The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...

Jon Stewart Is No Chris Matthews

As Oscar host, Jon Stewart let the woman talk!  He deserves an award of his own—a plate of brownies, maybe?—for bringing the silenced Markéta Irglová, who won for best original song but got the hook before she could open her mouth, back onstage to have her say. I wasn't sure how well Stewart's Hillary joke went over; he said the Julie Christie movie Away From Her, about a woman with Alzheimer's, "is about a woman who forgets her husband. Hillary Clinton called it the feel-good movie of the year.'' But everyone from Miley Cyrus to Helen Mirren seemed to have been shopping at that red dress store Hillary and Cindy and Michelle like so much. And since I've already blown Lent anyway, isn't Nicole Kidman too young to be looking so waxy?