At a ceremony that celebrated numerous films instead of a lone powerhouse, Crash surprised many with the Best Picture award. It won three awards, as did Brokeback Mountain considered the favorite for Best Picture going in. Also winning three awards apiece were Memoirs of a Geisha and King Kong, though in technical categories. Reese Witherspoon and Philip Seymour Hoffman won the top acting prizes and the sole awards for their respective films Walk the Line and Capote. Unlike most years, none of the acting awards went to performances from the Best Picture. Neither did the Best Director with Ang Lee winning.

In addition to Crash's win, there was one other surprise, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from Hustle & Flow as Original Song and that film's only Oscar. With that live performance, somewhere out there is a smarmy producer thinking Hustle & Flow: The Musical.

As for the telecast and John Stewart's performance, I enjoyed this year more than most. He was calm and comfortable. I thought his opening monologue was so-so, but redeemed by many witty one-liners and observations throughout the ceremony. I seem to recall previous hosts largely disappearing after the intro. Stewart stayed center stage with lines like "finger-synching," "dreidel-off," and "Scorsese: zero. Three 6 Mafia: one." His approach was to sustain the comedy. The opening video segment was short and sweet, leaving room for those fake commercial bits later on. Stewart proved he can adapt to any room, even the stuffy Academy.

The tributes to various themes in cinema were also a home run. Why not use the forum to remind us of all the great scenes put on film? The clips and celebration of film Noir, blockbusters, societal issues and biographies were educational. Hit up your netflix list now for some older releases.

What worked?
John Stewart, Steve Martin's kids, film clips of gay cowboys, the classic cinema tributes, Clooney's speech, wins for Crash and Three 6 Mafia, the fake commercials

What didn't?
Bjork joke (long way to go to get at Cheney), music during speeches, Ben Stiller, Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep's overlapping dialogue, John Travolta's creepy hair.

There was of course glamour. Though understated. No Cher's or Bjork's this year. In terms of disasters I suppose Jennifer Lopez's strange sun goddess glow would qualify. Or that shiny shirt that Jamie Foxx wore.

The presenters included Jack Nicholson, Tom Hanks, Queen Latifah, Uma Thurman and Jessica Alba with Erica Bana (if they became a power couple, their tabloid nickname would be "Albania"). Why was Jennifer Garner a presenter? She was the only TV star to appear, as Jennifer Aniston can be marginally considered a film actress.

Even though Stewart scored and the show flowed faster than most years, the ratings will probably be low. We knew that going in, so don't blame him. The Grammys were beat by American Idol, which also beat the Olympics. Even the Super Bowl was down this year. We cannot expect these once cherished institutions to dominate the ratings as they once did. As one columnist put it, we live in a "nation of niches." The spreading out of the Oscars among many films, none of which being blockbusters proves that.

For the predictions, I went 7 of 8 in the top categories, and 17 out of 24 for all categories. Not bad.