The 81st Academy Awards Were Last Night

[via Wired.com]

Like the Mumbai orphan at the heart of its story, Slumdog Millionaire overcame stupendous odds and on Sunday won the 2009 Best Picture Academy Award. Producer Christian Colson said, "When we started out, we didn't have enough stars or enough money to do what we wanted to do, but we did have a script that inspired madness in everyone who read it, and we had a genius for a director."

Slumdog (pictured below) nearly became a straight-to-DVD release when its original financier, Warner Independent Pictures, went out of business.

Instead, the crowd favorite, picked up by Fox Searchlight, triumphed as the evening's top award winner, bringing in seven trophies. Colson added: "Our film shows if you have passion and belief, anything is possible."

The most moving moment of the awards telecast came when Heath Ledger won Best Supporting Actor for playing the Joker in The Dark Knight.

Ledger's father, sister and mother accepted on the late actor's behalf. Mr. Ledger thanked director Chris Nolan for "allowing Heath the creative license to create and explore this crazy Joker character."

Method actors bonded briefly when Robert DeNiro praised Sean Penn (pictured below) for his portrait of gay rights activist Harvey Milk.

A few minutes later, Penn took the stage as 2008's Best Actor. At the podium, he joked: "You Commie, homo-loving sons of guns.... I know how hard I make it to appreciate me, often."

Embracing the Milk message, Penn said "We've got to have equal rights for everyone."

Continuing on a political tangent, he said: "I'm very proud to live in a country that elected an elegant man for its president."

In a tip of the hat to the star of The Wrestler, Penn said, "Despite a sensitivity that has somehow brought challenges, Mickey Rourke rises again, and he is my brother."

After six Oscar nominations, Kate Winslet finally won Best Actress for The Reader, in which she played an illiterate Nazi guard who has an affair with a young German teenager before going on trial for war crimes.

"I think we all can't believe we're in a category with Meryl Streep!" Winslet (pictured below) said. "Meryl, you'll just have to suck that up."


Hugh Jackman's song and dance kicked off the 81st Annual Academy Awards Show, which quickly got down to business when Penelope Cruz (pictured below) picked up Best Supporting Actress Award for her role as Javier Bardem's insanely fiery ex-lover Maria Elena in Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

"Has anybody ever fainted here? I may be the first one," Cruz said from the stage.

A few minutes, later Wall-E, as expected, won for Best Animation Feature.

Funniest bit: Uncommunicative Ben Stiller, in fake beard and sunglasses, impersonated Joaquin Phoenix.


Sweet segment: a restrained Queen Latifah crooned the old ballad "I'll Be Seeing You" in tribute to artists who died in 2008, including Bernie Mac, Michael Crichton, Harold Pinter, Cyd Charisse, Roy Scheider, Richard Widmark, Isaac Hayes, Paul Scofield, Stan Winston, Charlton Heston, Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack and Paul Newman.

Shut out: Iron Man, The Hulk and Wanted failed to win any awards in a variety of technical categories.

Other winners:

Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

Foreign language film: Departures (Japanese)

Song: Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire

Score: Slumdog Millionaire

Documentary: Man on Wire

Sound editing: The Dark Knight

Sound mixing: Slumdog Millionaire

Film editing: Slumdog Millionaire

Visual effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire

Original screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, Milk

Adapted screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire

Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Art direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Costume: The Duchess

For the complete list of winners, visit www.oscar.com/oscarnight/winners

Photos courtesy Fox Searchlight, Paramount, Warner Bros., Pixar

Sean Penn Wins for "Milk"

Fox's Secret Millionaire Comes to San Francisco

Fox's newest reality show "Secret Millionaire" featured San Francisco in the most recent episode. The "millionaire" was online advertising entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal who went undercover and lived in the Tenderloin for a week.

Here's a little more about the show:

Like the British version, the Fox show will feature wealthy benefactors each week that will go undercover in the most deprived neighborhoods of the United States. For approximately ten days, the millionaires will mingle within the community and live on a very low-cost budget, for few this being the very first time. At the end of the show, the millionaires reveal their identities and proceed to give a minimum of $100,000 (which can be divided among the recipients). [Wikipedia]

And some more about Gurbaksh Chahal:

Gurbaksh Chahal is one of the youngest and one of the most successful internet entrepreneurs of recent history.Chahal has created companies worth over $340 million by the age of 25. On December of 1998, at the age of 16, he dropped out of Accel Middle College to start his first venture ClickAgents. ClickAgents was one of the first performance-based advertising networks in the industry. Two years later, on November 1st 2000, ValueClick announced it agreed to buy ClickAgents in a $40 million all-stock merger. Chahal had a three year non-compete with ValueClick. He was 18 years old at the time. On January 12, 2004 he founded BlueLithium. BlueLithium was an ad network focused on data, optimization, analytics and a pioneer of behavioral targeting. He has been recognized as an innovator in the online advertising space by Business 2.0 as well as a sought-after speaker, featured at conferences including Red Herring, JP Morgan, Bear Stearns and Ad:Tech. Under his leadership, BlueLithium was named one of the top 100 private companies in America three years in a row by AlwaysOn.On September 4th 2007, Yahoo! announced that it has agreed to buy BlueLithium for $300 million in cash. He remains CEO of the company through the transition period [iMedia].

Related Links:
SFGate - Advice from young millionaire Gurbaksh Chahal
Personal Site
"G" on Fox Business Channel
His SF Penthouse

Who Wants to Look Like an Idiot on TV

Monday mornings are tough but at least you aren't one of these guys.




I can't show you the worst contestants in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire history without showing you the guy who is the first to win a millionaire

...wouldn't it have been great if he got the final question wrong after calling his dad? No? Maybe that's just me.