Bear with me, my friends. Instead of watching the Oscars on television Sunday, I had to resort to opening five tabs of random live blogs, attempting to write an art history midterm paper at the same time and closely monitoring my own New York Times ballot (which turned out to be pretty bad…but I still beat Wendy Williams). So to say that I was not giving the Academy Awards my best attention would be a bold and brassy understatement.

But in the end, most critics agree that these awards were among the most predictable Oscars in years. The Brits here in London are parading about the UK taking over Hollywood with “The King’s Speech” winning the most prized crown of the night. But can you blame them? British actors trumping American awards is nothing new under the sun. So instead of harping on all of the winners, I’ll just…harp briefly on one.

Natalie Portman. I was overwhelmed with joy when she won and thrilled to hear her speech. Natalie gave so much in her performance in “Black Swan.” Not only was I completely wrapped in her performance, but I was taken by the entire film. It didn’t live up to the horror hype that people were circulating, but I thoroughly enjoyed Portman’s commitment to the character and her winning was the most redeeming part of the Oscars for me. I believed that she was a docile White Swan in the beginning and was in awe of her progressive transformation into a darker character (for the sake of not spoiling it for anyone, I won’t say anymore, just go see it!)

I’m still convinced that her SNL rap was the initial audition for that crazy part.