Oscar’s Youngest Star Charms the Red Carpet

Carrying a puppy purse, pint-size Best Actress nominee Quvenzhané Wallis was as adorable as you’d hope the 9-year-old would be. Speaking with Ryan Seacrest in the midst of a red carpet’s worth of measured, rehearsed celebs, Wallis was refreshingly unseasoned and blunt. Seacrest: “Can you believe you’re nominated with all this other women?” Wallis: “No. Because they’re older and more sophisticated.” Seacrest: “Tell me about what you chose to wear tonight.” Wallis: “I liked it because it was sparkly and fluffy.” Hollywood, she’s a keeper.

Jennifer Lawrence Continues Her Reign as the Most Fun Oscar Nominee

Jennifer Lawrence won over, well, all of America with her candid, bubbly, love-that-she-said-that personality during awards season. It all peaked with a start-to-finish charming interview with Ryan Seacrest on Oscar night. First, she whined about being starving. Then she dropped an amazing pop-culture reference while talking about getting ready for the ceremony: “I felt like Steve Martin in Father of the Bride.” Then, she stuck her face into the ridiculous E! “manicam” and made a joking threat to Emma Stone: “Your ass is mine, Stone.” (Of course, E!’s power cord unplugged and the didn’t get the shot …)

Ryan Seacrest Is Anne Hathaway’s Style Icon

“I just look at pictures of you and try to figure out how to style my hair.”—Anne Hathaway to Ryan Seacrest, on how she’s weathered the awards season. And with one joke, Hathaway is forgiven for all previous acceptance speech wrongs.

Amanda Seyfried Is Bloated

Les Misérables star and Oscar performer Amanda Seyfried chatted with a battier-than-ever Kristin Chenoweth on the ABC red carpet special about wearing corsets and managed to use the words “bloated” and “period” in the same sentence while wearing a custom-designed gown at one of the biggest moments of her career.

Kristin Chenoweth Maybe Offends Adele

Kristin Chenoweth is short! Did you notice? In case you didn’t, she brought her height up roughly seven times per interview—including with Adele. The size difference between the two couldn’t be more obvious, yet Chenoweth felt it important to bring it up twice, chirping, “I’m petite!” and taking off her heels to prove that even with her Pebbles Flintstone sky-high bun she barely comes to the “Skyfall” singer’s underboob.

Seth MacFarlane Sings About Boobs

The Oscars is the classiest affair in Hollywood ... and Seth MacFarlane opened up the proceedings with a song about boobs. Highbrow? Not exactly—but pretty funny, nonetheless.

Charlize Theron and Channing Tatum Dance …

Swoon.

… and So Do Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Daniel Radcliffe

Dreams do come true, people.

Christoph Waltz Wins First Award of the Night

Two for two! Christoph Waltz picked up the night’s first Oscar for his performance in Django Unchained. It is his second Best Supporting Actor statue, again for a role in a Quentin Tarantino film.

The Playing-Off Music Gets Cheeky

This year’s playing-off music for speeches that go on too long is the theme from Jaws. Clever, witty spin on what is typically the most frustrating part of an awards telecast—though it’s unlikely that the winning Best Visual Effects team from Life of Pi appreciated the laughs from the audience as they got wise to what was going on while they tried to shout their last thank-yous.

Shirley Bassey Slays ‘Goldfinger’

Redeeming an exhausting, rudimentary montage celebrating the 50th anniversary of the James Bond film, Shirley Bassey strutted to the mic and earned her license to kill, positively murdering a rendition of the theme from Goldfinger. The performance rightfully earned the legend a standing ovation from those in the audience—heck, probably even from folks at home, too.

Movie-Musical Medley Brings the Crowd to Its Feet

Kicking off a medley of hits from recently movie musicals, Catherine Zeta-Jones was electric as Velma Kelly singing “All That Jazz” from Chicago. Jennifer Hudson lit “And I’m Telling You” on fire, after which the audience leapt to their feet as if on fire themselves. Then nominees Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe (!), and the cast of Les Misérables performed a rousing medley from the film, movingly joined by veterans of the stage musical for the climax of “One Day More.” In a night dominated by jokes of questionable taste, tired montages, and stilted presenter banter, the trio of performances reinvigorated the proceedings with much-needed razzle dazzle, energy, and talent with a capital T.

Anne Hathaway (of Course) Wins Best Supporting Actress

At this point, Anne Hathaway has clocked hours giving acceptance speeches for her performance in Les Misérables. She’s been criticized quite a bit for what’s seen as feigned humility and for name-checking endless lists of people with her thank-yous. Surely, thanking one person twice during her Oscars speech did Hathaway no favors in combating those criticisms, but her ending line did seem genuine and sweet: “Here’s hoping that someday in the not-too-distant future, the misfortunes of Fantine will only be found in stories and never more in real life.”

Adele Belts ‘Skyfall’

What was the most mesmerizing part of Adele’s performance of “Skyfall?” Her typically flawless vocals? Her dazzling, sequined dress? Her kind-of-hula-dancing/kind-of-casting-a-spell hand choreography? The impressive way she wrote a full chorus out of an awkward word like “Skyfall?” Whichever one it is, her performance of the Skyfall theme was hypnotizing. (And she later won the Best Song Oscar!)

Barbra Streisand Reminds of Us of ‘The Way We Were’

If it weren’t clear already, most, if not all, of the best parts of this year’s Oscar ceremony were sung. Barbra Streisand’s addendum to the In Memoriam segment—a tribute to composer Marvin Hamlisch—was shamelessly schmaltzy, featuring a spoken word introduction that led into her singing “The Way We Were.” But it’s Babs. That kind of maudlin touch is what we expect … and live for. Plus, she sounded gawgeous.

Ang Lee Upsets in Best Director

“Thank you, movie god.” Best Director was supposed to be the easiest award to predict: Ben Affleck takes it in a landslide. But with Mr. Jennifer Garner egregiously snubbed by the Academy, Ang Lee pulled out a win for his work on Life of Pi, beating Steven Spielberg, who most thought would be the beneficiary of Affleck’s absence in this category. Considering that the conventional wisdom was that Life of Pi was the unfilmable book, Lee wins for accomplishing the impossible.

Jennifer Lawrence Trips Up (Adorably)

“You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell and that’s really embarrassing.” Perhaps, Jennifer, but also because you’ve been such a vibrant, charming, bubbly, invigorating breath of fresh air this awards season. Tripping up the steps on the way to receiving your first Oscar only reinforced your likability.

Daniel Day-Lewis Teases Meryl Streep

Daniel Day-Lewis made history by becoming the first actor to win Best Actor three times. And he celebrated by heckling presenter Meryl Streep: “It’s a strange thing because three years ago, before we decided to do a straight swap, I had actually been committed to play Margaret Thatcher.”

Michelle Obama Makes an Oscar Cameo

There is only one person we will tolerate giving an extended speech about the importance of art and film at the end of a 479-hour evening, and that person is Michelle Obama. (She appeared by satellite feed to present Best Picture with Jack Nicholson.)

‘Argo’ Wins Best Picture

Ben Affleck got his Oscar. Now, argo to bed.