And the Oscar goes to........

Awards season reached it's peak last night with the live telecast of the 83rd annual Academy Awards on ABC.  The Oscars marks the biggest night in Hollywood.   There was plenty to look forward to; the glitz & glamor, the incredible star power, hot trends on the red carpet etc etc.  

The show organizers seemed to have this great need to appeal to a younger demographic - hence the reason there were young hosts chosen.  When it was announced late last year that Anne Hathaway and James Franco had been pegged to host the creme de la creme of award shows, most of us had to scratch our heads! While they are talented in their respective fields, they are not comedians nor do they have proven hosting chops.  Granted they both have hosted Saturday Night Live.

Bottom line, the show was a major snooze fest!!  How I tolerated the entire telecast is still a mystery!!  That's about 3hrs of my life I am not getting back!!  Ironically, the old people rocked out the show! Kirk Douglas was hilarious while presenting the supporting actress award. It's great to see old people with a great sense of humor! Melissa Leo who got the award was a little too excited(as she should be) and dropped the f-bomb in her speech.  Big deal! Not!!!

The King's Speech reigned supreme last night with several awards.  The main ones being Best Actor: Colin Firth,  Best Director: Tom Hooper and Best Picture!  If you haven't seen this movie,  I highly recommend it!!

Once again, Annette Benning was robbed on the Best Actress category - I can't tell you how many times she has been nominated in this category and lost.  Natalie Portman had been favored to win from the the get go and has claimed that title at every award show in that category.  I must admit that i am yet to see the movie Black Swan but it is one to watch.

Honorable mention - The Foreign Language film went to "In A Better World".  The film was partly shot in Kenya and features several Kenyan actors and crew including Ezekiel Onyango, who was the film’s first assistant director, Eddy Kimani, & Evans Muthini among others. Congrats guys!!

The best part of the show was the end - go figure!!  They brought out the adorable yet talented kids from the PS 22 choir from Staten Island to close with a song while all the Oscar winners came onto the stage.  It was nice but a little too late to make up for that bore of a show.

For a list of all Oscar nominations/winners click here.

I was not disappointed when it came to Oscar fashion!! They were more hits than misses!!   Halle Belly dazzled in a Marchesa champagne gown,  Mila Kunis hit it out of the park in her lanvender Elie Saab gown and Mandy Moore looked amazing as did some other A-list stars.  But not all sizzled, some simply fizzled e.g Nicole Kidman!! What was she thinking? She looked like a waitress at the Panda Express!! I could go on but will spare you....

For the hot and flops on the red carpet click here. Pictures galore!

Social Responsibility - Going Green

A group of teenagers from the slums of Nairobi have joined together to make a winning video on environmental protection.

The film competition "1 Minute To Save The World" challenged young filmmakers to create a one-minute video about climate change. The competition received films from around the globe, with submissions arriving everywhere from Mexico to Vietnam. Judges included Frank Oz ("The Muppet Show") and Bruce Parry ("Tribe"). "Me And My Bike" won the $8000 Passion Pictures Best Film and Artists Project Earth Youth Visions award.

"Me And My Bike" is a video created by Wafalme, a group of inspired Kenyan teens who communicate various messages through hip-hop. They are also known for creating "Trash Is Cash," a video offering recycling solutions for their neighborhood, which lacks trash collection - despite the fact that 1.5 tons of trash per day is dumped on their land from Nairobi.

In Wafalme's newest video on bicycling, the group offers the simple yet very real message that bicycles are an environmentally-friendly mode of transportation that can cut down on worldwide carbon dioxide emissions. One lyric states, "It's good for my health, because I need to exercise, it doesn't need any gas, just my feet and my eyes."

Via: Huffington Post

I must say I am very proud of everyone involved in this production!!

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