It all began on the Red Carpet with a hyperactive Regis Philbin who continues to look ever young even after bypass surgery.

He only had a half hour to squeeze all those personalities, nominees and presenters onto that red carpet in front of the bleachers where the common men and women sat, and most of the starlets seemed to blend into what they were standing on. The red was okay, because Heidi Klum wore it too, a full-volume gown by John Galliano, all for a good cause.  Heidi’s gown is being auctioned as part of The Heart Truth campaign to raise awareness about women and heart disease.

Many were young, thin but few lived up to the Botox bust boosts promised by the entertainment writers pre-promoting the cosmetic industry prior to the awards.

More often they looked liked they were squished into their designer gowns.

Red was in and Joe McCarthy was turning over in his grave.

Regis took us from the Red Carpet to backstage and front stage where Jack Nicholson, George Clooney and Nicole Kidman were holding court.

Jon Stewart stepped onto center stage for the opening of the 80th Academy Awards and told us how exciting it was at least twice in his opening comments.

He knocked Vanity Fair for canceling its Oscar party and suggested that Hollywood might be ”needing a hug” for all the pscyopathic movies it produced this year.

He followed this with, “thank God for teen age pregnancies.”

At one point he suggested, “too often the Academy ignores movies that aren’t good.”

When injecting politics into the awards, Stewart suggested that with no incumbent running, he suggested to the liberal Hollywood audience that they “pick a Democrat.”

As the Academy always does, they inject some of the past into the awards in film clips and the late Johnny Carson always comes through, he said in a clip from the past, “I see a lot of new faces especially on the old faces . . . ” It was as true this evening as it was when he said it.

Meanwhile Jon Stewart continued to say how “exciting” things were.

At this point in my reporting it seems as though ”La Vie en Rose” was taking a few awards including, Marion Colilard for Best Actress, but I am just providing color, you will have to go elsewhere for all the individual winners.

A nice touch by the Academy was to have soldiers from Iraq introduce a segment of the Oscar awards, it even drew applause from the liberals of Hollywood.

Best actor went to Daniel-Day Lewis in, “There Will Be Blood.” 

And here’s a wrap:  “No Country for Old Men” won the Academy Award for best picture. The movie’s directors, brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, also won an Oscar for their efforts, as did supporting actor Javier Bardem.

PS: Jon Stewart did an adequate job in hosting the Academy Awards; however in my bias opinion, he’s no Johnny Carson.