LOVED - LOVED - LOVED THE SUPER BOWL OF AWARDS SHOWS THIS YEAR!

Last weekend I flew to Chicago to celebrate my birthday with my family and see some friends who I haven't seen in a long time. On Sunday, after we had a family dinner at one of my favorite Italian restaurants in Andersonville, Calo, my brother and I watched the Academy Awards. We really weren't surprised by who won all of the major awards, in fact, I believe Entertainment Weekly Magazine predicted the winners correctly.

Towards the beginning of the show there was this rather funny exchange between Tina Fey and Steve Martin before they announced the winner of the Best Original Screenplay. Dustin Lance Black won for writing "Milk." His speech, in the youtube.com clip above, made me and my brother tear up. He articulated how I felt about losing proposition 8 and losing civil liberties for gays throughout the country and asked young members of the LGBT community to be proud of who they are. He made me proud to be a gay man in 2009.

ALSO...Kate Winslet - amazing in her role in the Reader and Revolutionary Road - how can anyone not like her, she is such a deserving winner of an Oscar as she always gives amazing performances in her movies; Penelope Cruz- I am glad she won, forever I didn't like her because she was dating that closet-case Tom Crusie, glad she ditched him and found a part in a really great Woody Allen movie, Vicki Cristina Barcelona; Heath Ledger - I teared up a bit, it was kind of expected sadness - it's a real shame he couldn't be there to receive the award - his passing was truly heartbreaking; Sean Penn - gave one of the most memorable speeches I have heard at an award show - speaking on the rights of gays, giving Mickey Rourke credit for his performances, said he knows it is hard to appreciate him...he gained actor all-star points from me!

Slumdog Millionaire was an amazing movie and deserved each of the eight Oscars they received. I especially loved all of the little kids who traveled outside their homeland - Mumbai - for the first time in their lives. These kids never saw sidewalks before and they were walking the red carpet for the biggest movie event in the world. That had to be such an amazing feeling! 

Oscars = An entertaining night of fun this year!