It's time to begin Plugged In's official live blog of the Oscars. Our red-carpet invites must have gotten lost in the mail this year, so we'll be watching it on television, just like you are, and writing about whatever seems news- or noteworthy to us. Please feel free to add your comments as we go along, and we'll try to address them on the fly. All times are U.S. Mountain Standard. Refresh your browser window to see our latest comments.

6:19 p.m.

Paul Asay (Plugged In Associate Editor): So I've torn open the bag of Doritos you brought, Steve, cracked my first Mountain Dew and am all ready for the Oscars--and Plugged In's first foray into the world of on-the-fly blogging. And what a night it will be, don't you think?

Steven Isaac (Plugged In Editor): Hmmm. I see here that by averaging the durations of the last 25 Oscar telecasts, subtracting 3 hours and then dividing by 2, we'll be done here in exactly 7.42 hours. Are we going to take nap breaks or just keep chugging soda all night?

Paul: Soda, Steve, soda.

Steven: Fine. But I'm not doing the Dew with you. I'm an old-school, straight-up Coca-Cola man myself.

Paul: OK, since nobody's paying us anything for all these product placements, why don't we get started with the most important question of the night: What'll take home Best Picture?

Steven: Blue is the new gold this year. No question in my mind that it'll be Avatar all the way. The whole point of this year's Oscar changes (10 nominees for Best Picture among them) is to make regular folks start thinking the Oscars are relevant to them again. And a whole lotta regular folks have seen Avatar. And most of them have loved it. Plus, the Academy voters do not want to antagonize the Na'vi. They've seen what happened to those surly earthlings.

Paul: True. Thing is, though, I don't think it's that great of a movie. I mean, wasn't it just sort of Dances With Wolves under a different moon? I'm thinking The Hurt Locker's going to take it. Gritty, taut, compelling ...

Steven: And quite a bit more foul than Avatar, if I remember your review correctly. (Not that that ever stopped Oscar from loving a film before.)

Paul: No it didn't.

Steven: Looks like they're done with their red-carpet dress-examinations and interviews. The theme music's coming up. We're under way, everybody.

6:33 p.m.

Paul: Wow. Those are quite the outfits. Getting off to an interesting start, I'd say, with Neil Patrick Harris.

Steven: And why wouldn't he get things rolling with a dope reference?

Paul: Oh, and they just talked about Woody Harrelson being high. Hmmm.

Steven: Off-color jokes and recognitions for big stars are always the order of the day each year as the Oscars get started. So much so that Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin's gag about a threesome probably went virtually unnoticed in most homes watching right now. But on a positive note, they made fun of the fact that movies are so often made based on video games!

6:48 p.m.

Paul: Oh, that Christoph Waltz leaves with the first Oscar (for Best Supporting Actor). No surprise there, but I hear he was incredible. You saw the film, Steve?

Steven: Incredible performance in the middle of an incredible film ... in quite a few ways, artistically but also as it comes to some pretty extreme violence, too.

Paul: I was kinda rooting for Christopher Plummer ... overdue from The Sound of Music. But I think Quentin Tarantino should get some sort of an award just for his chin. It's pretty impressive.

6:58 p.m.

Paul: Best Animated Film. Up wins. That makes me happy. I'm feeling so ... up! As if my house was being pulled into the sky by balloons! In a great year for animated films, this was still the best of the bunch. 'Course, Fantastic Mr. Fox was pretty impressive, too.

7:10 p.m.

Steven: We talked a bit earlier about some of the negative content included in this year's Oscar open, and didn't really have any time to talk "shop." So I want to register the fact now that that was one of the lamest opens I've seen in years and years. Martin and Baldwin can be really funny when they want to be and when they have good writers (the subject that's just coming up right now on the screen). But this just didn't cut it.

Paul: But on the up side, these awards are cruising right along. We might be outta here in 15 minutes or so, don't you think? And I think Tina Fey's hair looks nifty.

Steven: The Hurt Locker wins its first of the evening for Original Screenplay.

Paul: Hurt Locker, 1, Avatar, 0.

