Oscar on Oprah

Yesterday, Oprah took time out of her regular schedule of campaigning for Obama and conquering the world to commence her show's fifth annual coverage of the Oscars. The month-long, interspersed segment of the program is granted unprecedented access, culminating in an exclusive morning-after show broadcast from the stage of the Kodak theater. This year, it began as per usual with a broadcast from the stage of the regular old Harpo studios, where nominees appeared as guests either in-house or via satellite. Below are the top highlights.

10. The popcorn machine
The cute, vintage prop that producers put on the set kept sneaking into frame. Curiously, each time the show returned from commercial, the contents of the machine had gone down quite a bit.

9. Last year's clips
In the midst of hyping up the Oscar-y, Oprah-y moments to come, cameras kept cutting to shots of the 2007 post-show on the Oscar stage. It was nice that Ms. Winfrey completely ignored the fact that this year, there may very well be no Oscar stage at all.

8. Marion Cotillard
The La Vie En Rose beauty came onto an Oscar related telecast and discussed... her Golden Globe. Tsk, tsk.

7. Burgers!
After discussing not eating before the big show with third-time nominee Laura Linney, Oprah recoiled at the last minute and assured the pencil-thin actress, "eat all the burgers you want!"

6. Amy Ryan
The first-time, ridiculously overrated Supporting Actress nominee (and apparently, one of this blog's favorite topics of discussion) is actually really beautiful in person. I mean, in person, on TV, out of character, you know...

5. Oprah's critic-plugging
Way to go Oprah, for name-dropping and quoting every critic in the book when describing each actor's performance. All I kept thinking was, "maybe Oprah will be saying my name some day..."

4. Casey Affleck
The "Assassination..." star has a surprisingly dry sense of humor. When asked what it was like to work with Brad Pitt, Affleck responded, "I didn't even know him," with an expression as wooden as his brother's acting. I almost believed him. Almost.

3. Juno promotion
Oprah loves Juno, made evident by the entire show she recently dedicated to it ("it's so frressh!"), the crazy amount of ads present on her website, and the persistent TV spots that played during the breaks of this telecast. The last time Oprah and Roger Ebert were in this much gleeful agreement over an Oscar contender, Crash beat Brokeback. Watch your back, No Country.

2. Ruby Dee
The 83 year-old "living legend" looked adorably jaded, as if the shock of still being able to be breathe was a bit higher on the priority list than the shock of getting a nod. Still, she looked great, and was obviously the host's favorite, seeing as she got the infamous Oprah hug.

1. Daniel Day-Lewis
All joking aside, the interview with the immensely talented Best Actor nominee was the show's best segment, and it wasn't for anything Oscar-related. Day-Lewis revealed that he had just learned the news of Heath Ledger's death, and the genuine emotion in his face made it look as if a tear could drop at any moment. The man actually almost succeeded in leaving Oprah - that's right, OPRAH - unsure of what to say next. Almost.

Want more? Wanna learn how to "Plan Your Party" or "Get Gorgeous"? There's plenty over at Oprah's Oscar Extravaganza (as if she needs any extra help). Look out for Juno ads.