February
2The Pre-Oscar Love-In
The annual Oscar nominees’ lunch is unique – it’s the only party no one complains about attending. Even those stars who, like the fabled Garbo, “vant to be alone,” relish Monday’s fraternal in-gathering.“Artists are uncomfortable courting the approval of their peers,” said Peter Morgan, the British writer-director, explaining why angst is so pervasive on the kudo campaign trail. At the Oscar lunch, however, the nominees aren’t seeking approval; they’re wallowing in it.
I have been attending nominees’ lunches for years and find their rituals to be delightfully anachronistic. The lunch commences with the proverbial red carpet (a relatively new innovation, but at least it moves super-fast), followed by cocktails with hugs and air-kisses. Seating at lunch follows a sternly egalitarian pattern. A superstar sits next to a documentarian from Moscow (or even a journalist; a select few annually wedge their way onto the list).
After salads are munched, the ceremony comes to a clumsy conclusion as every nominee moves to the front of the room for a group picture and a handshake with Sid Ganis, the president of the Academy. This was once a cool idea when there were fewer nominees. There are now 112 and more than a few are sufficiently geriatric to find the 30-minute stand-around excruciating.
So even though I didn’t get a nomination this year (or last), the nominees’ luncheon is great spectator sport. Where else can you have a congenial conversation with Kate Winslet, Robert Downey Jr., Frank Langella, Ron Howard, or Penelope Cruz all in the space of 40 minutes?
The one trait the stars all have in common: As stars, they just flew in from one shoot and are flying out to another (stars never just hang). Downey, who’s beginning to look like Humphrey Bogart, is going back tonight to the U.K. for more shooting on “Sherlock Holmes,” which he says, “is shaping up to be totally unlike any other Holmes movie, indeed any other movie.”Also claiming to be doing things differently are the co-producers of the upcoming Oscar show, Bill Condon and Larry Mark. Not only will the awards be presented in an unprecedented manner (no one’s explaining the specifics), but seating in the Kodak theater will be altered so that everyone in the audience feels a part of the show. “All I can say to the nominees is, stay alert,” admonished Sid Ganis. Again, he was being coy, but not specific.
Ganis also reminded nominees not to read lists of “thank yous” if they win the prize. “This will truly be your moment,” he said to guests at the luncheon. “But it will be only 45 seconds long, and you will share it with many millions of people.”
The assembled nominees responded with nervous smiles.
Subscribe to Peter Bart's Blog Feed
Incredible site!
Posted by: mexican pharmacies overnight shipping ph | 10/29/2009 2:57:15 AM
Perfect site, i like it!
Posted by: prescription medications medical fed ex | 10/25/2009 9:34:41 AM