Night to Remember

BRAD AND ANGIE’S BIG DATE!

Best Actress nominee Jolie said her six kids with Pitt were “at home.” Doing what? “Throwing spaghetti against the wall!” said the Best Actor nominee.

Balancing act: Slumdog Millionaire‘s ecstatic Dev Patel called the night “surreal” and scored a lift from costar Madhur Mittal.

“I loved your movie so much!” Best Actress nominee Anne Hathaway told the child stars of Slumdog Millionaire when they asked for her autograph.

Unlikely twosome Seal and Best Actor nominee Mickey Rourke went head-to-head on the red carpet. Oscar night “is glamorous, isn’t it?” said Seal. “And it’s fun!”

HUGH GOT IT!

“He killed it,” raved Josh Brolin about the first-time host (with Beyoncé). “This was the most intimate Academy Awards I’ve ever seen.”

Best Actress winner Winslet (left) shared a hug—and her statue—with Reese Witherspoon backstage.

A TRIBUTE TO HEATH

When the late Heath Ledger won Best Supporting Actor for his twisted performance in The Dark Knight, there was hardly a dry eye in the house. “We really wish you were [here],” said his older sister Kate, “but we proudly accept this award on behalf of your beautiful Matilda.” Ledger’s daughter with actress Michelle Williams will inherit her father’s Oscar on her 18th birthday. Until then, his family will keep his memory shining: “I’m just full of extreme pride,” Ledger’s father, Kim, told PEOPLE. “We’re very proud of what Heath has done.”

Ledger’s mother, Sally Bell (far right, with Kim and Kate), says Matilda is “totally like her daddy.”

“I loved singing and dancing up there,” Amanda Seyfried (right) said after her performance with Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron.

After winning Best Actor, Sean Penn didn’t thank his wife, Robin. With good reason: “With Robin comes my mother, my son and daughter. Half of them will punish me if I mention them,” he later said on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

• BEST LINE OF THE NIGHT
• “You look like you work in a Hasidic meth lab.”
• —Natalie Portman, to Ben Stiller as he spoofed Joaquin Phoenix