Neil Patrick Harris, who got rave reviews for hosting the Tonys and the Emmys last year, kicked off the 82nd annual Academy Awards with a musical number - No One Wants to Do It Alone - in reference to the hosts of the show, the wild and crazy Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, or, as Harris called them, "the biggest pair since Dolly Parton."

And with that, the hosts came down from the heavens at the Kodak Theatre, holding hands.

The witty, salty banter that ensued included putting on 3-D glasses to spot director James Cameron in the audience and joking that Meryl Streep, with whom the two starred in It's Complicated, is the most nominated performer in academy history. Or, as Martin said, the performer with the most losses. (Then they joked about having a threesome with Streep on the set.)

Will double the hosts and double the nominees add up to double the fun and ratings?

So far, so good. And it's all going according to the oddsmakers.

The trophy for original song went to Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett for The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart). The award for animated feature film went to Up, which is also nominated for best film. And as expected, Austrian actor Christoph Waltz danced away with supporting actor for playing a brutal Nazi Jew hunter in Inglourious Basterds. All three have dominated this awards season, winning almost every available honour.

Mark Boal won original screenplay for the war drama The Hurt Locker. It was followed by a tribute to the late, great teen-angst writer-director John Hughes, who died unexpectedly last year. Several of the Hughes veterans gathered on stage in his memory, including Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, Matthew Broderick and Judd Nelson.

Awards in the short film categories included Logorama for animated short, Music by Prudence for documentary short and The New Tenants in the live action short category.

For the first time in 66 years, the academy has expanded the number of best picture nominees from five to 10, and the result is an eclectic mixture of blockbusters such as Avatar and indies such as The Hurt Locker and An Education.

And speaking of the best picture winner - will it be The Hurt Locker, which has gained momentum in the past few months despite the recent disclosure that one of the producer's sent e-mails out asking academy members to vote for the film, or the highest grossing movie to date, Avatar, which won the Golden Globe for best drama film?

With those films battling for top prize, perhaps one of the other nominees such as Inglourious Basterds will win.

The academy may also make history -- if Kathryn Bigelow receives the director Oscar for The Hurt Locker, she'll be the first woman to win the honor.

Adding to the fun for Oscar watchers: Bigelow used to be married to Avatar director James Cameron. But there is no rivalry between these two - Cameron has been a vocal supporter of Bigelow's film.