The 75th Annual Academy Awards

Steve Martin's insults made this presentation! In light of the recent war in Iraq, many celebrities dressed down and even did not show up.

This year's Academy Awards showed how politics are always in the mix, and I don't mean with America's current situation with Iraq. What I mean is that there seems to be an (unintentional?

I stayed up all night Sunday to watch the Oscar ceremony (living in the UK it didn't finish here till gone 5am) not because I wanted to see who would win (I haven't seen ANY of the films nominated) but because I knew that Olivia de Havilland was going to be there. I wasn't dissappointed - when the president of the academy (I forget his name) said "53 years ago a young actress...

Steve Martin was great this year, and as much as I like Whoopie Goldberg as an actress, I wasn't too impressed with her hosting in years passed. Steve Martin was hilarious, or at least as much as he could be without being "distasteful.

In terms of the results happened more the way I wanted. Here's my take on the major categories:Best Picture: Chicago deserved to win.

It's just as obvious that the most prevalent issue in the awards ceremony this year was to be the war in Iraq as it was after the Oscar ceremony in 1999 that the biggest rivalry of all was between two equally powerful films, Saving Private Ryan and Shakespeare In Love. But there was something of an unwritten rule this year that, if an Oscar winner absolutely HAD to say something about the Iraq situation, they would keep it mild and quick, such as the way Chris Cooper hoped for peace for the world in his acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor (which he richly deserved).

Is it that time of year already? Despite the fact that the Iraqi war is in full swing, the ceremony still went ahead with, as Steve Martin wryly observed with his opening line, toned down glitz!

First, let me report the few things I regretted. There was no red carpet treatment, for reasons that did not make sense to me.

As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a GoodFella... sorry, I'll start again.