Backstage: Stoltz, er, Swinton in the House!

ByFeb 25, 2008 4:15 AMTags
Tilda SwintonDustin Snipes / Sharp Shot

6:38 p.m.:  I just spotted two uniformed members of the Armed Forces in our midst. I'd be worried that maybe we were under attack except for the fact that they were both holding plates of cake.

6:42 p.m.:  The Oscar-winning art directors of Sweeney Todd are personally gabbing away back here, with nary a concern (much less awareness) that Tilda Swinton's Supporting Actress win just ruined a lot of people's Oscar pools.

6:48 p.m.:  In retrospect, it might have helped my reporting this year if I'd been born in, say, Paris. Philippe Pollet-Villard, the Live-Action Short Film winner, is about the billionth person back here tonight who's fielded, and answered, questions in French.

6:49 p.m.:  I should have known something was up when I saw the petits fours on a tray outside.

6:58 p.m.:  Anton Chigurh takes orders? We've just been informed "Javier Bardem got called back to his seat."

7:03 p.m.:  So, how does Tilda Swinton feel? Maybe try her later in the evening. "I'm kind of working on that answer," she tells us. "You could tell me my dress fell off [on stage], and I'd believe you."

7:04 p.m.:  If you thought Swinton was a kick on the telecast, you should hear her back here. She may be the first esteemed Oscar winner to say stoked (as in, "I'm so stoked"), reference Zoolander (as in, "I had a reverse Zoolander moment" upon hearing her name read from the envelope), drop a dude (as in, "Dude, Hollywood is built on Europeans") and name-check Siegfried & Roy (as in, I have no idea what...I was too busy jotting down the Zoolander comment.)

7:05 p.m.:  "She looks like Eric Stoltz," I hear a nearby reporter snipe—and I wish Swinton had heard, so she'd have a comeback for that, too.

7:06 p.m.:  During her acceptance speech, Swinton pledged to give her Oscar to her agent, Brian Swardstrom, and she says she did—the Oscar in her hand now is apparently a prop. "I'm a man of my word," Swinton says. "I've given it away."

7:07 p.m.:  And yes, Swinton insists her Oscar—make that, former Oscar—really does look like Swardstrom.

7:08 p.m.:  Swinton, like a lot of people, thought Ruby Dee was going to win. But her real pick was "anybody but myself."

7:10 p.m.:  It doesn't sound as if Swinton is done ribbing George Clooney, whom she got good in her acceptance speech. "There are scores to be settled," she warns.

7:13 p.m.:  Swinton gets in the first word on Marion Cotillard's surprise Best Actress win: "Fantastic!"

—Filed by Joal Ryan