9:29: In the supporting-actor category, most of us expected Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls) to win but thought that Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) should win. So it was Oscar's first big surprise of the night when Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) snapped up the trophy!

Eddie I have one thing to say... Karma!  As I said earlier, I was rooting for Eddie, but his sour-puss on the Red Carpet (just out of camera range) put me off.

We're still waiting backstage to talk to Alan about his surprise victory, because the Oscar producers need him to be in his seat. So Oscar winners don't always rush off stage and come right back here to the press room. Sometimes their TV seat-filling duties take priority over doing press.

10:28: An Inconvenient Truth won best documentary feature, which meant we got to see former Vice President Al Gore backstage! When one reporter likened Al to a rock star, he offered up this snappy response:

"William Hung is a rock star. I just have a slideshow."

And for the umpteenth time tonight, Al was asked if he'll run for president again in '08. "I do not have plans to become a candidate for office again," he said. "I am involved in a different kind of campaign that I will continue: to try to persuade people all over the world, and especially here in my own country, to successfully solve the climate crisis."

When Al Gore was exiting the room when something stopped him... It was Melissa Etheridge's win for the original song Oscar for "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth. As Etheridge kissed her girlfriend Tammy Lynn Michaels on screen and collected her Oscar, Gore let out a hearty hoot of approval and stopped to watch Etheridge's acceptance speech on the monitor.

11:05 "This is the only naked man that will ever be in my bedroom," joked Melissa Etheridge, who clutched her best song Oscar on the backstage dais.

A reporter asks Melissa about her calling Tammy Lynn her wife, and that she kissed her on screen and as much of a gay icon as you are, did you have any hesitation about making that statement?

Etheridge: We talked about it beforehand. I have not been one to kiss my partner in public just for sensationalism. I never have. But she is so important to me, especially with this project. She was the one who said, "Just write what you feel." When I was going, "Well, how do you write about global warming? What am I going to write about global warming?" she said, "Just write what you feel." She just means so much to me. She saved my life! So I was kissing her because that's what you do. You kiss your loved one when you win an Oscar.

11:10: Former Paramount chief Sherry Lansing looked radiant after accepting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. But what we all want to know is what did presenter, Tom Cruise, whisper in her ear after he handed her that Oscar statuette?

"First of all, it was a secret," Lansing said. "I kept asking who was going to be giving me this award and [Oscar producer] Laura Ziskin kept saying, 'I'm not going to tell you. It's a surprise.' So I had no idea who was going to be giving me the award! And I didn't see Tom through all the pre-events. So I was sure it wasn't him.

"And, as a matter of fact, I had seen him at an Oscar party a few days before and he was sort of cold to me!" Lansing said. "And so [on stage], he whispered in my ear, 'This is an honor. I really wanted to do this. You know how much I love you and when I saw you at the party, I couldn't say anything to you.'

"So I didn't know until I walked out and it was extremely emotional for me because I've known Tom since he was 19 years old," she continued. "I know his mom and his dad and I almost started to cry, because it just brought back a flood of memories going back to Taps at 20th Century Fox and continuing through our friendship today. So it's a long answer, but it's the truth."

11:15: German Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who directed best foreign language film The Lives of Others, gave us a tip for getting into all the best Oscar parties: "I was told that if you have an Oscar, the bodyguards at the door shrink away from the Oscar like Superman does from kryptonite."

And someone just asked him why he namedropped California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger onstage? "I just mentioned it because he just seems to me like the ultimate embodiment of the fact you can just achieve anything that you dream of," von Donnersmarck said. "He really inspired me as a child. I remember the first time that I saw a picture of Conan the Barbarian in a video store.... I've always been fascinated with him, and it's just more the whole thing that the sheer determination, the fact that you can just achieve anything you want. That's what I see embodied in him, almost more than anyone else. That's what it meant. I hope you understood that the right way — and not as an endorsement of the death penalty or something."

Okay... awwwwkward!

11:22: YEAH!!!! for our Dreamgirl Jennifer Hudson! "I couldn't believe it," she excitedly told the press. "I'm still in shock, like, did I really just win? You never know, you can never be too sure, and it's a surprise and it still is. It's going to take awhile to get used to this."

Of course a reporter just had to ask Jennifer (as most of us cringed) : "What do you think of the rumors of tension on the set with you and the other cast members like Beyonce?"

"Well, it's not true, so it's not much to think about it. How about that?" she shot back.

She's asked about the tail end of her Oscar speech, when she made a quick shout-out to the original "Effie," Jennifer Holliday.

