Annie's Oscar Notes 2012

"It's a wonderful night for the Oscars..."

That's how host Billy Crystal opened his musical monologue on Sunday night, and oh yes it was. :-)

 

It's hard to believe this was my 4th time to work at Hollywood's biggest night.  It still feels a bit surreal. The thing that never ceases to amaze me is how many moving parts there are to this show.  It literally takes hundreds of people and thousands of hours of work to put it all together.

As I mentioned in my last post, I was on the Host Committee for the first time this year. There were many moving parts and assignments within this committee alone.  My assignments included walking talent down the press line on the red carpet and then acting as a floater between the press and photo rooms during the show.  After the show I headed to glamorous and beautiful Governor's Ball.  (Holla!)

Here are my favorite moments that happened on one of my favorite nights of the year....

Getting red carpet ready...

The past 3 years, my talented friend Skyler worked on my red carpet bleacher crew and did my hair/makeup.  We weren't working together this year, so I began to explore other options. And what a wonderful option I found! One of the host committee leaders arranges for hair/makeup artists to come in on show day and essentially turns her hotel room at the Renaissance into a salon. Security is insane that day, so this seemed like the most convenient plan.  After I made my appointment I found out that the woman doing my makeup is an extremely accomplished makeup artist for film/television (including being a key makeup artist on Best Picture winner The Artist!). Her name is Zoe Hay and she was so great. I showed her a photo of what I wanted and in 30 minutes she had given me just that (and it somehow still looked good 15 hours later at the Governors Ball). Next up, hair. My hair stylist didn't work on an Oscar-nominated film, but she was pretty badass too.  She used to be the hair stylist on 90210 and is currently working The Middle. She worked her magic and 30 minutes later, I was ready to go!

The Oscars red carpet is larger than any carpet I've worked on before, so I wasn't quite sure what the press line would be like. Since it's a constant stream of cameras, I knew I had a high probability of being in the background of some photos, so I made a mental note to look happy.  Not that I wasn't THRILLED to be there... I was... but my neutral face tends to look pissed, and I definitely didn't want that.  ;-) 

Red carpet excursion #1: Fun Brazilian nominees.

Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown at the 84th Academy Awards - Click here for this week’s top video clips

(You can see me at the beginning of this video). 

My first walk down the carpet was with Carlinhos Brown.  He is a very outgoing Brazilian (complete with dreads and a formal turban to accessorize his tuxedo) who was nominated for Best Original Song for Rio.  (He didn't win :-/). As you might imagine with smaller categories, there is less of a demand for interviews than with big names like Clooney and Brangelina. Fortunately, we met up with one of his co-writers/nominees on the song, Sergio Mendes. They made quite a dynamic duo and started giving impromptu lively performances of their nominated song, which definitely led them to getting more interviews. You can see a little performance in the above video. They were so sweet and fun! Definitely livened up the red carpet. :-) 

Red carpet excursion #2: Sassy Sherri Shepherd.

(You can see me in the first part of this video too.)

My second (and final) walk down the carpet was with Sherri Shepherd. (Walking down takes a surprisingly long time!)  She's on The View (and as announced Tuesday, on the new cast of Dancing With the Stars, even though she coyly tried to deny that rumor in the above video).  She was hosting one of the Oscar.com stages, but since she wasn't a nominee, she wasn't doing much press. She was having a great time heading down the carpet: interacting with fans, talking to friends, tweeting, making jokes... the usual. On several occasions, reporters thought she was Best Supporting Actress nominee (and now winner), Octavia Spencer.  She funnily corrected them. (Ha... looks like Octavia tried to set the record straight on her Twitter yesterday: "@octaviaspencer Dear Hollywood: Sherri Shepherd And Octavia Spencer Are Not The Same Person but we are dear friends, LOL.").

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The crazy Ryan Seacrest/Sacha Baron Cohen red carpet stunt...

This was probably the craziest thing that happened in the past 4 years I've worked the show.  If you haven't seen it yet, here it is (you can see me starting at the 2:00 minute mark): 

