What Was Up With Judd Nelson's Creepy Oscar Appearance?

Former Brat Packer appears at Oscars for John Hughes tribute looking like he's dressed for a funeral. What gives?!

Do you have a picture of Judd Nelson? Everyone is squawking about his appearance at the Oscars, how bad he looked. But no pic!

—Mistral Winds

You seek wisdom from the Answer B!tch, and the Answer B!tch abides. Behold, a still photo from Nelson's appearance on Sunday. But let's not stop there. As I live tweeted to my more than 21,000 Twitter followers on Oscar night, all kinds of questions came in. Let's knock 'em down in a special post-Academy Awards Lightning Round...

The front seating section for the Oscars looked very small. Can you tell us more about it? How are those people chosen?

—Wheel_M

I would, but the Oscar people seem to think it's a really, really important secret. "No," they told our news team during the ceremony, "we don't release that." So exactly how Bullock and Mirren ended up in the front row will have to remain a mystery—then again, they were both sort of nominated for Academy Awards.

Do Academy voters really watch the movies or is it common to just vote with the buzz?

—RussellH88

According to AMPAS's own rules: "The Academy's entire active membership is eligible to select Oscar winners in all categories, although in five—Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, and Foreign Language Film—members can vote only after attesting they have seen all of the nominated films in those categories." In other words, vote with the buzz.

How can a film that is mostly "CG," like Avatar, have set decoration? I guess digital decoration is the same as real props?

—Wheel_M

Regardless of whether the set is physical or otherwise, someone still has to determine what the set looks like, and how that look will be executed. That goes for costumes as well. Coraline may have been a stop-motion feature, not your traditional live action flick, but it still had an 11-person costume department. No word on whether those folks were Barbie size or not.

Does winning an Oscar actually boost your career? I seem to recall quite a few past winners fading into obscurity. Adrien Brody and Helen Hunt spring to mind.

—Dan C., via Facebook

Oh, don't stop there. There's also Mira Sorvino, Cuba Gooding Jr., Mercedes Ruehl, Geena Davis, and so on. Still, if you take a broader look at actors who have won the big golden statue, most of them are still doing pretty well. Right, Marisa Tomei and Rachel Weisz?

—Additional reporting by Joal Ryan