7:04 p.m. "King Kong" gets a second tech award, this one for sound mixing. "Geisha" and "Kong," two apiece.

7:05 p.m. Lily Tomlin – where's she been? Now she's onstage with Meryl Streep, giving an honorary Oscar to Robert Altman, another leading light who's been snubbed by the Academy too often in the past. The seemingly mismatched pair work quite well together with an overlapping, stream-of-consciousness dialogue. (Tomlin said something about Altman's viewers thinking their popcorn had been transformed into "peyote buttons!")

Then ... a montage of Altman films!

7:12 p.m. Altman: "I've got a lot to say, and they've got a clock on me." Well, of course they do – there are more montages to show!

Actually, Mr. M*A*S*H* -- who's always seemed a gruff and somewhat remote figure, at least in establishment Hollywood -- comes through with a gracious and extemporaneous-sounding speech. "I always thought this kind of award meant that it was over," he says. But he realizes that's not the case – and since a few years back he got a heart transplant from a donor in her mid-30s, he says, he's still got another 40 years or so of filmmaking.

7:22 p.m. Oscar gets crunky! Believe this is a first, folks. Grampa'll be shocked by the bump-and-grind performance of "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from "Hustle & Flow."

Hey, at least it's not another montage.

7:25 p.m. Uh .... "Pimp" won.

We're not living in an "Oliver!" world anymore.

7:27 p.m. Stewart: "You know what? I think it just got a little easier out here for a pimp." He said the "Pimp's" Three 6 Mafia would mix it up with Perlman, and the only way to solve it? "Dreydel-off!" "How come they were the most excited people up here tonight?" Stewart wondered.

'Cuz they didn't expect to win? That's our guess.

7:30 p.m. Number three for "King Kong": Sound editing.

OK, now we're two and a half hours in. From now on, the big prizes. Next up, best foreign language film, then editing and on to best actor.

7:32 p.m. But first, another montage! The "In Memoriam" clip .... roll it!

7:40 p.m. South Africa wins for best foreign language film, "Tsotsi."