If it's an awards night, I'm watching, though with the Grammys there's some trepidation. Two main notes so far:

1. Coldplay won both of the awards they were up for (presented earlier), and then performed "Politik" with the NY Philharmonic under the direction of Michael Kamen (natch). Pretty good, would have liked a little more out of the orchestra (based on Kamen's work with the San Francisco Symphony and Metallica, but he probably had less time here, and I don't think it was the full orchestra). Nice to see Coldplay win, though!

2. While not as Biblical plague-bad as at the Billboard Music Awards, Avril Lavigne was still pretty horrific in her performance of "SK8R Boi." Which means she's probably a shoo-in for Best New Artist.

Let's see, what else? Harvey Fierstein came out in drag (from his role in Hairspray) and presented the best comedy album award with Rod Stewart, who looked incredibly hammered. Robin Williams won, did an OK speech/schtick, but interestingly gave props to Chris Rock for prodding him to get back out on the road. Justin Timberlake presented an award that Britney was nominated for, but didn't win, thus avoiding the drama. Then again, the Grammys are getting about as bad as the AMAs in terms of the award going to someone who just performed.

Puff Daddy and Kim Cattrall presented some award, and he couldn't stop looking at her breasts. Apparently he thought wearing shades would hide the fact- even though he had to turn his head and move it up and down to get the full look he apparently craved.

The show is performance heavy, a ton of awards you'd think would get live coverage didn't. Very odd.

The show's a bit of a celebration of New York City, and to that end Simon and Garfunkel opened with a very off rendition of "The Sounds of Silence." That was too bad.