Great opening sequence with absolutely no frills. Short, sweet and endearing straight-on interviews with the nominees, cut just quickly enough. Thank you, Errol Morris. Then came Ellen DeGeneres. She’s known for her apolitical comedy, and she likes it that way. But she did get in one impartial comment. It came after acknowledging Jennifer Hudson, noting the irony that Americans did not vote for her to win “American Idol,” and yet here she is with an Oscar nomination for “Dreamgirls.” “And Al Gore is here tonight, (for the documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth’),” DeGeneres said. “Americans did vote for him, and…. It’s very complicated.”

Touche. Al and Tipper had a good laugh, and Ellen got big applause.