"Ms. Holliday and the other Dreams, the original Dreamgirls, they paved the way for us to be here today to make the film," she explained. "Had they not done that unbelievable job, there would not have been the Dreamgirls made, so how can you not thank them for that?"

Another question about her start on American Idol and to get an Oscar in your first film right out of the gate, what does that say about that show and what it did for your career?

"Well," Jennifer replied, "it says that American Idol is a great platform. Thank God there is such a thing as Idol. There's many other talents that came before that didn't have a platform to sing, but they allowed us that platform, and for that we can say thank you."

Don't you wish other Idol stars would be more polite when talking about the TV hit that launched their career???

11:30 Alan Arkin is backstage finally... Remember he won Best supporting actor for Little Miss Sunshine. He kept it humble when making his victory remarks to the press backstage. "I think it's because of my age," he grinned. "Everybody thinks I'm going to keel over in a year or two, [so they] give me a little bonus."

When asked to compare his Oscar nomination for Sunshine with his previous nominations, Alan said: "I'm 72. I don't remember anything anymore, and I'm proud of it."

"Look, I don't keep score," Alan shrugged. "It's not about furlongs. I feel in a sense like a hypocrite because I don't believe in competitions between art activities. I think it's insane. This is a fun kind of insanity, but who is to say who is better? I mean, who has the authority to say who is better?

"I felt for a long time that if 100 people say one person is a better actor and 50 people say somebody else is a better actor, why do the 100 people have the vote?" he added. "The 50 people may have been more deeply moved by another performance. What's the criteria? The criteria is very shadowy. I don't keep score. I mean, I'm happy to have this [Academy Award]. It's very nice, but I don't keep score."

Very nice... and true. Way to go Alan... I always loved you. You were hilarious in Sunshine and I'll never forget you in 'The In-Laws'.

11:34 Best actor Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) got kind of mystical when asked backstage if he knew he'd score an Oscar tonight.

"I wasn't sure it was going to happen tonight, but I thought something magic was going to happen because I could feel the breath on my neck, the tingling in my body," Forest said. "For me, that's my ancestors speaking to me. 'We are with you. We are walking with you.' And it's something that helps me in all my work. It's not something I'm going into alone."

Okay, the bottles of water are getting to me, time to make a dash to the bathroom... and I think I'll pick up a slice of pecan pie I saw in the hallway. Being sick hasn't curbed my appetite!

11:45: Best actress Helen Mirren — who toasted her victory for The Queen with a very British vodka gimlet — was asked if she expects a congratulatory telephone call from her real-life alter ego, Queen Elizabeth II.

"No," Mirren chuckled. "I'm not expecting a call from Her Majesty. Not ever. I wouldn't expect it. I wouldn't desire it.

"I think it's wonderful that I live in a country that allows us to make a film like this," she said. "There's many countries in the world where one would not be allowed to make this film. I think it's generous of the royal family and of Her Majesty the Queen to sit back and not interfere. I think it's very gracious and very noble of them.

"And I do believe she is a noble person," Mirren added, "in the best sense of the word, which is nothing to do with class, but is all to do with spirit."


12:11 Everyone in the room seems so happy that Martin Scorsese won best director for The Departed. He tells us, "I got used to not winning!"

Don't forget that Scorsese — or "Marty" as Hollywood insiders like to call him — was nominated for best director five times before this win.

"It's a good thing I didn't get [the Oscar] before because maybe it would have changed the movies I would have made," he added. "I'm glad it took this long."

Side note: Martin Scorsese's eyebrows are overpowering... They're like a cartoon character. Seriously... they're larger than life.

12:20: The Departed producer Graham King said "[his] nerves went down" as soon as Martin Scorsese won the Oscar for best director tonight. "I worked with the guy for three pictures now and I love him to bits and I wanted to see him bring it home."

Happily, the star-studded Departed also won best picture. Did King ever worry that the story might get lost amidst all of that star power?

"Not with Marty behind it, no, I definitely wouldn't," King said. "And everyone was fabulous to work with, they really were. There were changes made here and there and Jack [Nicholson] put some additions to his character. [As] a producer, it's a tough film to make with everyone's schedule and dealing with the additional props, let's say, in the movie. But, you know, at the end of the day, when you are dealing with the likes of Scorsese and Jack Nicholson and Leo [DiCaprio] and Matt [Damon], you kind of sit back and let them do their thing, and that's what I did."

Well I guess that it! An Academy rep told us Oscar host Ellen DeGeneres would not be coming backstage to do a post-mortem with the press. Seems odd to me. But I just can't wait to get back to the hotel for a couple of hours sleep before I leave for Las Vegas. I've got a convention to be at by 9:30am!


The Complete listing of winners and some pictures: Click Here