At night the stars put on a show for free

Oscars '09 -
What worked:

• Hugh Jackman, better than I expected him to be, as Host
• Former winners coming out to celebrate this year's acting nominees - genius!
• Best song salute - I loved it
• Slumdog Millionaire winning - Yay!
• The winners NOT getting played off - about time!
• Man on Wire winning best documentary
• In fact, all the winners were well-deserved, this year
  
• Didn't go too late - Double Yay!
  

What didn't:

• Big musical salute to musicals - Yech!
• Talking about the different parts of a movie production did not flow
• Interspersing this year's best picture clips with older movie winners also didn't make sense
• The audience was so well lit, and also appeared to be so close to the stage (Meryl Streep looked like she was sitting in the Host's lap) as to make the effect seem garish
• Worst presenter - Bill Maher (and I love his show, BTW)
• The "In memoriam" tribute should have been all close-ups, instead of the camera panning in and out - I'm old, I need to see these people!
  

Best lines:
"Slumdog Millionaire was filmed entirely on cell phone" (Ben Stiller)
"If you win, we go to 20-minute delay" (Hugh Jackman to Mickey Rourke, in audience)