I mean, come on, they even showed a closeup of me as cowriter of Moonrise Kingdom.

People were congratulating me off the hook!

No, wait, that was Roman Coppola.

Never mind.

I'll give that honor to Best Actress Jennifer Lawrence.

She was succinct, sweet, and sincere--everything a speech should be, including acknowledging the four losers, but not in a patronizing, humiliating way.

And she did this even after falling on her face on the way up to the podium, and making a light-hearted reference to that mishap.

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Shirley Bassey was masterful singing "Goldfinger" as part of the James Bond tribute on tonight's Academy Awards.

She did the song with measured tones, taking her time, and going for the gold (finger).

She really throated it out, and by the end, as I was sitting there thinking "Will she hit the note?" she struck it like a gong.

A triumphant moment for Shirley and she soaked in the standing ovation like a true diva.

And the other great, mature star who will surely kill 'em tonight?

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Tomorrow night--February 20 at 7 PM--I'll join a stellar table full of pundits at the Strand, to discuss this year's Oscar race and what it signifies.

Also aboard are Peter Travers from Rolling Stone, Dana Andrews from Slate, and Andrew O'Hehir from Salon.

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Louise Fletcher won Best Actress for 1975's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Next, but she was really supporting. It was a bad year for lead femmes, though (much as I love Ann-Margret in Tommy), and they apparently needed to fill up the category. Besides, Nurse Ratched was by far the film's biggest female role.

It happens, whether because of campaigning or a mistake or a misguided sense that certain perfs should be pushed where they don't belong.

And it seems to pay off because all these people won their categories (with one still pending, but building steam).

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At last night's Warner Bros. Home Entertainment/TCM presentation of Cabaret at the Ziegfeld, Liza Minnelli said she thought Diana Ross was going to win the Oscar for Best Actress of 1972, for Lady Sings The Blues.

"So I'd adjusted to that," she explained.

"They said my name, and my father [Vincente Minnelli] screamed so loud that I still have tinnitus!"

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Oscar know-it-all Tom O'Neil asked me to chat with him on his site goldderby.com for updates on the Oscar race and how it's been morphing by the minute.

But it turned out to be just a trick to get me there so he could bitchslap me for my boring predictions!

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Meaning the Big One.

Argo has been picking up so much steam lately--it copped the PGA, the Golden Globe, and the SAG--that it's looking like a much healthier Best Picture Oscar candidate than it did when they snubbed Ben Affleck for a Best Director nomination.

As has been pointed out, Hollywood likes the film because it actually shows them in a good light--cooperating with the CIA to stage a fake film that will get Americans out of revolutionary Iran.

And how often is Hollywood shown in a good light, even by Hollywood itself?

If Argo cops the big Oscar, it'll be the first film to win that without being nominated for director since Driving Miss Daisy.

But Daisy won three other awards, so its copping the grand prize made a little more sense. A Best Picture that only wins one award is unheard of in modern times. It would be weird and in fact downright embarrassing!

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Think about it.

Hear much about Sandra Bullock lately? Gwyneth's movie career? Natalie Portman? (Yes, I know she has another Thor and a Terrence Malick film coming, but still.)

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From film.com

It's neck and neck between Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence for the Best Actress Oscar, and in hopes of deciding which of them will get it--to avoid a hideous embarrassment like last year--I'm going to lay out all their individual pros and cons.

JESSICA CHASTAIN

PROS:

She's very strong in Zero Dark Thirty.

Widely respected.

Was nominated last year.

Radiates dignity and gratitude when giving acceptance speeches.

With Mama and Zero, she has a one-two box office punch.

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