During last night’s special, Oprah Winfrey didn’t conduct the interviews. She just set up taped bits, introducing a series of stars interviewing each other about Oscar night. Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz exchanged compliments. (Berry, re Cruz in Nine: “I thought you were sexy from the inside out.”)

James Cameron, who was interviewed by his Avatar star Sigourney Weaver, was gracious about being nominated in the same categories as his ex-wife, Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow. Did you expect him to bad-mouth her?

Glenn Close and Michael Douglas looked at clips and talked — “for the first time,” said Oprah in her intro — about Fatal Attraction. Close allowed as how she thought the famous boiled-rabbit scene was “over the top.” They discussed the re-shooting of Fatal‘s final scene. The original, in which Close’s character committed suicide, didn’t go over well with preview audiences. “The audience wanted you to be killed,” said Douglas.

Close said changing the ending (having Anne Archer’s character shoot her) was “a profound problem for me… I was so mad.”

They hugged and said they were grateful to be friends after all these years.

A charming Ben Affleck interviewed Hurt Locker‘s Jeremy Renner, occasionally reading off, as some of the other stars did, cards.  He asked Renner questions such as “You grew up in Modesto, California… what was that like?” and “Do you have women throwing themselves at you since being nominated?”

The format for this show was silly. You can’t blame the actors, though. They’re not interviewers; they’re not trying to tease out anything that might make a colleague uncomfortable.

What else is there to say? Good luck to those who are nominated this year.