Steven: And about Tina's hair. It looks very, very much like my wife's hair looked in 2001. So I'm not so sure it's as cutting edge as Tina might think it is.

Paul: I'm just jealous when I see anyone who still has hair.

7:19 p.m.

Paul: The John Hughes salute is pretty nostalgic. I think I saw every single one of his films when I was a kid. That was before I became a Plugged In movie critic and therefore far more discerning, of course.

Steven: The burner from The Breakfast Club was everything I never was in high school. I was shy, nice and cared about everybody. That guy did none of those things ... on the surface. But on the inside he was more like me than I knew back then. Must be a lesson in that somewhere--and I hope its not that I was a closet burner.

7:28 p.m.

Paul: Just noticed the ratings box on the screen. It's TV-14 with a string of letters after it. Kind of interesting that, for an awards show that's technically for the "whole family," the rating is fairly exclusionary. Would they be covering just in case something unforseen happens? Or does it address some of the plunging necklines? Hmmm.

Steven: Or did they know going in that they were going to push a few boundaries?

Steven: Best Animated Short goes to a film that looks like it tweaks commercialism in society. Isn't it about time for an ABC commercial break?

7:39 p.m.

Paul: Love Ben Stiller as one of the Na'vi. Shouldn't he be taller, though?

Steven: This is the funniest thing all night. Clean, clever, self-aware. Can't say as I'm a huge Ben Stiller fan when it comes to his movies, but this is great.

7:52 p.m.

Steven: Geoffrey Fletcher won for Adapted Screenplay for Precious. My immediate response to his halting acceptance speech: You're not drawing a blank, like you think you are. You're the realest guy that's been on stage yet.

7:59 p.m.

Paul: The big categories haven't seen a surprise yet. Mo'Nique has nabbed Best Supporting Actress for her role in Precious. And, I must say, it's richly deserved. She played an absolute monster, but she still managed to give the character just a bit of heartbreaking humanity. It was a brutal role in a worthwhile but brutal film.

8:20 p.m.

Paul: Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner are up, talking about how horror "doesn't get the respect it deserves." A good montage, but I got to say, the scariest thing I've seen tonight was George Clooney's glare.

Steven: Why is it that we like to be scared by movies? We can disagree with the usefulness or morality of horror films all we want (and we do!) but it's indisputable that people adore jump scenes and creepy blades for fingers on mad men (from Freddy to Edward Scissorhands). Sin nature? Or just thrill-ride silliness? It's something Christians have been grappling with for as long as movies have been trying to scare us--and long before that.

Paul: Yeah, pretty interesting. It's something we do a fair amount of talking about at Plugged In. Man, after seeing the complete montage, I think I know what that TV-14 rating was for ... nothing like seeing aliens jump out of people's rib cages and centipedes crawling into people's mouths to make an Oscar ceremony complete.

Steven: And now they're on to the next thing: an award for sound effects. There's something that makes a huge difference in horror movies. Because if you've ever watched a scary movie with the sound off, you know that it's usually more funny than scary. We all really respond to sound.

8:27 p.m.

Paul: Another award for The Hurt Locker. Wow. I think that makes it Hurt Locker 3, Avatar 1. Steve, are you still sure Avatar's going to win Best Picture?

Steven: Well, sure, why shouldn't I be? Didn't the Na'vi get to vote for their own film? And an alien vote counts twice. They're just letting all the little guys win a few before gobbling up the big one.

8:35 p.m.

Paul: Jeto wonders whether we think the Paranormal Activity spoof clip was funny. It was! But not as funny as Ben Stiller's Na'vi impersonation.

Steven: Cinematography award goes to Avatar. So, Paul, that's one more for the blue team.

8:39 p.m.

Paul: James Taylor's playing for the annual "In Memoriam" segment. This is one of my favorite parts of the ceremony, as morbid as that probably sounds. Natasha Richardson, Karl Malden ... I feel the sudden need to get a tissue.

Steven: Um, I didn't know "In My Life" was supposed to be a sad, funeral-type song. My wife and I had this sung at our wedding!

8:50 p.m.

Steven: My daughter's in ballet. She'd love the dance montage if I dared let her watch a TV-14 evening of Hollywood hype! (She's 9.) Maybe it'll be on YouTube tomorrow.

