Last night’s Academy Awards were in many ways predictable, rife with the pomp, circumstance, film montages that are supposed to recall the majesty of movies, awards for mostly unsurprising recipients, and almost-funny jokes that we’ve all come to expect. On a side note, one of the evening’s sole surprises was that Hugh Jackman proved to be a very competent master of ceremonies, perhaps, precisely because he is not a comedian with neutered material suitable for prime-time broadcasting. His lack of professional hilarity made it okay to laugh at any semblance of humor, and helped to numb—though not completely alleviate—the pain of Jon Stewart not being asked to host again.

But amidst all of the evening’s self-importance and manufactured magic, something quite wonderful did happen.

In a pre-show red-carpet interview, E! News anchor Ryan Seacrest had a chance to chat with Ron Howard, honorably nominated for his direction of Frost/Nixon. The interview began rotely, with Seacrest asking, “So, Ron Howard, how does it blah blah blah to be blah blah blah’ed this evening?” Howard said, “Oh, it’s really a yada yada yada to even be yada yada yada’ed.”

Then, in an unexpected turn, Seacrest took off his celebrity-gossip-hound hat and put on his journalist hat (which nicely complemented his Barbra Streisand in The Prince of Tides ass-masking therapist pantsuit) and focused on an issue of great importance: Seacrest asked Howard about the mythical Arrested Development movie.

Now, I’m paraphrasing here but the exchange went a little something like this:

RS: Ron, any news on the Arrested Development movie?
RH: It’s looking like it will be made. We’re very optimistic, and I can’t say much more than that. In fact, [the cast and crew] have been asked to stop speaking about it.

While Howard et al. are to be neither seen nor heard, this news only whets the appetite. It is encouraging, though, to know that someone or something may save our Bluths after all.