There weren’t too many surprises from last night’s Oscars show, but there was one moment in the ceremony that was truly unexpected: although Jack Nicholson took the stage to announce the Best Picture winner—Argo, in case you missed it—he didn’t share the results. In fact, it was Michelle Obama, appearing via a live satellite feed, who opened the all-important envelope.

The First Lady’s involvement was kept secret up until the last moment — she wasn’t even included on the show production schedule, reports Deadline. The White House’s official statement on the event said that the First Lady, a big movie fan, was excited to take part in the presenting of such a significant honor. The idea to do the announcement via satellite came from Harvey Weinstein’s daughter Lily Weinstein, says Roger Friedman at ShowBiz411, after it became clear that there was no way the First Lady would make it to Los Angeles for the event; Sunday night was also the evening of the National Governors Association Dinner at the White House.

Many thing could have gone wrong in this complicated plan, but the show’s producers had a Plan B, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Although the chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers was in Washington to hand the Argo envelope to the First Lady—yes, even Michelle Obama has to find out the winner’s identity along with the viewers at home—there was a back-up envelope in a key location: as you can see in the video below, it was in Jack Nicholson’s hand.

(WASHINGTON) — Michelle Obama made a surprise appearance at the Oscars, opening the envelope that contained the name of the Best Picture winner, “Argo.”

Appearing via streaming video from the White House, Mrs. Obama said all of the nominees demonstrated that “we can overcome any obstacle.”

She said that message is “especially important for our young people” and thanked Hollywood for encouraging children “to open their imaginations.”

The first lady was introduced by Jack Nicholson, who noted that the Best Picture trophy is usually announced solo.

Mrs. Obama wore a silver, art deco-inspired gown by Indian-born American fashion designer Naeem Khan. It was the same dress she wore for the Obamas’ dinner with the nation’s governors at the White House Sunday night.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ang Lee has won the Academy Award for best director for his “Life of Pi.”

It’s the second Oscar for Lee, who won in 2005 for “Brokeback Mountain.” The Taiwanese director was also nominated in 2000 for directing “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” He becomes only the 19th director to win the honor multiple times.

The other nominees Sunday night were Steve Spielberg (”Lincoln”), Michael Haneke (”Amour”), David O. Russell (”Silver Linings Playbook”) and Benh Zeitlin (”Beasts of the Southern Wild”).

This year’s directing category was one of the most controversial, as it left out Ben Affleck for “Argo” and Kathryn Bigelow for “Zero Dark Thirty.”

THANKING THE ‘MOVIE GOD’

Ang Lee had his priorities in order when he gave one of his first thank you’s to the “movie god.”

The Taiwanese director pulled off a huge upset when he won an Academy Award for directing “Life of Pi.” He beat out front-runner and two-time Oscar winner Steven Spielberg.

Lee also gave a shoutout to the shipwreck story’s lead actor, Suraj Sharma, but didn’t thank the rest of the cast by name.

“I cannot waste this time talking about them,” he said sheepishly.

He did slip in a quick mention of his agent, his lawyer and of course his wife.

“I have to do that,” he said.

BEST PICTURE

Ben Affleck’s “Argo,” a film about a fake movie, has earned a very real prize: best picture at the Academy Awards.

In share-the-wealth mode, Oscar voters spread Sunday’s honors among a range of films, with “Argo” winning three trophies but “Life of Pi” leading with four.

Daniel Day-Lewis became the first person to win three best-actor Oscars, the latest coming for “Lincoln,” while “Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence triumphed in Hollywood’s big games as best actress for “Silver Linings Playbook.”

The supporting-acting prizes went to Anne Hathaway for “Les Miserables” and Christoph Waltz for “Django Unchained.” It was Waltz’s second supporting-actor Oscar in a Quentin Tarantino film after previously winning for “Inglourious Basterds.” Tarantino also earned his second Oscar, for the “Django” screenplay, a category he previously won for “Pulp Fiction.”

From the White House, first lady Michelle Obama joined Jack Nicholson to help present the final prize to “Argo.”

“I never thought I’d be back here, and I am because of so many of you in this academy,” said Affleck, who shared a screenplay Oscar with pal Matt Damon 15 years earlier for their breakout film “Good Will Hunting.”

Among the wisdom he’s acquired since then: “You can’t hold grudges — it’s hard but you can’t hold grudges.”

Hollywood usually reserves 3-D for very specific, box-office-friendly genres — superhero films like “The Avengers,” fantasies like the Harry Potter franchise and animated movies like “Toy Story 3.”

But in “Life of Pi,” which screens Friday as one of AFI Fest’s centerpiece galas, director Ang Lee charted some new depths thematically with the format — he used 3-D to shoot an adaptation of a soulful novel about a boy stranded at sea with a Bengal tiger.

“‘Life of Pi’ breaks the paradigm that 3-D has to be some big, action fantasy spectacle, superhero movie,” said James Cameron, whose 3-D production company, Cameron Pace Group, helped equip Lee’s set.

“The movie is visually amazing, inventive, and it works on you in ways you’re not really aware of. It takes you on a journey, and unless you’ve read the book — which I hadn’t — you have no idea where that journey is going. It does what good 3-D is supposed to do, which is, it allows you to forget you’re watching a 3-D movie.”

When he was first considering how to film “Life of Pi,” which is based on Yann Martel’s bestselling book, Lee visited what Cameron and his business partner, Vince Pace, call the “digital sandbox” at their company’s Burbank offices.

Cameron said he and Pace were eager to work with Lee, who won an Oscar for directing the 2005 cowboy romance “Brokeback Mountain,” in part to show how 3-D could be used on a very different film from Cameron’s own “Avatar.”

“Life is Pi” boasts plenty of action — a dramatic sea storm capsizes a ship full of zoo animals. But much of the film’s story centers on the lonely hours that Pi, an Indian teenage boy played by newcomer Suraj Sharma, spends at sea with his tiger companion. And there are lots of dreamlike shots of the natural world that feel light-years away from a comic book movie – botanical gardens in Pondicherry, India; a mysterious island full of meerkats; a school of flying fish.

“This is what drives me crazy about Hollywood right now,” Cameron said. “We’re five, six years into the 3-D renaissance and we’re sort of still at that stage they were in the ’40s with color where they said, ‘This is a B movie, this’ll be in black-and-white. And this movie’ll be in color.’ Everybody knows the movies that should be in 3-D, right? Except they’re wrong.”

LOS ANGELES — “The Avengers” continues to muscle out everything else Hollywood throws at it, easily sinking naval rival “Battleship” and other new releases.

With US$55.1 million domestically, Disney’s superhero sensation remained No. 1 for a third-straight weekend and took in more than the three big newcomers combined. “The Avengers” is approaching the US$1.2 billion mark worldwide.

Universal’s “Battleship” opened at No. 2 with US$25.4 million domestically, adding to the US$226.8 million the board-game adaptation has earned overseas since launching in April.

Sacha Baron Cohen’s comedy “The Dictator” debuted in third-place with US$17.4 million for the weekend. Since opening Wednesday, the Paramount release has taken in US$24.5 million.

Lionsgate’s pregnancy comedy “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” featuring Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez, premiered at No. 5 with US$10.5 million.