Paul: Tomorrow? It's probably posted right now!

Steven: This is much better than the Vegas-style stuff at the beginning of the show. Nicely choreographed. Very expressive in a cool, old-school way.

Paul: I never knew you were such a dance nerd, Steve.

Steven: A dancing daughter has a way of changing a man.

8:55 p.m.

Paul: Avatar's pulled even with The Hurt Locker with its win in Best Visual Effects. Maybe you were right after all, Steve.

Steven: A half-billion-dollar production budget should buy you at least a Best Visual Effects award.

9:04 p.m.

Paul: Well, it looks like lots of you are pretty pleased with Up's win for Best Original Score. I completely agree. I just hear the first notes of that song and I just start thinking of Paradise Falls, talking dogs and balloons. And I can't help but smile.

Steven: The Cove has won Best Documentary Feature.

Paul: What a coincidence! Steve and I are wearing Snuggies here at Plugged In headquarters, too!

9:12 p.m.

Paul: You know, I don't think I've heard an acceptance speech yet that made me roll my eyes. Is this unusual, or am I just getting more tolerant in my old age?

Steven: The night is young yet--at least by Oscar standards.

(This isn't a fun way to start a Tuesday. I'll make it up to you later.)

Let's start with the surprising: A recent Kaiser Family Foundation study found that, on average, kids spend seven and a half hours a day plugged into some sort of electronic media (!!).

Now the bad news: Perhaps partly as a result of their online lifestyles, youth are increasingly being subjected to cyberbullying.

A 2009 Cyberbullying Research Center survey found that, among 2,000 middle schoolers polled, 42.9% had been victim of some form of cyberbullying in the last 30 days—usually through Facebook or texting. Add in high schoolers, and the center estimates  that one third of Internet-using tweens and teens have been cyberbullied in the last year, with 22% of kids claiming they've perpetrated online harassment in the last month.

Most upsetting, though, is the fact cyberbullying is increasingly linked to suicide—most recently that of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince, who hanged herself in January, allegedly after being bullied at school and on Facebook.

While physical torment ends when the perpetrator leaves, cyberbullying can be done long distance, and relentlessly, from multiple platforms. It's also easy, private and requires no physical strength—just a phone or a computer and some nasty comments from one or more bullies.

But since cyberbullying usually occurs off campuses, many schools don't discipline students for it unless it causes on-campus trouble. And some even claim preventing cyberbullying is a violation of free speech.

So what should be done?

Maybe the secret is to prevent the hurt before it even begins. Parents can supervise and monitor their children's Internet usage and teach them how to be savvy and safe online. They can also talk to kids about the dangers and emotional pain caused by cyberbullying.

But maybe the most important thing parents can do is help children understand from an early age that their self-worth and identity do not come from what others say about them—good, bad or indifferent. Ultimately these things come from Christ—not what Johnny No-Name (and probably No-Clue) hisses or types.

Maybe I'm oversimplifying it, though. So if you or someone you know has been cyberbullied, what have you done about it? And what do you think should be done to prevent and/or remedy this rising problem?

As some of you may have heard, Focus on the Family (Plugged In's parent organization) will be airing a commercial during the Big Game this weekend. The ad—featuring former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow and his mom—has become a pretty big deal around here—so much so that execs have taken to wearing shoulder pads and doing chest bumps in the hall. Morning devotionals are sounding more and more like play calls ("Isaiah 26:12 … hike!"). And I'm expecting Dippin' Dots vendors to show up sometime today.

But if the Super Bowl ad has triggered a certain eccentricity on the Focus campus, it's made some folks positively apoplectic outside it.

I've not seen the ad. My boss has not seen the ad. My boss's boss has not seen the ad. Very few of us inside the building have seen it, much less outside our pleasant, cubicle-lined confines. Nevertheless, several groups have asked CBS to yank the thing.

"By offering one of the most coveted advertising spots of the year to an anti-equality, anti-choice, homophobic organization, CBS is aligning itself with a political stance that will damage its reputation, alienate viewers, and discourage consumers from supporting its shows and advertisers," read, in part, a letter to the network signed by a number of women's groups.

