The big event

February 28th, 2011 · No Comments

Aimee took one for the team this year and stayed home with Grace while my mom and I went to the show. It was a little different this year, as I guess it is every year, but as always, a lot of fun. The red carpet was set up slightly differently, but we managed to arrive at just the right time to be able to camp there and see a lot of folks walk right by us as they came in: Cate Blanchett, Scarlett Johansson, Danny Boyle, Tom Hooper, Marisa Tomei, Jennifer Hudson, Francis Ford Coppola, Mark Ruffalo, and many others; I was especially excited to see Aron Ralston, the man whose story was told in 127 Hours.

We dawdled near the end of the red carpet, as well, and watched as Steven Spielberg, Russell Brand, Halle Berry, Hilary Swank, Zachary Levi, and Melissa Leo passed by. We were right behind Rochester’s own Robert Forster, as well, while he was getting his photo taken, so we ended up in this photo (and many more that look just like it, undoubtedly):

We watched more of the show from our seats that I’d done in the past, which was fun, and my mom had a good time just taking it all in. I went down to the second level bar (Micky Ward and Dickey Eklund, John Hawkes from Winter’s Bone) and then managed to get down to the first level eventually (Annette Bening, Warren Beatty, Mark Wahlberg, Tim Burton, Natalie Portman, and so on). I spent some time in the Eastman Room, along with Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Sandra Bullock, Christopher Nolan, and others—always these strange combinations—and tried not to step on Donald Trump’s shoe. What was he doing there? I congratulated Melissa Leo, Francis Ford Coppola, and the live action short winner Luke Matheny, which was the extent of my interactions for the evening. I went back up for some more of the show, and then we headed down to join my mom’s friend who was a seat-filler, and we all watched the parade of exiting guests, always a star-studded few minutes. Lots of fun, as always.

Tags: Film · Los Angeles