What a fitting beginning for the 82 annual, changing things up a bit to make this stale show, a little fresher.
The nominees for Best Actor and Best Actress were all brought on-stage as a beginning for the award show: Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Helen Mirren, Colin Firth, Carey Mulligan, Morgan Freeman, Gabourey Sidibe, Jeremy Renner and Meryl Streep. They were escorted to their seats.
Then Neil Patrick Harris of course broke out in a song and dance number fitting the Tony Awards with scantly-clad ladies brandishing feather boas, sharply dressed guys and culminating with a chorus kickline. And then dropping from the ceiling in what looks like an opened-ended egg comes co-hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin (the Baldwin brother who actually works). They gave a run-down of the people, who were there and giving sparkling one-liners.
Meryl Streep has the record for most nominations as an actress at 16, or as Steve Martin likes to say, “Record for the most losses.”
“Gabourey and I have something in common. In our first movies, we were both born as a black child,” Martin said, referencing his movie, “The Jerk.”
Hopefully, they can keep up the banter for the rest of the show.
