Kate Winslet’s speech was certainly smart and sincere and inclusive (the Anthony and Sydney she thanked are directors Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, who died last year) and wonderful. And she looked so handsome. It is almost possible to overlook the astonishingly overwritten speech given to her by last year’s winner Marion Cotillard: “Kate Winslet, with each new role you continue to push the bondaries of what is possible.“

I was a little surprised the Oscar for best actor went to Sean Penn. Perhaps I was so blinded by Mickey Rourke’s performance in “The Wrestler” that I figured the academy would be blinded by it, too. Penn certainly must have noticed it, because he gave a shout out to Rourke. Penn’s best moment, of course, was his self-effacing “I want to make to make it very clear that I do know how hard I make it to appreciate me.“