By Susanne Robbins

What an amazing night, I don't know about all of you but I had a great time. I thought that the show ran along smoothly. Of course I had to watch it in between Pressroom visits so I may have missed the down times. I loved the fake commercials for the Best Actress category. Along with Jon's comments regarding all the different montages.

We were present for a lot of first time winners, which always makes for a good show.

Let's move along now to the good stuff, the winners. I unfortunately was still packing up outside when they announced George Clooney as the Best Supporting Actor. I was able to catch him in the Press Room and he seemed to be pleasantly surprised at the win. Let's face it Supporting Actor or Actress every year seems to be a crap shoot. Granted Georgie has been running away with the awards this season but you never know those crazy Oscar folks like to fool you from time to time.

Rachel Weisz, Best Supporting Actress, and look at that cute little black dress. There is something wrong when a pregnant woman wears a little black dress better than those of us not carrying a little bambino. She seemed flustered but very excited at the same time. Come on Rach, really you didn't think you were going to win? A lot of people in Vegas had faith in you, you should have listened to them.

Oh shocker Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Best Actor. Now don't get me wrong, I love Phillip, I also think he was deserving of the award. But come on you didn't think you were going to win. The way this season has gone I am surprised you waited to hear your name called before you actually got out of your seat. Either way his acceptance speech was great I love, love, loved it. Apparently three times actually is a charm for Phil.

A little surprising was Reese Witherspoon for Best Actress. To me that may have been the category that we could have really seen an upset happen. I was a big fan of Felicity Huffman and was hoping that maybe the dark horse would win the running. Reese was perky and perfect as always, I think I even heard that southern drawl slip out from time to time.

Best Foreign filmand moving on. No really I will be honest, I didn't do my homework this year when it came to the Foreign Film. However the room shrieked with excitement when TSOTSI won. So I figured, hey I am actually surrounded by mainly people of the Foreign descent so they must really be on to something. Poor Robert Altman though, he was in the pressroom being questioned when the announcement was made. He seemed surprised that everyone reacted that way when he told us about his heart transplant. We love you Robert we really, really do. Speaking of Bob Altman, I thought one of the best introductions for the night was presented to us by the lovely Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin. Kudos ladies that could have just fallen apart but two professionals pulled it together.

Best Director Ang Lee, come on we all knew it was going to him. Lets be honest he was very deserving of this award. I am sure growing up Ang wasn't privy to a lot of the gay cowboy insights that we in America were. However he did an amazing job of making this film tell a beautiful story that not many people would have done with such delicate grace.

In keeping with the Brokeback success, go Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Wait is Larry wearing jeans? If I would have known then the floor length gown would have been traded for my 501's. I don't think this was a surprise to anyone they have been winning all season long. However given what these two had gone through to create and make this film I am sure it was a welcome acceptance from their peers.

My favorite as you all know was "Crash" so I was very excited to see Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco win for Best Original Screenplay. Maybe you need to live in LA to understand this film, but I think they did an amazing job of combining our fears and misconceptions of people. The writing was on the wall a long time ago, Paul's past was preparing him for this moment. Who wouldn't think that one day he would create Crash with such gritty writing credits as Different Strokes, Love Boat and The Facts of Life. Wait a minute George Clooney used to be on The Facts of Life, he too won an Oscar. Who knows next year we may just see Lisa Welchel or Kim Fields grace the red carpet.

Now for the biggy, yep the gasp heard around the world, Best Picture CRASH. Well some gasped but the guy across from me and I cheered. Jaded Hollywood reporters feel this movie was social awareness being shoved down your throat. Lets be honest it actually is but does that make it any less of a movie? Does that take away from the performances and the ensemble piece? I was a fan of Crash from the beginning I told you all the other day not to be surprised if it won. When we were waiting for the red carpet to begin the announcer asked the audience to cheer for each of the feature films and Crash had the loudest cheer by far. In my eyes I was happy for the Crash folks, and a little sorry for the Brokeback folks, but only one film can win and in my opinion the best one did.

How to sum up my first Oscar experience? I am a huge Oscar fan, I normally have Oscar parties every year, you know the kind with ballots, fun Oscar drinks and black tie optional attire. To be there and see the event from beginning to end in all of its glory was a dream come true. I tried my best to get your questions off but I think they were blinded by the disco ball of a dress I was wearing. I have the moves down now so next year they better watch out. The stars were all very genuinely happy when they came in to speak to us in the pressroom. Ang Lee was very sweet and generous when he arrived back in the room.

The stuffed Penguins brought along their creators to say thanks for seeing our great little movie. To be in the presence of Robert Altman was something that I will never forget. The Brokeback folks were openly disappointed where as the Crash folks looked a little like a deer caught in the headlights.

Look all I am saying is in an industry where "Madea's Family Reunion" is the number one movie two weeks in a row, I am proud to see this year's crop of films. Many people seemed to think this was a boring year over all but I disagree. Just look at the winners and the diverse roles which won the Oscar for them. I think this was an exciting year, and a year minus the 'Titanic wins it all' moment. As long as they keep making movies like they have I will continue to be a film lover. Well I have to go, I have my tickets to the 1:50PM showing of Madea's Family Reunion.