Oscar’s ladies

It only took them 80 years, but the Academy finally gave an Oscars to a woman with a pin-up girl tattoo. Fuck, yeah! the 80th annual Oscars telecast was filled with many worthy winners, a few surprises and countless pretty ladies, painted and otherwise. Overall, I was rather pleased with this year’s crop of honorees. Sure, I was pulling for a big “Juno”-shaped upset. But in the acting categories I couldn’t fault any of the winners. All of their performances were mesmerizing. While I was rooting for Julie Christie, Marion Cotillard made me fall in love with her all over again with her effervescent acceptance speech. And who knew that besides being an arresting-looking woman and having an incredibly eclectic taste in films, Tilda Swinton had such a dry and delicious sense of humor?

Look for my complete breakdown of this year’s ceremony -- complete with tons of pretty, pretty pictures -- over at AfterEllen today. But for now, how about we just revel in the night’s Wishful Lesbian Thinking moments? Sadly, there weren’t too many actual lesbian moments. Though (straight) filmmakers Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth did win Best Short Documentary for “Freeheld” about a lesbian couple’s fight to win survivorship benefits.

Sarah Polley & Julie ChristieLe sigh.

Penelope Cruz & Cate BlanchettOh, to be a fly on that wall.

Helen MirrenLeave it to that Dame to find a stripper pole on the red carpet.

Marlee MatlinHey, where’s Bette?

Ellen & PortiaFinally, a couple we don’t have to be “wishful” about.

Click on over to AfterEllen later today for more Oscary goodness.

My Weekend Crush

If you missed Julie Christie last year in “Away From Her,” you missed the most beautiful woman in film of 2007. This is a proclamation not made lightly. After all, this was a year that also saw movies by Jodie Foster and Angelina Jolie, Cate Blanchett and Lena Headey. But Julie Christie, beside making me go misty, blew them all away with a beauty that is a tableau of life’s rich pageant. At 66, the 60s icon is still sexy yet refined, brash yet delicate. But now her hair is streaked with gray, her faced is lined with time. This is how a woman should age. Her body should bear witness to all that she has seen, not try to smooth it away like hiding rubbish under a rug.

It took me a long time to see “Away From Her,” despite the glowing reviews. And even when I did finally submit, it was somewhat begrudgingly. Go see a film about Alzheimer’s for fun? Geez, let’s find some puppies to kick while we’re at it. Still once I started watching, my pre-conceived gloominess slipped away and what was left was the brilliance of Christie and co-star Gordon Pinsent’s heartbreaking portrayal of a couple’s whose 40-years of love together is vanishing. With astounding assurance first-time director Sarah Polley (yes, that Sarah Polley), has shown the quiet brutality of Alzheimer’s. In Julie she has found an actress who can embody the poignancy of the disease while at the same time showing us the stakes for those who remain behind left with only their now solitary memories. I mean, just imagine having shared a life with Julie Christie only to have it vanish, little by little, into the mind’s cruel ether. It is a performance that is both beautiful and devastating, just like life. Happy weekend, all.

p.s. You didn’t think I’d let a post about Julie Christie pass without posting this little gem from “Better Than Chocolate,” did you? And, as if to reciprocate the lesbian adoration, Julie dropped this tantalizing nugget in an LA Weekly interview recently: “I hope Sarah (Polley) doesn’t mind me saying this, but I think you might say we developed a crush on each other.” Ahhhhh, indeed.

Not so Golden

So the Golden Globes: The Press Conference pretty much -- how can I put this delicately? -- sucked. Huge suckage. Major suckage. Epic suckage. I watched the Access Hollywood-ified version with -- shudder -- Billy Bush and Nancy O’Dell. Or, more accurately, I had the TV muted and just peeked up as each winner’s name flashed onscreen. With no stars or acceptance speeches, this was really the best and only way to watch and not feel the sudden urge to bang your head repeatedly against the nearest solid, heavy object. Like, say, a door. Or the wall. Or you’re your brand-new copy of season one of “30 Rock.” (Yes, Amanda, I will shamelessly shill this DVD until everyone on the planet finally clues in and decides to WATCH THIS SHOW. Not that I have strong feelings about it or anything…)

Right, sorry, tangent. The glam-less Globes were the biggest, blaring reminder to date that we need a swift (but fair) end to the writers strike. Like now. Like yesterday. As if the dwindling and disappearance of new episodes of all of our favorite shows wasn’t enough incentive, this joy-free anti-ceremony means we were deprived of the most entertaining (thanks largely to the free and free-flowing booze) award show of the year.

Top three things we were deprived of seeing because of the roll-call Globes:
3. Johnny Depp’s acceptance speech. He’d never won one before in seven tries. Also, he’s dreamy. What? I can have a mancrush.
2. Glenn Close’s acceptance speech. Wouldn’t it have been fantastic if she’d done it in character as Patty Hewes? Perhaps whipped out a dog collar and then said, “Good thing I won. Sorry about Fido, Edie Falco, I was just covering my bases.”
1. Tina Fey’s acceptance speech. Curse you, producers, curse you.

Other winners who made me happy: Cate Blanchett, Marion Cotillard and Julie Christie. See the full list here and dream about what they coulda/shoulda/woulda worn in your head. But David Duchovny over Alec Bladwin and zero love for “Juno,” what the fuck Hollywood Foreign Press?