You Can Take the Girl Out of Hollywood...

It's Oscar week in America. I know, you’re thinking, Oscar week? Yes, for the lovers of film and the industry obsessed, this week marks the beginning of the parties, the last of the press junkets, and the final push to see all the films before those envelopes are opened.

It’s kind of a big deal to a once starlet dreamer like me…

At the 1997 Academy Awards Red Carpet at the Shrine Auditorium.

I’ve been to the Oscars twice. That is, I’ve cheered from the stands as my favorite stars paraded the red carpet in front of the reporters. I watched as Nicole Kidman held Tom Cruise’s hand and lured him away from reporters to get in the doors at the last minute. I posed for pictures with my friends as Sam Jackson took MY picture while he walked the red carpet. And I marveled at the glory that was Kate Winslet in her green goddess gown accompanied by Celine Dion wearing “The Heart of The Ocean” the year Titanic took it all.

It was a bucket list experience and at the time, not for the faint of heart. Both times I was a red carpet attendee involved numerous sleepless nights on the sidewalk, unpleasant port-a-potty visits, and quite possibly a few skipped college classes. But was it worth it? You bet it was! I love the movies.

I miss being in LA at this time of year. I love the billboards, the ads, the “For Your Consideration” posts in the newspapers, and I especially miss the chance that you might score a screener from a friend in the Academy.

Each year Academy members are given screeners of the current films up for consideration and or nomination in order to view them before voting. In screeners, the films were always letterboxed and ran a disclaimer at the bottom stating the ownership of the production company- this both made you feel very special- and prevented you from selling it to your local video store. Not that anyone I knew would. I personally burned a hole in my Howard’s End screener. Oh, the costumes, the scenery, and...perhaps that story is for another post about my eternal love for Emma Thompson.

Getting a hold of a screener was as Greta Garbo would say, “the bees-knees”. I mean, you actually had the opportunity to live like a star, just for the night. Imagine sitting in the comfort of your own living room, eating and drinking whatever you wanted, and watching a first-run film - for free!

Fast forward to 2020 and the world stopped. Movie theaters closed. We all order whatever we want to our front doors AND we can watch first-run movies on our couch! Wow, how my standards of stardom have changed...

I may not be a wannabe starlet anymore but the movie critic in me will never fade away. I’ve seen all the movies, watched them from the comfort of my couch, and never once had the banner scroll across and tell me it was the property of the production company. And somehow I felt just as included in the Hollywood machine as ever. Included enough to give you all of the opinions you ever wanted about who’s good, who’s bad, and who will really win those statues, but don’t get it twisted, good and winners don’t always add up!

Every day this week I will be dropping a movie review of the Best Picture nominees with some of my own ponderings on their chances at Oscar.

You still have time to watch most of these films and many of them are on basic streaming services that many of us already have. Hope you get the chance to read, watch, and pretend you’re a movie mogul too.

Happy Oscar Week-it’s really a thing.

And there's the opinion you didn’t ask for...xo Kristi