90th ANNUAL OSCAR ROUNDUP 2018

by Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

Tinsel & Tine Recaps & Archives
The 90th Annual Academy Awards

THE HOST

Jimmy Kimmel hosts the Oscars 2nd year How did he do?

Jimmy Kimmel handled his monologue with the kid gloves type humor necessary in this very sensitive climate. Pandering to the #metoo #timesup and inclusion movement in a way that wasn’t too cloying. I bet he and the Academy producers were wonderfully surprised the whole Jet Ski bit went over better than they would have imagined – at the start of the show, Kimmel offered up a Jet Ski (worth almost $18,000) and a trip to Lake Havasu in Arizona as a prize for the Oscar winner who gave the shortest acceptance speech, an incentive for keeping their statements brief. “I will be timing you. I have a stopwatch,” Kimmel said and behind him, Helen Mirren as the most elegant Price Is Right girl ever. As winners would come up to collect their gold statue, they’d either mention they’d try to stay in the running for the Jet Ski or announce they know there’s no way they’ll be a contender. At the end of the night, Phantom Thread costume designer Mark Bridges was the big Jet Ski winner.

RED CARPET PICNIC

As always, I started shopping and cooking too late on Sunday to truly be ready and set to watch the E Red Carpet at 5pm. In fact, at 5:30pm I pulled out my ice trays to find them empty! And had to make a run to the closest gas station to grab a bag of ice. This year, I tried a This Pinterest Recipe, for Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie but used regular ground beef, where the recipe calls for Bison. It came out pretty good, I added carrots, colored peppers and a little bacon to my beef mixture. The problem was, my sweet potatoes were still a little hard in places even after I pre-cooked and whipped them.

And per usual here’s our red carpet picnic snacks & cocktails

BEST & WORST OF THE RED CARPET

Every year there’s a trending color or style on the red carpet. I’m sure the stylists somehow make it known and agree, but is it an actual memo? Last year so many gowns displayed a plunging neckline, one year it was varying shades of yellow, this year was crisp and clean white attire.

My favorite white look was my idol, Jane Fonda, flawless as always. It was terrific seeing both she and Helen Mirren my other ageless idol, presenting on stage together. Margot Robbie’s dress was okay. Such a shame she really didn’t shine at all this awards season, not just on the red carpet, but the buzz around her was so low for someone nominated for Best Actress again and again for her role as figure skater Tonya Harding. Timothée Chalamet simply should have worn a white shoe, maybe black laces if you wanted some contrast, but these black loafers were not the right choice.

Mary J Blige and Laura Dern in White Oscars 2018

I liked both Mary J and Laura Dern’s white looks, except I wish Dern’s didn’t have that strange seam down the front.

My Picks for Best Dressed

Tinsel & Tine's Choice for Best Red Carpet Look Oscars 2018

Gina Rodriguez (Annihilation) in a stunning Zuhair Murad gown and

Betty Gabriel (Get Out) in a bluish green gown from Tony Ward’s Fall 2017 Couture collection.

My Picks for Worst Dressed

Emily Blunt in Schiaparelli Haute Couture was trying for whimsical fairytale, but succeed in presenting a serious mess.

Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph to Host Oscars 91

Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph were a hoot presenting together, twitter starting asking for these two to host next year. But what was up with Rudolph’s choice of gown, does she have eczema over half her body?

SPEAKING OF TWITTER

Oscar Winner 1962 Rita Moreno wearing Same Oscar Dress in 2018

Many of us were feeling amazed that Rita Moreno could still wear the gown she wore to accept the Best Supporting Oscar in 1962 for West Side Story! But I didn’t understand such mixed reviews about the movie clips celebrating 90 years of movies as montages, viewers seemed to either be enthralled with them or felt they were a complete waste of time.

A jet ski to all the members of a category who ban together to stop their montage. https://t.co/bSWcNAVVj0

— Whitney Friedlander (@loislane79) March 5, 2018

WINNERS

Oscar Ballot for the 90th Academy Awards

I got 11 categories out of the 24 correct. I could have gotten 14 because I knew Frances McDormand & Sam Rockwell “Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri” along with Allison Janney, “I, Tonya” would win as they’d been winning all Awards season. I voted against them because as good as they were in these roles they were really over the top and mainly comedic characters. Where Willem Dafoe “The Florida Project”, Richard Jenkins “The Shape of Water”, Laurie Metcalf “Lady Bird” & Mary J. Blige “Mudbound” turned in these wonderfully subtle performances, they weren’t flashy, but in my opinion more difficult and more Oscar worthy.

Definition of Inclusion Rider Oscars 2018

That being said, I did appreciate Frances McDormand’s acceptance speech – “I have two words to leave with you tonight, ladies and gentlemen: “INCLUSION RIDER.” For anyone who hasn’t had a chance to Google this yet, It’s a stipulation that actors and actresses can ask (or demand) to have inserted into their contracts, which would require a certain level of diversity among a film’s cast and crew.

Jessica Chastain, used her pay privilege to tie her contract together with @octaviaspencer when she learned Spencer was going to earn less on the film they were starring in together. https://t.co/ETnfjPYZ8G pic.twitter.com/mjo9nf9k30

— Tinsel & Tine (@tinseltine) March 10, 2018

Big Congrats to Jordan Peele on his Best Original Screenplay Oscar

This hug just extended Black History Month 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾#Oscars #GetOut pic.twitter.com/TYgcAeooKy

— Jasmyn Lawson (@JasmynBeKnowing) March 5, 2018

For best original song I thought it was going to be the self-empowerment power house “This is Me” from “The Greatest Showman”, it was even the anthem during the Olympics. But I’m happy for Songwriter Robert Lopez who is now the first person to become a “double EGOT” with his Oscar win for co-writing (with his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez) “Remember Me” from Pixar’s animated film “Coco.” He has an Oscar for “Let It Go” from “Frozen, two Daytime Emmys (for songs in the children’s TV series “Wonder Pets”), Three Tonys (score for “Avenue Q,” book and score for “Book of Mormon”) and three Grammys (two for “Frozen” and one for “Book of Mormon”).

The Shape of Water Best Picture 90th Academy Awards

Click HERE for Tinsel & Tine Review

Think I’ll wrap this up and skip to the biggest awards of the night – Best Director and Best Picture. As I predicted and hoped THE SHAPE OF WATER is now a Best Picture winner along with its writer/director Guillermo Del Toro – Of the 90 films awarded Best Picture, 64 now have also been awarded Best Director. The last was the 87th Academy Awards when Alejandro G. Iñárritu won Best Director for “Birdman” which won Best Picture. Before that, at the 84th Academy Awards Michel Hazanavicius won Best Director for “The Artist” which won Best Picture. So it seems to skips a year or two and the last 3 directors to win this distinction have been foreign born.

As much as I enjoyed “The Shape of Water”, which I chose as Best of 2017, I do kinda think it won mainly because it was the safest choice that fell in line with the sentiments of the moment, among the nominations – it satisfies the whole inclusion movement, since del Toro is Mexican, it’s has a female lead with a handicap, you’ve got your bases covered there. Much of the film is not just a love story, but a love letter to the film industry. And the Academy usually likes to reward those with at least 25 years in the biz.

Click HERE for a list of all the Winners. CONGRATULATIONS!