Sports columnist Gregg Doyel, who writes for cbssports.com, took a different tack: "If you're a sports fan, and I am, that's the holiest day of the year. It's not a day to discuss abortion."

The ironies, of course, abound. I mean, we're talking about a sporting event that features advertisements devoted to beer, scantily clad women and folks getting thwacked in the crotch.

"Objectionable, after all, is in the eye of the beholder," wrote James Poniewozik, television columnist for Time magazine. "It seems ridiculous to start saying that espousing religion … is objectionable in an ad environment of alcohol-pushing animals, slapstick violence and Danica Patrick's cleavage."

For a while, news-related searches for Focus' ad dominated Google. And maybe that's not too surprising since our media culture loves a good row. But my guess is that when folks actually see the ad their reaction will be along the lines of, "Wow. And groups were up in arms over this? An ad celebrating families?"

When I was a religion reporter at a Colorado newspaper, I covered Focus on the Family quite a bit. And I learned pretty quickly that some people love the organization and some people—well, don't.

Now, frankly, I can understand why some folks might disagree with elements of what Focus does: We don't shy away from wading through controversial waters when conviction calls and Scripture specifies. That's part of what the leaders here feel called to do. But back in the day, one of my sources told me something that feels pretty appropriate right about now:

"Focus is about as controversial as flossing your teeth."

And really, when it comes right down to it, that's how Focus perceives itself: a dispensary of oral hygiene tools—which might hurt a little at the time, but are designed to help and heal, not harm.

Movies provide us with some of the oddest angles around. In our modern culture, they’ve become a prime teaching tool—and Christians are using them to communicate their thoughts, feelings and ideals.

My series of articles titled Not Just a Movie wrapped up this week—the exclamation point on a long, long project. The final chapter dealt with the fascinating intersection between cinema and spirituality—how we, as Christians, are now co-opting the art form and making it, in some small way, our own. I’m not just talking about Christian films like Fireproof, though that’s obviously part of it. I’m talking about pastors using movie clips in sermons, adults using films as devotional launch pads—and just the natural conversations that pop up among friends once the credits roll. Movies have become a crucible in which we can examine, question and, at times, affirm our most treasured beliefs.

Now, maybe this intersection isn’t always a safe one to navigate. I know of folks who’ve walked out of church services because they deemed the clips they saw there inappropriate. And I do think there’s a fine line when it comes to this stuff—one that we, here at Plugged In, struggle mightily to walk in our own way every day: How do we grapple with good messages in bad movies?

So, with that in mind, talk to me about how faith and film intersect in your life. Do you see film clips in church? Have you ever seen instances where you felt a film illustration or clip crossed the line? What movies have sparked spiritual conversations between you and your family or friends? Has film been more of a help or a hindrance in your walk with God?

It’s a funny thing how watching movies can give you ideas you might not have had otherwise. Even if, perhaps, you’re old enough to know better.

Take the case of 67-year-old Michael Crane. In November, Crane purchased a remote control airplane from Coastal Hobbies in Rockport, Maine. It was a combined birthday and Christmas present for his grandson, he said.

The plane apparently did not work. And when the doting grandpa took it back to exchange it, he was told that the plane would need to be repaired. The wait time? Indefinite, Crane reports.

When Crane asked if he could get his money back or exchange the plane for another that worked, he was told that those things were against the store’s exchange policies, which were clearly posted throughout the establishment.

Crane left, angry. He went home, in fact, and popped in Clint Eastwood’s 1965 Italian Spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars. And that, he claims, inspired what happened next.

Crane returned to the store with an Eastwood-style ultimatum: Give me my money back, give me a new plane … or I’m just going to take one. Punk. (OK, he probably didn’t add that last part). Store owner Kent Woodward was unwilling to comply with options A or B, so Crane made good on option C.

He’s now facing theft charges.

Now, admittedly, this cause-and-effect story is a bit different from the kinds we normally see—stories that generally involve young people imitating risky behavior they’ve seen in a movie, on TV or on YouTube.

