ...And, the winner: Marie Antoinette. Crap.

[10:05] Tom Cruise is on stage. He's presenting some kind of lifetime type award for someone named Sherry Lansing. Apparently, she was in chargeof Paramount Pictures for 12 years. She's done charity work for cancer, education, etc.

[10:10] Ellen is ad-libbing some stuff with Clint Eastwood. She gets Stephen Speilberg to take a picture of her and Eastwood.

[10:12] Gwynneth Paltrow is presenting Best Cinematography. My huge pick & prediction: ***Children of Men*** The winner: uh, I didn't hear the name of the film. Oh, Pan's Labyrinth. NNOOOO!!!! I cannot believe Children of Men did not win. AAGGHHHH. Pan's Labyrinth was good, but #@%&, Children of Men was stellar.

[10:16] The tumblers just formed the silhouette of the van from Little Miss Sunshine with one person running from behind.

[10:20] Naomi Watts and Robert Downey Jr. are presenting Best Visual Effects. My pick but not very strong prediction: Superman Returns (only one I saw of the three). The winner: Pirates of the Caribben: Dead Man's Chest. That's what I figured. No desire to see that movie.

[10:23] Katherine Deneuve (sp?) and Ken Wattanabe are introducing a foreign language film montage.

[10:29] Clive Owen and Cate Blanchett are presenting Best Foreign Language Film. My pick & prediction: Pan's Labyrinth (only one I saw, but it's kind of a no-brainer that it'll win). The winner: The Lives of Others (Germany). Okay, never mind about that "no-brainer" comment. I did hear something about it being good, so it does have me curious now (I think I might also like the sound of the German language more than some people).