The happiest writer in the world this morning

Hands down, has to be Mark Boal, the screenwriter behind "The Hurt Locker" which picked up Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture at last night's Oscars in an epic triumph of good over evil. Boal, a New York-born reporter who has also written for Rolling Stone and the Village Voice, apparently wrote a movie so realistic he is now being sued by a man who thinks the character of a rogue bomb-disposal expert (played by Jeremy Renner in the movie) was based on him. Tough break.

Second happiest is probably Sapphire, the author of the novel "Precious" was based on, because after screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher (the first African-American to win a screenwriting Oscar) thanked her in his speech, she even got a brief reaction shot in the audience. Then they cut back to Morgan Freeman, because ABC was apparently under contract to cut to him every ten minutes. It was duller than last year's awards, but somewhat redeemed by the twist ending.

ETA: I wasn't going to do this, but third happiest has to be Elinor Burkett, who caused one of the night's weirdest scenes when she cut in on her co-director's acceptance speech for Best Documentary Short. She completely Kanyed, if Kanye ever wore a purple silk caftan. (Likely.) Her name jogged my memory and now I realize she came to speak at my high school after her nonfiction book ANOTHER PLANET: A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A SUBURBAN HIGH SCHOOL was published. Well... she had her moment.