But it does illustrate how media can give us ideas that might not have occurred to us—even if the idea comes from a 44-year-old film watched by a 67-year-old grandfather.

So how about you? Have you ever been inspired—for good or ill—to implement some idea or scheme you saw in a movie? What happened and what did you learn (if anything)?

OK, that may sound confusing. But bear with me.

Anyway, it seems that actress Emma Thompson asked to have her name removed from that online petition full of Polanski supporters. Why, you ask? Well, a group of her fans voiced their dismay and asked her to just say "no." And she took their advice. Just as simple as that. In fact, Thompson said she was pressured to sign the petition in the first place because scores of her movie making pals "rang her up" with requests to join in.

Now the fact that Hollywood types give in to peer pressure isn’t really a big deal, I suppose. But we often talk about how we, as a culture, can be influenced by the entertainment we consume and the celebrities we watch. Isn’t it interesting to note that those same celebrities can be influenced, too? And in some cases, by little ol’ us?

What would Hannah Montana say?

Reigning teen queen Miley Cyrus has been named as the "worst celebrity of the year" by the readers of AOL's teen-centric pop culture website, jsyk.com, beating out such celebrities as Kanye West and Britney Spears.

The results, at first glance, feel pretty bizarre. I mean, it's hard to imagine Miley jumping up on stage and ripping a microphone away from someone during a live awards show, as Kanye did. And call me naive, but I just can't quite picture her singing a suggestive song like Britney's "3." Not yet, anyway.

No, my guess is that Miley's "worst celebrity" honors are a reflection of the oversized positive influence she's had on tweens and teens. Youth, I think, can be surprisingly savvy when it comes to celebrities, and the antics of a Kanye West or a Britney Spears probably didn't surprise them much. But Hannah Montana from the Disney Channel? Posing without a shirt in Vanity Fair and dancing around a pole on live television? That stung a bit: Like seeing an idolized older brother sneaking a smoke behind the garage.

Stephanie Cohen, who edits the jsyk.com site, believes that, "Some of her fans just don't want her to grow up," according to buddytv.com. But I think we should give Miley fans a bit more credit. Everyone grows up: Miley's fan base probably understands that more than some. But not everyone feels their way to adulthood through the use of a stripper pole.

Back in August, we reported in "Culture Clips" that Mariah Carey's new album would feature a 34-page advertorial insert co-sponsored by Elle magazine. Well, we've now reviewed Mariah's latest (check it out here) and had a chance to look at the enhanced liner notes included with the album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel.

Actually, mini-magazine is more like it. Mariah's partnership with Elle takes product placement to a whole new level.

The CD booklet is designed like a miniature version of Elle magazine, complete with cover blurbs, ad pages and departments blending the mag's regular features with all things Mariah. A music section offers thumbnail descriptions of all her albums. On the fashion front, we learn about the styles Mariah favors, from boots to dresses to coats to shoes. Want to mimic Mimi's face? A spread on Mariah's makeup and perfume choices makes it possible. A movie page lists the singer's all-time favorite films and advertises her upcoming role in the film Precious. And then we get several pages of interviews and sound bites about Mariah's marriage to actor/singer Nick Cannon.

All in all, it's a tour de force mash-up of music and marketing, with Mariah as the star of her own private version of Elle magazine.

Personally, I react to this in two different ways. On one hand, it's hardly subtle. This isn't subliminal messaging, like a movie character using a certain computer with a large glowing fruit on the front, or the judges on American Idol conspicuously consuming a certain soft drink.

On the other, the blending of these media (music with a magazine ... and plenty of products) amplifies two problematic trends in our culture, namely rampant consumerism and our fascination with celebrities. Want to look and smell like Mariah? Or watch her favorite movie? Or vacation where she supposedly does (the Bahamas, Aspen, Italy and Disney World)? This little booklet isn't shy about telling you how you can imitate her supposedly charmed life.

Do you find such blatant product placement annoying? Or is it not that big a deal? One thing's for sure: I think we can expect ever-more elaborate advertising partnerships between pop culture's superstars with the brands they (supposedly) love ... all designed to entice you to part with your hard-earned bucks.