I LOVE THIS DUDE

Are you watching "Road to the Oscars" on ABC? You should be (stop wasting your time with my blog!). I LOVE LOVE LOVE this African-American interviewer in the blue tux. Please give him more air time. What's the best thing about him? He is NOT cool and he doesn't care. He's happy to be here. Wouldn't you be?

Eddie Murphy on his favorite Eddie Murphy movie: "I like 'em all. I even like Pluto Nash ." Now that's what I call unconditional love.

Ryan Seacrest (and his production company) should be taping ABC's "Road to the Oscars" coverage and taking notes. This is how you do it.

Ryan Gosling (plus his mother an sisters) was cool. When Chris Connelly (doing a bang-up job) asked him about bringing the family (I mean, after all, he was dating Rachel McAdams last I heard), he replied, "I thought I'd roll look Snoop."

Here comes Mark Wahlberg. He reminds me so much of my best friend growing up, Paul Swingle, that it's scary. Exact same personality, very similar-looking (the big difference is that Paul could throw 93 mph heat and actually pitched in the majors for a few weeks. Who gave up George Brett's last major-league home run? My buddy Paul Swingle).

If any one person deserves an Oscar tonight, in my opinion, it's Wahlberg for The Departed . Plus, he's the inspiration behind Entourage , so he's got that going for him, which is great.

Hardest part about being a red-carpet interviewer: Not calling Kate Winslet Cate Blanchett, and vice-versa.

Winslet's on the tube now. You know what's cool? I recall seeing Heavenly Creatures when it first came out at the Angelika Film Center and I came out of that movie saying to myself, "Whoa. That is ONE great actress."

And Winslet was like 13 then.

More Helen Mirren screen time. Va....Va....Voom. One question: Helen Mirren, where have you been all your life? Honestly, does anyone have a photo of her from before 2003? I didn't think so.

Blue tux! What is your name? You rock.