Mirren was regal, others not, and the show a bit off

Best-actress winner Helen Mirren, at age 61, showed Hollywood - and the millions of mere mortals who take their cues from there - that it is possible to have gotten past the age of, say, 30 and still look beautiful and glamorous.

Mirren's champagne Christian Lacroix gown with an exquisite, encrusted bodice and full chiffon skirt was dazzling, as were her white-haired bob and lived-in face, perhaps the bravest fashion statements of the evening.

A veteran actress of four decades, Mirren seemed so at home on the stage, as she does in the world, while many of the younger actresses seemed like exceptionally well-groomed yet undernourished deer caught in headlights.

Rather than celebrate the evening, young veterans and unearthly beauties Nicole Kidman and Gwyneth Paltrow seemed nervous and less than thrilled to be in the very place people in the industry work their entire careers to be.

It was a wonderful evening for international filmmakers (and why wasn't the great Pan's Labyrinth nominated for best picture?), diversity and artisans with serious experience, not simply the latest pretty thing.

Jennifer Lopez, less a performer than an icon impersonating a performer, always seems to channel a star of an earlier era. Last night was no exception. Her Marchesa gown honored Elizabeth Taylor, while her waved bob harkened to Natalie Wood.

It was hoped that first-time Oscar host Ellen DeGeneres might eschew her day uniform of pants suit and white shoes for something a tad more festive but, alas, no. Her first ensemble, a red-velvet lounge suit was utterly Ellen but not Oscar-worthy, especially the white patent-leather boots, which seemed more suitable for a road company of

The Music Man

.

DeGeneres' shtick was low-key and folksy, more befitting her talk show or an Elks dinner. She seemed to be working overtime to be nice, to get the audience and the world to like her, so it became more about her than about the movies. This is the Oscars, Ellen, not the rubber-chicken circuit.

The evening seemed interminable before the first hour was over. Of course, it always does.

The supporting-actor awards are usually bestowed in the first few minutes. Last night, Alan Arkin won an hour and 15 minutes before Jennifer Hudson crossed the Kodak Theatre stage to accept her Oscar.

The pacing was off, and the intentional padding - the dance troupe, the sound-effects orchestras, Ellen's little sight gags - seemed egregious. It's not what people tune in to watch.

Indeed, the evening's high point - the electrifying singing reunion of Dreamgirls stars Beyoncé Knowles, supporting-actress winner Jennifer Hudson, Anika Noni Rose and Keith Robinson - came almost three hours after the ceremony began.

Unlike in years past, few couples arrived together on the red carpet. Kidman and Paltrow left their husbands at home. Best-actor nominee Leonardo DiCaprio brought his proud mother, and nary a Victoria's Secret supermodel. DiCaprio looked like an old-time movie star, akin to Gary Cooper, with his slicked-bar hair and traditional tux.

A nice touch was supporting-actor nominee Djimon Hounsou's red lapels, which honored his movie Blood Diamond. Best-actor winner Forest Whitaker sported the smallest neckwear of the evening, a bow tie the size of a cocktail frank.

Curiously, comic performers, rarely honored for their great work, were brought in to lighten the evening of seriously depressing movies. There needs to be another way to make this show better, to make the finished product greater than the anticipation. So far, no one has found a way.