ME & OSCAR

I have my own personal history with Oscar and the Academy Awards.  I always watched the Oscars when I was a kid and I always loved it.  Every year it reinforced my desire to live in Los Angeles and work in the entertainment industry.

I will never forget the first time I ever saw an Oscar up close.  It was my first day working at Universal Studios and I went to lunch at the commissary.  There, as you walked into the commissary, was Universal Studios Wall of Oscars.  In addition to the producer(s) who win Best Picture, the studio who made Best Picture that year also gets an Oscar.  Warner Bros. uses Oscars in its museum on the studio lot.  But at Universal, it was pretty impressive going to lunch and seeing a display case holding over 30 Oscars for all of Universal's wins.

The first time I ever saw an Academy Award up close was at Chris Mcquarrie's loft in downtown Miami.  I was dating a screenwriter at the time, and he was friends' with Chris.  One evening when we were over there early for movie night, we asked to see it.  Chris showed it to us, but neither my boyfriend at the time, nor myself, would touch it.  Hollywood is notoriously superstitious, and the legend goes, if you touched an Oscar and it wasn't yours, you were cursed and would never receive your own Oscar.  Stephen Spielberg said in interviews in 1994 (when he won for Schindler's List) that the first time he ever touched an Oscar was when it was his for Best Director.  It was definitely cool to see one up close.

However, in the 20 plus year's that I have watched the Academy Awards, this year was the best Academy Awards show I have ever seen.  And it wasn't the actors, dresses, outfits, interviews, the host, the revamped set, gaffes, or anything like that....this year was the year of my 2 favorite acceptance speeches.  Dustin Lance Black gave the most powerful acceptance speech I have ever seen given at the Academy Awards.  Not only was it personal and moving, it's the only Academy Awards speech I know that will literally save lives:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mv35SN3ctU

Sean Penn's acceptance speech for his second win for Best Actor was a great political statement, not as powerful as Lance's, but Mr Penn definitely got more attention because, well, he's Sean Penn:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dnM8v9aaR0

This year was also special because I do know Lance, and also another nominee who didn't win this year for Film Editing, Elliot Graham.  Elliot got run over by the Slumdog winners train, but his editting job intercutting the real life 70's footage realistically into MILK was incredible work all on it's own.  Elliot is in his early 30's and already with 1 AA nomination.  An astonishing achievement for a young film editor even if you do not win.

It is not every day that I personally know 2 people nominated for Academy Awards, and even rare to know a winner.  But that's what makes Hollywood the Cool Town for Show Business.