Hahaha... yowza.  Okay, here's how this experience went down. Sherri had stopped for a quick interview by the E! cameras and someone in her group said "oooh...let's see if we can get Ryan Seacrest!" As crazy fate would have it, this occurred approximately 30 seconds after "The Dictator" poured the urn of ashes all over Ryan.  We had literally just missed seeing this insane thing happen, though, so when I saw the inexplicable huge MESS all over him and the surrounding area (we're talking like a huge MOUND of ashes/pancake mix... everywhere.), I had NO idea what had happened.  The only thing I could possibly think of was that maybe one of the light fixtures above him had somehow combusted. I think you can even see me looking up at the lights at one point. Ha. (Not the most the logical hypothesis, I know, but this definitely was not a situation that made sense without any context... ha).  Ryan was desperately trying to clean himself off and not interviewing anyone, so I didn't think they were filming.  So many things were running through my head: "What the hell is this mess?" "How is he going to get that off his tux?? What is he going to do??" "They specifically asked for Ryan... should I tap him on the shoulder to see if he wants an interview?" "If we don't do Ryan, who should the next interview be??" So, yeah... all that and many more things were racing through my mind in the above video. Thank GOODNESS I didn't tap Mr. Seacrest on the shoulder to ask if he wanted an interview while he was (unbeknownst to me) on LIVE TV. Since this was a real possibility that legitimately almost happened, the thought of that scenario alone sends mortifying, embarrassed feelings to the pit of my stomach. Ha. Luckily, I decided that he obviously had his hands full with the mystery mess and we should keep walking.  A few minutes later, my phone starts blowing up.  I got Mary's text first: "We just saw you on E!!!" and that is when I knew... "Oh my goodness... they WERE filming!" And lo and behold, that crazy, super confusing moment, is now a viral sensation that has 8 million views on YouTube.  Definitely a memorable (hilarious) Oscar moment.

The greatest accidental photo bomb of my life. 

Oh. My. Goodness. I love Meryl Streep. So needless to say, I was quite excited when she rounded the corner of the red carpet to the area where Sherri was giving an interview. The gorgeous Best Actress winner gracefully and graciously posed for photos as I looked on admiringly and Sherri wrapped it up.  (When she finished the interview she said, "Okay, let's go. You know you're done when Meryl Streep comes over." which I found to be hilarious... and true).  

The next day, I got a Facebook notification on my phone as I was drifting off into a much-needed nap.  I thought my sweet old college friend, Heather, might just be tagging me in the Ryan Seacrest thing again, but much to my pleasant surprise, it was THIS photo (that I didn't even know existed)! She said she saw it on the Yahoo homepage and spotted me.  (I've since seen it on the US Weekly site as well). Annnnnd... now it's my Facebook profile pic. ;-) 

Bret McKenzie is a character.
 

Although I was sad for my new Brazilian buddies when they didn't win Best Original Song, I must say that Bret McKenzie was a great winner for his song on The Muppets. 1/2 of the hilarious duo from New Zealand, Flight of the Conchords, he is definitely comfortable (and very charismatic) in front of cameras. I personally witnessed him both jumping on the red carpet and tossing his Oscar up for photo ops. In the interview room, a reporter asked "How was it writing songs without your Flight of the Conchords bandmate, Jermaine?" Bret held up the Oscar and said, "Pretty good actually." Hahah.

George came over to the bleacher fans again. 

He's such a great guy!

Backstage with Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis

Presenters are invited to come back with the winners for photos. I would say probably a little less than half of the presenters chose to do this, and the others opted to go back to their seats.  Luckily, the extremely hilarious duo of Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis chose to come back. They are seriously so funny.  As they waited to go into the photo room, they sipped white wine and champagne with Bret McKenzie and discussed what he should do with his new shiny statuette. 

"What are you going to do with it? Do you have a car? It would make a really nice hood ornament," Will suggested. 

"Or a trailer hitch!" Zach added. 

"Or maybe I could put it on my dashboard like one of those hula dancer things so it sways while I drive!" 

Tina Fey is hilarious too.

 I was excited that hilarious Tina Fey and gorgeous Bradley Cooper (though I'm not a fan of his 'stache) joined their winners in the photo room as well.  The first photo op for the Academy's archive was set up with a white background and a white chair for the winners to sit in.  Tina got in place behind the chair and said "Welcome to Sears!" with her perfectly hilarious delivery. She's so great. 

 Brief interaction with my ultimate friend crush.

 I had the same fun job I've had the past 3 years at the Governors Ball (the official Academy Awards after-party, hosted by the Academy's Board of Governors).  I stood by the second staircase and asked the nominees/winners/presenters if they wanted to do the press line.  I'm not sure if the set up was different on the bottom floor this year, but for some reason, not nearly as many people came up my staircase as in years past.  That's okay, though, because my ultimate friend crush, Emma Stone (who I thought was definitely the best presenter on the show), did! She walked up with Kristen Wiig (how fun would it be to hang out with those two??).  Our interaction was very brief, essentially just me asking if she wanted to do the press line and her saying no thank you, but it still was my favorite part of the ball. :-) 

Speaking of the ball, it was stunning and beautiful (as always) and the legendary Tony Bennett performed. 

For a 360 degree look of the Govornors Ball, click here.

And those, my darlings, are my favorite moments of the 84th Annual Academy Awards. Such a fun night and so great to be with my beloved old co-workers again.  As always, I'd like to thank the Academy... :-)  

xoxo, 

Annie.