Now that ballots are in, I'll gladly advocate:

Obviously, no live blogging happened this evening.  I was busy dealing with Dewer's rather than Jameson, but regardless, "No Country for Old Men" clearly had a dominant position at the end of the night.  Three wins, including Best Picture (I was one of the poor bastards on stage presenting the award -- top right corner...check your TiVo).

It's hard to consider the Coen brothers' film anything other than the frontrunner at this point, but there was also a clear air of "Into the Wild" respect in the room.  And with due cause, given that the Sean Penn film led the field of nominees.  Hal Holbrook in particular got a massive round of applause when his clip came up in the Best Supporting Actor category.

The only standing ovation, other than for Don Cheadle and the presentation of the first annual Joel Siegel Award, was for Daniel Day-Lewis, who gave one of the most heart-felt and honest acceptance speeches I think I've ever seen.  Half the room stood up to clap when his name was called.

The pre-show was tame to say the least, as red carpet arrivals weren't exactly earth-shattering.   George Clooney was the only star to cross the street and make time for the fans in the bleechers, a classy move from a classy guy.  Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie showed up with minutes to spare, and even had to wait in the wings to be seated after the first commercial break.

The after-party was also somewhat muted.  I bumped into Julian Schnabel, congratulated him, tried to find out why so many people think he's an asshole and came up totally digging the guy.  Don Cheadle, Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Paul Dano were milling about, but on the whole, it seemed most people checked out early.  I know for sure that Sean Penn, Eddie Vedder and Daniel Day-Lewis took off to enjoy each other's company.

And how about Day-Lewis?  The guy flew in from Dublin for the Palm Springs Film Festival Saturday (his plane broke down in Dublin and held him up considerably).  Then he flies out to New York Sunday for the presentation of the NYFCC awards, only to fly right back to Los Angeles for this evening's ceremony.  The guy hasn't slept all weekend.  What a trooper.

Anyway, the BFCA has always been a decent indicator of the eventual Oscar outcome (as you were consistently reminded of throughout the telecast).  This leaves many thinking "No Country for Old Men" has it in the bag, but even tonight there were industry people doubting its chances for a nomination...industry people who know from an Oscar season.  I'm not brave enough to say that much, but I do think this is going to be the first year in a while where the BFCA Best Picture winner didn't match up with Oscar.  But we'll see.  There's still plenty of time left for this film or that to turn up the campaign heat.

For tonight, in any case, the Coens rule the season.