Being backstage in the press room amounts to a lot of waiting around. You can tune in to the telecast on a headset when the winners, ushered to us after receiving their Oscars, are not at the podium taking questions. Even then, it becomes tedious; I hate to say it, but even journalists don't much care what a production designer or technical Oscar-winner has to say. So you look forward to the big stars coming through, for the moments of true giddiness and jubilance that can only be delivered by an actor or actress who's been waiting years for their moment to shine.

Kate Winslet gave us one of those big emotional moments. At the end of a three hour plus telecast, her speech onstage revealed a bundle of nerves --- a seasoned actress who, despite numerous accolades this year alone, was obviously still blown away by her first Academy Award win.

Backstage minutes later, she was still visibly overwhelmed. Clutching her Oscar with both hands, shock still on her face, Winslet still had tears of joy in her eyes. After answering a few minutes of questions, she paused. "It's sort of dawning on me now that I just won an Oscar," she mumbled, looking down at the statuette. "It's only starting to sink in right now actually. Oh, my God."

When a familiar voice took the microphone to ask the next question, she ran off the stage to greet him. "Baz, where are you?" After greeting Daily Mail columnist Baz Bamigboye with a hug --- he's been interviewing her for almost two decades -- she returned.

On the controversy surrounding her film The Reader, for which she won Best Actress: "I don't have any concerns, you know. I mean, I can't be responsible for the emotional response that an audience has to any film," she said. "I don't think any actor really can, and I think going into it, I was very aware that if an audience did feel any level of sympathy for Hanna, and they felt morally compromised as a consequence, that would be an interesting emotion for them to then deal with. It certainly wasn't my intention to make people sympathize with an SS guard."

Next: Best Actor Sean Penn gets political in the press room