The UK has the largest earthquake in 25 years and yours truly slept right through it! My flatmate and many other friends felt it (including one who was up watching a spooky episode of “Supernatural”..talk about timing!), but nooo, I was dead to the world catching up on sleep from the Oscars. Check out the report on BBC (“Earthquake felt across much of UK” …well, except by me, damn!), and be sure to browse through the funny, snarky comments in this forum.Never one to miss the Oscars(well, except for last year with school and all), I was up until 5:30am (gotta love that time difference!) The photo above was the flyer for the party I attended. Please note the unrealistic, or is that optimistic, ending time of 4am (GMT), aka 11pm (EST). When was the last time the Oscars ended at 11? Perhaps way back when it was the last time that there were no American winners in the 4 major acting categories. According to my flatmate, it was 1964 when Rex Harrison/Julie Andrews/Peter Ustinov/and “some Russian woman” took home the trophies. I have yet to confirm this on IMDB.
I was ecstatic about the 4 acting winners this year, and had correctly picked them all to win in the pool (though did not win the whole enchilada). Loved all of their speeches so much! Javier and his mom, Tilda taking the piss out of Clooney, Marion so emotional in her City of Angels, and of course my main man Daniel kneeling to The Queen. Have you seen him in “There Will Be Blood” yet? What are you waiting for? Get down to your Cineplex pronto and drink up the tasty milkshake that is Paul Thomas Anderson’s amazing film. (Si
debar – is it just me or is Anderson a dead ringer for Joshua “Pacey” Jackson?)The crowd where we watched was very pro-Marion Cotillard and also very pro-“Once” for Best Song! Hurray! So glad that won. Those “Enchanted” songs kind of blew, but apparently they work better in the film itself, which I am finally seeing on Saturday as Tricycle’s showing it as their “family fare film.” The Oscar party I attended was at this cool venue, Rich Mix, in East London. It is part cinema, part gallery (kind of like Tricyle). They did a great job with their FREE! inaugural shin-dig (black tablecloths, gold accessories, gorgeous roses on the table). The tuxedoed emcee hosted an Oscar trivia quiz throughout the red-carpet arrivals (we placed third!) and of course there were ballots to fill out and lots of appetizers and dessert food (though no movie candy like my parties, alas!). The pic is of friends Alison and Caroline partaking in the free glass of champagne on arrival!
And I’d like to give a toast to Jon Stewart who I thought did a pretty damn good job and had us chuckling often. My favorite was when they came out of the award for film editing, “Film Editing! Dude, you know someone just moved into the lead of their Oscar pool based on a total guess!” Ha! Soo true (Go “Bourne Ultimatum!”). Also loved the intro monologue talking about all the dark best pic nominees. “Thank god there’s Juno and teen pregnancy!” Even better Jon Stewart can be found in his interview with Larry King a few days before the Oscars. His comments on writers’ strike, election, etc. are funny and/or so dead-on-the-money. I love him!! Who else do I love? Time magazines “Last Movie Star” George Clooney. Have you seen this video when he goes to their reporters’ home for dinner? Classic! (Sidebar – Clooney’s date’s Oscar dress was horrible! Looked like my old Florida-esque sofa, and/or a dress I wore in the 80s! Though worst dress of the night award Has to go to Daniel DL’s wife. Oh, the horror!)
On a nicer note, it was great to see Owen Wilson presenting, and Helen Mirren (despite the annoying doilies on her dress) did the best introduction of a category ever! The woman drips class! Also liked how they had the soldiers introduce the short documentary nominees. Overall thought it was an ok show in the short time they had to prepare. Main complaint was too many clips, not enough time for thank you speeches. Did they rush those people off quick or what? Heaven forbid you had more than 2 people on your winning team!
Lots of winning outfits too, not too many clunkers (though lots of bad messy hair – this means you Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Garner). Red and black seemed to be the colours of choice (Heidi Klum – Amazing) and call me crazy, but I kind of liked Tilda Swinton’s theatrical black number. I covet Laura Linney’s hair. She was interviewed on the red carpet by the UK’s Sky tv presenter and was really funny. Turns out she is here filming in the UK (must track her down to get hair tips), and nearly missed her flight to LA. She asked the presenter if she could send a thank-you out to “Phyllis at Virgin Atlantic who held the plane for me!” Bless!
Well, I see I’ve held you all up with an overlong blog post, so will wrap up now. Hope everyone is doing well!
Bringing you all the glitz an
