Well, it’s over for another year, and considering there was a time when we thought it might not happen at all, we’re all pretty relieved that the show went on, mostly as planned. And I’m pretty happy with the results, as well; no other film this year shook me like No Country for Old Men, and on visceral power alone, I think it deserved to win the big prize.
And while the evening wasn’t as surreal and surprising as last year’s event, we had a great time, saw lots of interesting folks, and hung out at the bar with friends. We got caught up in a red carpet traffic jam this time around, and even though Aimee ended up on E! Online and in the Los Angeles Times the next day in the background of various photos, I think we might want to further modify our plan of attack for next year – less being shepherded along by security than last year, but not as much standing in one place as this year.
I was happy to see the Coens, Daniel Day-Lewis and his skinny legs, P. T. Anderson, and Johnny Depp, probably the most interesting or meaningful of the sightings for the evening. We walked in with Patton Oswalt and John Lasseter, on his iPhone, and witnessed the onslaught of the photo corps with Cate Blanchett, Renee Zellweger, and, inexplicably, Donnie Osmond. We didn’t see Clooney, which was a bust for Aimee, but I did order drinks with Paul Dano and Julian Schnabel, and managed to congratulate the star of The Counterfeiters, which I actually saw, and which actually won; I didn’t know it had until after I’d congratulated him, but it seemed like the right thing to do. No real legends on the Scorsese, Eastwood, O’Toole scale like last year, but hey, Edie McClurg and Bruce Vilanch are still memorable folks…
More people spent more time inside the theater, actually watching the show (imagine that), so we didn’t have as many crazy run-ins this time around, but it was still a lot of fun. We headed to Jones again afterwards, and then straight home – I forget how tiring it is to stand for four hours in those crazy shoes that accompany a tuxedo.
