The pregame begins hours in advance, hosted by "experts" who are no longer the stars of the game. A year of preparation goes into it. People of all ages have parties because of it. It lasts for hours and hours. And it's an inevitable disappointment. Despite this last fact, this year, like every year, I became swept up in the hoopla once again. The Oscars are addictive, and I am hooked.

Along with the rest of the addicts, I am mesmerized by the world of glamour and scandal in Hollywood. This year was a particularly interesting one. The upcoming strikes of major filmmaking unions are forcing the industry to release films earlier than planned, sometimes months before they would normally be finished. The minimalist ("Average Joe") backlash against Hollywood is growing, and people are gradually growing aware of the millions of dollars that are spent promoting certain movies to the academy, and it's widely known that "Best Picture" is no longer chosen by Academy members, but instead by the number of dollars the studio is willing to invest in making the Academy members believe that it is the best picture. 

Steve Martin brilliantly commented on these popular views as host of the gala. In his opening, he joked about the alternate reality of Hollywood stars and the extramarital affairs that characterize many public relationships. When introducing Mike Myers, he made a comment about the novelty of turning down bad scripts.

But other than these side comments, there was no real evidence of the current damper on Hollywood. The stars looked beautiful, gracious and like a large happy family that all of the eight million viewers wanted to be a part of. 

Martin, who everyone knew was not the Academy's first choice, served as a charming host who did not steal the spotlight, but instead simply moved the show along with funny one-liners. He added to the feeling of Hollywood as a family by drawing on the audience during his opening speech and throughout in a playful dialogue. Particularly enchanting was his dialogue with America's sweetheart and Best Actress winner, Julia Roberts. Martin and Best Actor winner, Russell Crowe, did not share the same type of amiable exchange. In fact, looking at the faces that Crowe made during the show, I wouldn't be surprised if Joan Rivers caught the Gladiator challenging Martin to a duel back stage.

Although there are 27 Oscars and three honorary awards presented, even members of the academy admit that most people are only interested in the "major" winners. Here is a breakdown of the "biggies": Not surprisingly, "Gladiator" won best picture. A nice twist was that Steven Soderbergh, who was nominated for Best Director for both "Erin Brockovich" and "Traffic," did not split the vote for himself and picked up the award for "Traffic." Roberts and Crowe took home the Actress/Actor awards while Benicio Del Toro claimed Best Supporting Actor for "Traffic" and Marcia Gay Harden received the award for Best Supporting Actress for "Pollock." Don't worry, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was not overlooked: it received the award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Like any movie junkie, I have my own set of awards for the night. In my world, the winner of the Elizabeth Taylor award for "Oh, dear, she did not just say that …" goes to Goldie Hawn, who barely got through her presentation. The Courtney Love "You thought I cleaned up my act" award goes to Jennifer Lopez, who tricked the world into thinking her dress was opaque until she stepped into the footlights. The Cher award for "Harming helpless animals to make a bad outfit" belongs to Björk. Finally, the "Stepping out of the mold and holding your own presence on stage" award is a tie between a Matt Damon-less Ben Affleck and Russell Crowe's hair, which had such presence that it deserved a mic of its own.