His highness

Daniel Day-Lewis drank up Oscar success Sunday night, winning the Academy Award for best actor for his fierce portrayal of an oil man who steadily loses his mind in "There Will Be Blood."

In contrast to Daniel Plainview, the stomping, snarling, larger-than-life anti-hero of Paul Thomas Anderson's epic drama, Day-Lewis was quietly, eloquently humble as he accepted his award.

He walked up the steps to accept his trophy from Helen Mirren, then went down on one knee before her, head bowed. Mirren, last year's best-actress winner for "The Queen," picked up his cue, touching Lewis' Oscar to his shoulders as she would a royal sword.

"That's the closest I'll ever come to getting a knighthood," the Englishman said.

Rockin' the bump

The hottest accessory on this year's Oscar red carpet was carried beneath the designer gowns.

Nicole Kidman, Jessica Alba and most noticeably Cate Blanchett brought baby bumps to the Academy Awards. And though Angelina Jolie was nowhere to be found, hers got a big shout-out from host Jon Stewart, who noted the number of actresses who are expecting.

"This is so exciting. The baby goes to Angelina Jolie," Stewart said, opening a fake envelope as photos of Blanchett, Alba and Kidman flashed on the screen. "Angelina couldn't be with us tonight. It's tough to get 17 baby sitters on Oscar night."

Jolie and partner Brad Pitt are reportedly expecting their second child together. They are the parents of 1-year-old Shiloh, and three children adopted from Cambodia, Ethiopia and Vietnam. Their adopted children are Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; and Zahara, 3.

Take this bling and shove it

The shoes fit — and cost $1 million — but Diablo Cody didn't wear 'em.

Fancy-footwear designer Stuart Weitzman had selected the Oscar-nominated "Juno" screenwriter to wear his specially designed $1 million diamond-encrusted Retro Rose shoes on the red carpet, but Cody opted to wear a pair of simple gold flats under her flowing Dior leopard print dress instead.

"It was a cheesy publicity stunt," she said on the red carpet.

Rain check

Mother Nature should have known better than to try to dampen Hollywood's biggest event of the year.

Although the heavens opened up and rain poured down on Los Angeles almost all day Sunday, anyone watching the Academy Awards at home would have had no idea.

Yards and yards of tenting kept all of the red carpet outside the Kodak Theatre high and dry except for one brief edge near a tricky turn. Powerful lights gave the illusion that the sun was shining even though most of the time it wasn't.

After hours of heavy rain, the sun finally did break through, just a few minutes before the Oscar pre-show began.

It was the perfect Hollywood ending to a thoroughly Hollywood day.

Busey body

Gary Busey lived up to his reputation by strangely crashing Ryan Seacrest's interviews on the Academy Awards red carpet.

While Seacrest was interviewing Jennifer Garner and Laura Linney on the live E! pre-show broadcast, Busey repeatedly interrupted.

After Busey warmly greeted Linney, Seacrest introduced him to Garner, whom he promptly gave a bear hug.

Garner was clearly annoyed, and was left wondering why "this man" had just grabbed her. Linney tried to usher them both out of the interview as Garner curtly replied to Seacrest's final questions.

As Busey continued to linger, Seacrest politely suggested they catch up later in the evening.

"I'll see you later at the party. You know the one," said Seacrest.

When an E! co-host asked Seacrest what had happened, Seacrest was dumbfounded and acknowledged he had never met Busey before.

The 63-year-old actor has parodied his out-there reputation on HBO's Hollywood insider comedy "Entourage."

Speech! Sp ...

Just 12 seconds and 34 words, including the "um."

Alexandra Byrne set the gold standard in short award show acceptance speeches when she picked up the costume design Oscar for "Elizabeth: The Golden Age."

And she still got in four "thank yous."

Accepting, 'Slowly'

It could've gone down as one of the harshest moments in Oscar history.

The orchestra swelled just as petite best original song co-winner Marketa Irglova stepped up to the microphone to speak after partner Glen Hansard. The pair won for their tune "Falling Slowly" from the indie musical "Once," but only Hansard gave an acceptance before their moment in the spotlight seemed to be over.

Irglova could barely muster a polite "Thank you" before the orchestra, led by conductor Bill Conti, cut her off. After a commercial break, host Jon Stewart brought the 19-year-old Czech musician back on stage for a second chance to give an acceptance speech.

Irglova's second-chance speech lasted just over a minute.

Oscar producer Gil Cates said the show director was looking down and queued the music when Hansard finished speaking.

"She was accidentally played off. No one wanted to play her off. I asked her to come back. I asked Jon to please bring her back. It was a very emotional moment."

Oscar shock

As Marion Cotillard stepped offstage with the best-actress Oscar for "La Vie En Rose," Forest Whitaker enveloped her in a hug that lasted at least a minute.

Then they looked at each other and laughed. "I'm shaking, like wow," Cotillard trembled.

Stopping by the backstage "thank you" cam, she expressed her gratitude in French and studied her Oscar.

"I'm shaking so much I think I can't talk," she said.

Oscar shock, Part 2

Tilda Swinton was so stunned by her win for supporting actress in "Michael Clayton" that she could only keep repeating "wow, wow" as she walked offstage.

Presenter Alan Arkin chased her with the winner's envelope.

"Oh yes, this is the proof," Swinton said, leaving arm in arm with Arkin.

Jitters

Katherine Heigl wasn't kidding when she told the Oscar audience she was nervous.

Behind the scenes, a stagehand asked if she was OK.

"I just need a cigarette," she said, bumming one from a security guard and heading out to a loading dock.

— The Associated Press