Brothers & Sisters

Who watched the Oscars last night? I enjoyed the ceremony, though I’ll admit, I’m an easy Oscar viewer to please. I don’t mind overlong shows or middling jokes. I’m happy looking at stars in their finery, and wondering how exactly those poor actresses breathe or sit in those things.

This year, I saw two of the films nominated for Best Picture — Juno and Michael Clayton — and was happy that each of them got a consolation prize. I would have loved for Juno to get the top prize, if only because it was the only one of the five that was at all upbeat, but there would have been such a backlash against it afterward that I’m just as glad to leave it at an honor to be nominated.

I was also rooting strongly for “Falling Slowly” to win for best song, and was happy when it did, and happy again when Jon Stewart made sure both songwriters got a chance to say thanks. Don’t know if it was his decision or the producer’s, but it was a lovely gesture, and she was nice enough to give a worthwhile speech in return.

In terms of dresses — the really fun contest of the evening — I guess the winner of the Weird sweepstakes would have to be Tilda Swinton’s sort of drapey one-sleeved … thing. It looked like she’d ripped the lining out of a coat and lost one sleeve in the process. It was probably pretty comfortable to sit in for three hours, though.

By that criterion, I think maybe Ellen Page’s dress was my favorite. It looked like something you could buy at, I don’t know, Banana Republic maybe. Dressy, but not some overly structured thing you need a dressmaker to sew you into. I could imagine an actual person picking that out to wear, as opposed to the “styled to within an inch of their lives” look that some of the actresses have. I don’t know what kind of pressure is put on a young star to wear something spectacular and silly, but if she resisted some, good for her.

And to bring this back around to Brothers & Sisters, Calista got on camera a few times, and looked very pretty in a fairly comfortable-looking aqua dress. I’m not so fond of the updo, but all in all, she looked nice. The Barbara Walters special on Harrison Ford did mention her and her son, and Ford seemed rightly fond of both. I haven’t watched Walters’ specials in years because they’re usually just embarrassing, but maybe because she had four guests and the Q&As were short and heavily edited, it wasn’t too frightening.

There were a couple of other B&S connections in the ceremony, with both Sally Field and Rob Lowe turning up in Oscar montages. And nominee Michael Clayton has a small connection, too, since Denis O’Hare has a small but memorably snippy role as a hit-and-run driver. When I watched the movie with my husband the night before the Oscars, I delightedly yelled out “Travis!” when I saw him. My husband looked at me funny, but you all would understand.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Oscars, Calista Flockhart