Golden Evening

It all actually began the night before at the Beverly Wilshire (hotel in "Pretty Woman") pre-award party for nominees. The above shot is on the rooftop. I got to meet M*ley there finally, and we hung around a bit, then dashed (we'd been entertaining my in-laws all day long) out to a restaurant for food. Oh yeah, the restaurant had a creek under-glass running through it. Because it's Beverly Hills.

(The Four Seasons)

A limo picked us up promptly at 1pm, to begin what would last 10 full hours!
We arrived at The Four Seasons Beverly Hills for a garden party just for the D*sn*y P*x*r nominees, where I got to meet Jeff Garlin (he's one of our favorite comedic actors...he makes us laugh!). After that, it was back in the limo!

(yep, I wore 'em!)

The limos then all began a processional that also involved a security check (it was like a pit-crew ran up and shook the car down). . .


We arrived at the start of the red carpet.

Another security check point that either didn't register my camera, or they didn't care. But we were warned that NO photos are allowed inside, and cameras would be confiscated. Stay tuned to see how I got around that. :)

See the bleechers? I believe that is a lottery list you get on to sit and watch arrivals. I have friends who've done it for The Oscars.

Ok.. I felt REALLY weird just snapping photos of the celebrities around us, and was very cautious and shy about it... but... some people are just too pretty to pass up. Smile, Mario!

The variety of clothes astounded me. You name it, people wore it.

Every 100 feet or so along the curved Red Carpet path, would be a mini-stage for E!, People, Hollywood Insider, etc...

And on the opposite side... the press... My B and Co made their way along the pressline, being interviewed solidly from 3:15p to just before the awards started at 5pm PST.

I couldn't resist. She was standing so close to us!

Ross the Intern with The Tonight Show! He cracks me up!

The Dresses... most of the celebs arrived in the last 5 minutes, I kid you not.
So these dresses are other attendees mostly.

Green...
Lavender....

Olive....

Blue, White....

Black....

Purple....

Magenta....

You name the color, it was there. :)

And we did pass by some celebs being interviewed... do you watch the Sci-Fi show, True Blood?

Surely you recognize this Sci-Fi star. :)

And that's Kevin from Ent*urage, nominated that evening. There might be a certain someone else in that shot too. :)

I am rarely star-struck. But when they're all there, all at once, within 2 to 20 feet of you, it gets surreal. And they mingle like crazy and move around. This is the Seating Chart of the evening! I was scanning it in the limo before we got there. Zoom in and see.

So I could NOT take photos once inside. But there's nothing wrong with taking photos off your own darn TV! So here are some shots. Above, that's "the pitt" where most of the film stars were. TV stars were up on the next level, etc. VERY tight quarters. We arrived so late, they wouldn't serve us food! (or any of the celebs down in the pitt with us). So we had champagne. B & Co were being interviewed up til 3 minutes to showtime and we just didn't make the food cutoff time.

So who can you see in the above photo? Leo, Kate, Speilberg, the back of a certain director's head, and maybe MY BIG OLE HEAD! lol

Marissa Tomei... who was pretty much seated next to me during the evening. And this is evidence.

This shot cracks me up... There is B, Marissa, her date/hubby... and T*m Cru*se!

I am of course obscured by the lovely Marissa. But B isn't, is he! Our friends Monty & Mike spotted this shot and texted me right away (during the show, as it was LIVE for East Coasters).

Ralph Fiennes ... and maybe someone who is very close to me... again, I'm right there, darn it, I'm just too short! Susan Sarandan is sitting next to Ralph out of shot, right in front of B.

Kate, Leo... and two tables away... B!

Finally... you can actually see part of me in this one. :) Barely! And you can also see how close I was sitting to Colin Farrell. :) Robert Downey Jr. was just a table away from there, as was Tom Hanks.

The shot most of our friends and family spotted.

The lovely Laura Linney hugging Anne Hathaway... ok, not my best angle, but there I am! During the course of the evening, every commercial break would send celebs rushing from table to table to chat with each other. Brad stood right next to me, accidentally bumped me even. Hayden from Heroes, also stood next to me. Two tables away, Emma Thompson (I complemented her wildly fun clutch... covered in tiffany blue feathers) and Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood.

Ok... above... looking in from the right... you see a glimpse of a red shirted guy (a J*nas Brother), I'm right next to him above the blond head. I was returning to our table after break, the 4 glasses of Moet having braced my courage enough to go up and talk to Shirley MacLaine. So that's me in a J*nas Brothers sandwhich (the other two to my left), then Colin Farrell, then Marissa's date, and clapping his hands together, watching me return is B. :)

At the end, I got up and moved toward the exit, and once up on this upper level, it dawned on me, the show is over, I can take photos! A parting shot of the stage above the pitt is all I really got. But what an evening. We saw the casts of The Office, 30 Rock, Ugly Betty... Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Kevin Bacon, Neil Patrick Harris. It was an embarrassment of riches.

I'll take what I got, and consider myself quite lucky indeed. Surprises? Colin is shorter than I thought, Ralph Fiennes is strikingly handsome in person, Sally Field has NOT aged, Shirley is quite regal, Tom somehow looks younger, and Laura Dern looks as much like Wendy in person as she does on TV/Movies. :) And yes, we did get a "swag bag." These nominee gifts can now only be worth $600 or less, otherwise they are taxable. But the leather travel bags we got alone are each worth $450. Hachi Machi.

I'm tired. But it's time to fly off for the big B*lt Euro Press Junket adventure. Three countries in 13 days. And then I may just bury myself in domestic-life once we return and not go anywhere or do anything for til June! Yeah right, Shephard. I'm grateful for my life.

~Shephard

Labels: Golden Globes

posted by Shephard @
9:57 PM |