By Josh Horowitz

I've got a pretty bizarre job. I know this, because my friends and family constantly tell me this whenever my Facebook updates casually mention encounters with the likes of Charlize Theron and Stephen Baldwin (in my mind, all celebrities are created equal).

Still, the crazy and surreal meter went into overdrive for me last night when I stepped onto my first Academy Awards red carpet. First of all, don't be too jealous; my feet barely touched the carpet before I was relegated to the press area that literally was behind a 4-foot shrub. I can't blame the Hollywood elite. If I were Sean Penn, I'd want a barrier between me and Nancy O'Dell at all times too.

(Check out behind-the-scenes photos from this year's Oscars here!)

It's kind of difficult to convey the truly bizarre nature of any red carpet, let alone the world's most famous one, but let me try. Here is the good, the bad and the ugly of what it's like to go toe to toe with the stars on Hollywood's biggest night. Billy Bush would kill me if he knew I was going to share these secrets, so this is just between us, all right?

Read more...

By Akshay Bhansali

As an Indian-American who saw "Slumdog Millionaire" win eight of the 10 Oscars for which it was nominated last night, I am practically screaming "Jai ho!"

For the first time since Sir Ben Kingsley brought the great Indian leader to life in 1982's "Gandhi" — which also won eight Oscars — we have a runaway hit, with a cast made up of Indian legends like Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan. But this film's success reaches far beyond that: I actually hear random people in Times Square singing the film's "O ... Saya" at the top of their lungs. When has anything like this ever happened before? Mira Nair's "The Namesake" and Deepa Mehta's "Water" came close, but never before have non-Indian folks come up to me and screamed "Jai ho!!" Read more...

Everyone wanted to look amazing at this year's Oscars, and it was definitely a night for actresses to grace the red carpet in red or some shade of white. Some people did it right, while others left a lot to be desired.

Here are our picks for best and worst of Oscar fashion:

Best

Sarah Jessica Parker: The "Sex and the City" star loves to look like a ballerina, but she knows how to do it right and make sure she looks sexy.

Natalie Portman: Breaking the night's trend of red and white, she showed up in shocking pink. Portman looked sophisticated and fresh. Read more...

MTV News is on the scene at the 81st Annual Academy Awards! We don't want to leave you out of the action, so all night long, Larry Carroll, Benjamin Wagner, Vanessa White Wolf and Jonathan Mussman will be logging on to tell you what's going on backstage, in the bleachers and on the red carpet on Hollywood's big night.

1:12 p.m. PT in the Kodak Theatre: The theater is totally reconfigured — basically 13 or so semi circle seating sections in place of the usual orchestra seats. It's very tight and jam-packed full of big names.

There will be some A-list singers performing on the show. Ones our audience is familiar with. And for the first year I recall, the show will feature men handing out the statuettes. The show producers are Broadway-trained so expect it for overall look and feel. Host Hugh Jackman is looking very jacked-up/muscular, more so than usual, since he was shooting "Wolverine." Read more...

By Kathleen Newman-Bremang

For those of us who are anxiously counting down to Sunday's Oscars, there's something better than golden statues to look forward to: a good-old red-carpet showdown. The contenders? In one corner, the reigning champions: Brad Pitt and his baby mama, Angelina Jolie. In the other, Brad's ex Jennifer Aniston and her arm candy, John Mayer.

So which power couple's got the edge? Let's break it down.

Buzz: Both Brad and Angelina are nominated for Oscars, but since Mayer's quotes about being "an Oscar boyfriend" lit up the blogosphere last night, the anticipation of seeing Jen and John together seems to be all anyone can talk about.

The winners: Aniston and Mayer. Brangelina have ruled the red carpets for many awards seasons, but Janiston (Jayer? Johnnifer? This couple needs a moniker ASAP) have hype on their side.

Style: Brad's and Angelina's overt sex appeal has taken a backseat to the sophisticated, slightly more mature look they've been sporting lately. (Angie's gown at the SAG Awards was downright mother-of-the-bride.) Aniston will most likely go for something tight and youthful that screams "I'M OVER YOU." Read more...

So that was the Oscars! I feel shattered. What a night! I don't think the gravity of what we were about to do really hit me until we were literally 10 seconds away from going live on the red carpet for the biggest event in the Hollywood calendar.

It was the first time I had ever hosted anything like this. I've done live shows for years and my fair share of high-profile events, but what we did today was unprecedented. Normally, when we're shooting a red carpet event things move pretty fluidly, and if they're not you always have the ability to shut off the cameras and stop recording even if it's just for a moment. But not tonight! Tonight wasn't just any red carpet event, this was the Oscars and tonight we were going live for an hour with no commercials.

Continued at the MTV Movies Blog...

Destination: LA. It's work again. Some event called The Oscars...

I'm very excited. Undoubtedly the most prestigious and most revered of all award shows in the known universe- and like most of you, I have been watching the Oscars on TV for as long as I can remember. There simply is no other awards show like it.

So what am I doing there? Well, I've been asked to host our Oscars preshow webcast live from the red-carpet (7 p.m. ET on MTV.com). No script and no commercials: just one hour of Oscars fever with the biggest and best names in film. It'll be a very different style of show as we're going to take you further inside the Oscars than ever before with a true behind-the-scenes look at the 2008 Oscars.

Continued at the MTV Movies Blog...