I watched the whole 16 hour Oscar spectacle last night, despite the fact that I had to get up early this morning to come to work because people in marketing decided that we needed to launch the web site first thing in the morning and I wasn’t quite done with the work necessary for the launch. For whatever reason, I enjoyed the Oscars more than I can remember having enjoyed them before.

Random Oscars observations: I wanted Lord of the Rings to win more awards. I wanted Moulin Rouge to win more awards as well. I wanted Memento to win the award for best original screenplay. I thought that Denzel Washington really, really deserved his best actor for Training Day. Sidney Poitier is the most dignified human being ever, probably. Gwyneth Paltrow, what were you thinking? Tom Cruise and John Travolta didn’t do Scientologists any favors with their bizarre and disturbing bits. Nathan Lane, Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillippe, and Cameron Diaz got the best lines of the night. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, very funny. All of the montages were great, especially the documentary montage and Nora Ephron’s tribute to New York in the movies. Woody Allen was great. Randy Newman made the best acceptance speech of the night, but you have to expect that given that he’s probably prepared at least 14 other speeches that he never got to use. I don’t care what people say, I thought the Cirque du Soleil act was awesome.