Show us the emotion!

Best supporting actor Javier Bardem is a great performer. He has four Goya Awards -- the Spanish version of the Oscar -- to prove it. But most U.S. moviegoers couldn't pick him out of a lineup of Smurfs. So it's easy to understand why the show's producers, figuring that Bardem was a lock to win, tried to inject some famous faces first by showing a montage of previous winners, ending with Cuba Gooding Jr.'s classic hyper-gone-mad acceptance speech. After that, anything poor Bardem had to offer couldn't help but seem lethargic by comparison.

There's no Oscar for being the Good Sport of the Year, but if there were, Jack Nicholson would win hands down. Other than introducing a montage of past best pictures, his main function was to be the butt of jokes. But he's no dummy. He laughed at each one as if it was the funniest thing he'd heard all night. And, as a result, he was one of the few non-nominees who got to sit up front and center.

Ethan Coen's first acceptance speech was short, but . . . well, it was short: "We, uh, thank you very much." That's not an excerpt. It was ironic that it came for writing the script for "No Country for Old Men." Apparently he's much better at putting words in other people's mouths than in his own. Later, collecting the best director trophy with brother Joel, he said dryly: "I don't have a lot to add to what I said earlier. Thanks."

Brad Bird's acceptance speech for the animated feature award won by "Ratatouille" likely never will be enshrined in the Oscar hall of fame, but the guy deserved credit for honesty when he said that he felt like vomiting. We're assuming that he meant from the excitement, not from the stuff he picked up in the buffet line on his way in.

Tilda Swinton appeared stunned when she was announced as the best supporting actress. And she insisted during backstage interviews that she had expected Ruby Dee to win. "I really just had a reverse 'Zoolander' moment when I think I heard someone else's name and suddenly heard my own," she said. "I'm still recovering from that moment, and I have no idea what happened after that."

It was an especially good year for France: Besides Marion Cotillard's best-actress stunner, "Le Mozart des Pickpockets" captured the award for live-action short, "La Vie en Rose" won for best makeup, and, of course, there was "Ratatouille."

Most of the limos that carted the stars to the event were either hydrogen-powered or electric-gasoline hybrids. The generators used to provide the TV lights for the red carpet showcase were burning biodiesel fuel. And the energy used by the telecast was generated entirely by wind power. The academy did not reveal how much of that wind came from the acceptance speeches.

JEFF STRICKLER