The Gold Rush

The Oscars will be presented a little later next year.

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards will air live on ABC from the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles on March 7 to avoid coinciding with the Winter Olympics, said Leslie Unger, a spokeswoman for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The 2010 Winter Games are scheduled Feb. 12-28.

The Grammys will be held a bit earlier in 2010.

The 52nd annual awards will air live on CBS from the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Jan. 31.

Neil Portnow, president and CEO of The Recording Academy, says the academy is "delighted to host the world's premiere music event in our hometown again."

The Oscars are a winner -- at least compared with the record ratings low of last year's broadcast.

Sunday night's 81st Annual Academy Awards on ABC climbed 13 percent to 36.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen estimates. Viewership was up in all age groups, and the biggest increases were among men ages 18 to 34.

Tim Gunn wasn't the only nod to "Project Runway" at Sunday's Oscars. The show also featured a behind-the-scenes competition for dress designers. And a Chicago boy won it!

Jack Nicholson with his '98 Oscar for his role in "As Good as It Gets." (AP file)

Anyone notice something missing from the Oscars on Sunday night? Why, for instance, did Hugh Jackman, during his opening front-row schtick, wind up sitting in Frank Langella's lap instead of ... Jack Nicholson's?

Penelope Cruz kisses the Oscar for best supporting actress for her work in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" during Sunday's Academy Awards. (Matt Sayles/AP)

Spain gushed with pride today over Penelope Cruz's Oscar for best supporting actress.

Among the most effusive was two-time Oscar-winning director Pedro Almodovar, who praised Cruz as having a history of "jumping head first and without a parachute, and taking on very risky roles."

"I cried with joy when I heard her name after the classic line 'and the Oscar goes to,"' Almodovar said in a statement.

Best actor winner Sean Penn extended some of his serious, socially conscious message from the podium to his comments backstage.

"What I mentioned from the stage earlier tonight is to see this culture of ignorance, it breeds this kind of hateful expression," he said. "These people had the [anti-gay] signs outside essentially telling you you're less than human."

Heath Ledger's mother Sally Bell (from left), father Kim Ledger and sister Kate arrive at the Governors Ball late Sunday night following the Academy Awards in Hollywood. (Amy Sancetta/AP)

Just before he died, Heath Ledger had an inkling that he might get a statuette for his performance as the Joker in "The Dark Knight," which earned him a posthumous supporting actor Oscar on Sunday. After alluding to it on the podium, the Ledger family elaborated backstage on a conversation they had with him.

"When he came home for Christmas a year ago, he had been sending me shots and bits of pieces from the film," sister Kate Ledger said. "And I said to him, 'I have a feeling this is it for you; you're going to get a nomination for this from the Academy.' And he just looked at me and smiled. So he knew."