My credentials allow me access to the backstage interview room and what is called the press bleachers, which are different from what I'm used to but kinda fun. You are mixed in with seat-fillers, and I was sitting with Janice Campbell of Ontario, Calif., and Gale Wilson of San Dimas. We became fast friends and began giving our catty opinions of some of the fashions of the early arrivals. Some REAL nightmares! Joan Rivers must be fainting.

The co-screenwriter of "Borat" has arrived (not Sacha Baron Cohen, the other dude) and he told the announcer: "It's amazing, it's surreal. [Award season] seems to last forever. We hoped [the movie] would do well, but we were just blown away."

Paul Haggis, who won last year for "Crash," is up this year for adapated screenplay for "Letters From Iwo Jima," and says that with each Oscar win (he's won twice now) his wife says, "I get much better looking."

OK friends, I'm writing you this from the interview room, where I am slated to sit right next to Richard Roeper, who is currently doing the ABC pre-show. I'm going to go back out to the bleachers (and Janice and Gale) and see how the A-listers look now that they are arriving.).

Stay tuned!