Argo, Daniel Day-Lewis and Jennifer Lawrence were among the big winners during the star-studded telecast of the 85th Oscars, host by Seth MacFarlane live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Read on for the recap...
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The Best Picture
Fulfilling its promise of incredible momentum this awards season, Argo was named Best Picture over Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook and Zero Dark Thirty. Producers George Clooney, Grant Heslov and producer/director Ben Affleck took the stage for an emotional acceptance, with Ben talking a mile a minute. In addition to acknowledging Steven Spielberg, "our friends in Iran" and the "eight great films that have as much a right to be up here as we do," he reflected on his first Oscar win for Good Will Hunting back in 1998: "I was really just a kid, and I went out and I never thought I would be back here," he said, adding of his rise, fall and career rebirth in Hollywood, "It doesn't matter that you get knocked down in life -- all that matters is that you get up."
The Best Actors
Daniel Day-Lewis became the first-ever actor to win three Best Actor Oscars, the latest for his stirring portrayal of our 16th president in Spielberg's Lincoln. Calling the win a "huge honor," he delivered a stream of rapid-fire jokes and poked fun at his persona, quipping that he had originally been committed to play Margaret Thatcher and Meryl Streep was Spielberg's first choice for Lincoln. "I'd like to see that version," he smiled, adding that he had to persuade Spielberg that "Lincoln shouldn't be a musical." He also thanked his wife Rebecca Miller, "who has lived with some very strange men" over the years (due to his very dedicated acting method) and has been "the perfect companion to all of them." Also acknowledging the "mind, body and spirit of Abraham Lincoln,"
the Brit star bested Bradley Cooper, Hugh Jackman, Joaquin Phoenix and Denzel Washington.
A stunned Jennifer Lawrence stumbled up the stairs to pick up her Best Actress statuette for her incredible performance in Silver Linings Playbook. Declaring, "This is nuts!" she upset tough competition in Jessica Chastain, Emmanuelle Riva, Quvenzhané Wallis and Naomi Watts, and told the standing audience, "You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell, and it's really embarrassing."
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The Supporting Players
"It came true," said Anne Hathaway after she was named Best Supporting Actress, her second nom and first win, for her emotional portrayal of Fantine in Les Miserables. Telling fellow noms Amy Adams, Sally Field, Helen Hunt and Jacki Weaver, "I look up to you all so much and it's been such an honor," she singled out co-star Hugh Jackman and her hubby, then declared, "Here's hoping that someday in the not too far future, the misfortunes of Fantine will only be found in stories and not in real life."
Christoph Waltz was named Best Supporting Actor for his role as Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained, his second Oscar win under the sure writing and direction of Quentin Tarantino. He thanked that creator of Django's "awe-inspiring world," saying with the words of his own character, "You scale the mountain because you’re not afraid of it. You slay the dragon because you’re not afraid of it. And you cross through fire because it’s worth it." Bowing with declared "respect" to his fellow nominees, Waltz out-gunned Alan Arkin, Robert De Niro, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Tommy Lee Jones.
Other Awards Highlights
Disney-Pixar's Brave won Best Animated Feature; Austria's Amour was named Best Foreign Film; Searching for Sugar Man won Best Documentary; Adele's Skyfall landed Best Original Song; Quentin Tarantino picked up Best Original Screenplay for Django Unchained, while Argo was also honored with Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing; Life of Pi earned Best Director for Ange Lee (who thanked "the movie god"), Best Cinematography, Best Original Score and Best Visual Effects; Lincoln was voted Best Production Design; Anna Karenina got Best Costume Design; Les Miserables won Best Sound Mixing and Best Makeup & Hairstyling; and Best Sound Editing was a tie, going to both Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall.
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The Show High Points
Despite the show's epic length, freshman host Seth MacFarlane burst out of the gate cool and confident as he brought some good humor (the story of Argo is so top-secret "that the director is unknown to the Academy") as well as some edgy jokes (Django Unchained is Rihanna & Chris Brown's "date movie," the We Saw Your Boobs song) to his opening monologue. A song-and-dance man, the host also made sure to include plenty of sugar-sweet dance moments, from Channing Tatum and Charlize Theron dancing to The Way You Look Tonight to Daniel Radcliffe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt doing a little soft shoe to High Hopes.
Other fun moments of the telecast included the usual "band plays 'em off stage" music replaced by the Jaws theme; the 50th Anniversary tribute to James Bond featuring Dame Shirley Bassey singing Goldfinger, and later "the unstoppable" Adele singing Skyfall; William Shatner's cameo as Star Trek's James T. Kirk, returning from the 23rd century in a sketch to stop MacFarlane from bombing too bad; the potty-mouthed, animated Ted and Mark Wahlberg quipped that the annual "post-Oscar orgy" will take place at Jack Nicholson's house; the cast of The Avengers (Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson) reassembled – and mocked each other -- to present two awards; and select cast members of the Oscar-winning Chicago, Dreamgirls and Les Miserables also reunited to perform their big hits.
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In Memoriam
Dearly departed stars and industry artists who left us over the last year were remembered, including Ernest Borgnine, Jack Klugman, Celeste Holm, Adam Yauch, Michael Clarke Duncan, Charles Durning, Herbert Lom, Tony Scott, Nora Ephron, Ray Bradbury and Richard D. Zanuck. And prolific composer and EGOT Marvin Hamlisch was saluted by Barbra Streisand, who beautifully sang The Way We Were.
Tune into ET for complete coverage of the 2013 Oscars, before, during and after!
