Highlights of the Oscar award show:

Ellen DeGeneres was a great host, funny and irreverent but respectful of the event and the fans.  The photo that brought down Twitter was a hoot.  But the pizza thing was not so great.

The incomparable Darlene Love lifted her voice and our spirits by singing her acceptance speech when 20 Feet from Stardom won Best Documentary.

Pharrell Williams sang “Happy” and got the stars in the front row to do what all of us at home wanted to do — get up and dance with him.  

Jared Leto, best supporting actor winner for “Dallas Buyer’s Club,” made up for rambling and clumsy responses to some of the other awards with a heartfelt tribute to his mother, to the people with AIDS whose struggle was portrayed in his film, and to others struggling around the world.

Lupita Nyong’o’s elegance and beauty was exceeded only by her graciousness and eloquence in giving the night’s most moving acceptance speech. “No matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.”

Two marvelous commercials:

The Muppets appeared for Lipton tea with an improbable tribute to “Midnight Cowboy” — and reminded us that their new movie is opening this month.

Pepsi Mini had a better tribute to the magic of movies than the Oscar broadcast’s clip reels.

The tribute to the Wizard of Oz on its 75th anniversary included all three of Judy Garland’s children, Pink singing “Over the Rainbow” in a beautiful dress that recalled the ruby slippers, and Ellen appeared in Glinda’s gown.

The youngest ever achiever of that most elusive of goals was Robert Lopez, who shared the Oscar for Best Song with his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, for “Frozen’s” “Let It Go,” and now has the honor of the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony).  Their rhyming acceptance speech was charming and touching.

The Academy finally did the right thing with the In Memoriam tribute to those we lost over the  past year, silencing the audio so there were no distracting bursts of applause.

Winners got time to say what they wanted to say without being interrupted by the orchestra.  Much more civilized.

Low points:

That blanket of roses motif on the stage was distracting.

The “Hero” theme was poorly handled.  I am as big a fan of movie clip reels as anyone but these were contextless and not very dynamic.

Did Whoopi borrow the Julia Roberts dress from the Golden Globes that everyone hated?

John Travolta weirdly mangled Idina Menzel’s name — twice.

And the Oscars went to….

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