. . . who gathered all those remarkably different cultures together and taught them all how to park their cars on their lawns?



In other words, we watched Crash again, on DVD, in the spirt of Oscar night, and enjoyed it again immensely. Beautifully structured by writer-director Paul Haggis, and it comes in well under two hours, which is incredible for such a rich tapestry of racism. It's nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Matt Dillon as the racist cop), Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing. I actually think Dillon is in with a shout, unless, because Philip Seymour Hoffman is bound to snatch Best Actor from under Heath Ledger's nose, they give Best Supporting to Gyllenhaal to compensate. Crash should also be nominated for Best Score, by Mark Isham, a lovely, ambient synthesiser wash that runs under the action and fits the wintry LA night like a glove. Live Oscar coverage, which would ordinarily be worth taping, is on Sky Movies 1, which we no longer have, so it's the hightlight package on Sky One instead tomorrow night (Monday). I plan to do a Bob and Terry, and avoid all news tomorrow so that I can enjoy some suspense in the evening. As I'm writing from home again, this should be possible. I have just replaced the BBC News website as my automatic homepage for when I log on in the morning, a wise precaution, and I'm hoping the results will be too late for the morning papers. (When do they go to bed? I'm going to bed now.) All I have to do is not watch or listen to any news all day. I'll let you know how I get on. (I expect Brokeback to win Best Picture, and Ang Lee Best Director, and Reese Witherspoon Best Actress, all well deserved, but I would rather a few surprises.)

I stayed up all night to watch the Oscars once, in 1998. Damn near wasted me. I was hallucinating the next day.