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from: George Rush
to: Lloyd Grove

The Oscar After-Parties: "A Sensory Overload of Fame"

Posted Monday, March 25, 2002, at 4:15 PM ET

Who are these people?

Dear Lloyd,

I had some trouble with my Internet service provider—so, no, I'm not just awaking up, though I wish I were because I feel as crisp as one of those spring rolls they were serving last night at Morton's. (Maybe it was the sauce I dipped into.) Didn't you love it when the party was plunged into darkness at 2 a.m.? I'm sure the power outage had some people scared, but all the giggling suggested that a lot of folks were up for a grope-fest. I personally was planning to wedge myself in between Juliette Lewis and Minnie Driver, who spent most of the night dancing together.

The party was, as usual, a sensory overload of fame. You couldn't walk 3 feet without gleaning some new coupling. I wished Graydon Carter had brought back that Cuban orchestra he had last year—the one that caused him to move so memorably with Sophie Dahl. But the evening had a real good vibe—mostly because of the Halle/Denzel wins. Oprah needed an hour to compose herself, she was sobbing so hard with joy. I thought she'd never let go of Sidney Poitier's face. Janet Jackson and Puffy said they were ready to throw themselves into acting, God help us.

Getting to your questions … the Vanity Fair PR watchdogs don't like reporters to hassle the stars. I was spoken to one year, but I find most celebs are happy to chat. It works best if you scribble your notes behind a plant. Beatty is hard to unlock under any circumstances, but particularly when he's dispensing wisdom to pretty Reese Witherspoon, as he was last night.

Harvey Weinstein certainly looks thinner, though 37 pounds may be an engorged number. A Miramax shmear campaign.

Russell Crowe did have a sourpuss after Denzel's win, but that may just have been the moment when the camera caught him. You'd think that someone who has a Best Actor Oscar could pretend to be a good sport. Maybe next year he'll skip the ceremony all together as nominee Sean Penn did. How can the actor formerly known as Russ LaRoq repair his image? Stop throttling people and telling them to sod off, mate!

That's all for now. Dish with you later.

George

the breakfast table
entries
123456789101112
from: George Rush
to: Lloyd Grove

The Oscar After-Parties: "A Sensory Overload of Fame"

Posted Monday, March 25, 2002, at 4:15 PM ET
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Lloyd Grove, a 22-year veteran of the Washington Post, took over "The Reliable Source" column in May 1999. George Rush writes the "Rush & Molloy" column for the New York Daily News with his wife, Joanna Molloy.
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Reader Comments From The Fray:


Let's face facts, all this stuff about terrorists, the Middle East, Enron, Northern Ireland, and the mid-term elections is kind of a downer. Finally, Slate has bravely put forth two people who write about celebrities. I mean I like politics and foreign affairs as much as the next guy, but this has been a long stretch without a lot of humor. Finally, the "Breakfast Table" addresses the real issues: Is Russell Crowe a thuggish alcoholic, do movie people act as badly as we hope they do, and do gossip reporters feel like badly dressed party crashers? Apparently, the answer to all these questions is yes. I for one hope this exchange continues into an exploration of the sexual relationships between famous married people and relatively attractive starlets. By exploration I mean naming names and the reactions of the betrayed spouses. Onward, no more international bummers, and drinks for everyone.

--Neill Hamilton

(To find or answer this post, click here.)


Everybody bitches about the speeches going on too long, but this isn't the problem. We want to see people who are happy to receive the award. It's part of the reward itself to get a multi-million-person captive audience for a minute or two. No, the Oscars seemed to run long this year because the running time was fueled by the Academy's own filmmaking: the innumerable montages, tributes, and other "entertainment" that looks for all the world like it was inserted to pad out the ceremony time-wise. We could do without three honorary awards with a montage each. We could probably get by without the circus acts, the meaningless pre-recorded comments, and the insider's walks down memory lane.

Or could we? I was entertained by all these things, and would regret seeing them go. I like the idea that the academy hold reverence for people I've never heard of because they were behind-the-scenes. If you get bored easily, don't watch; or wait until the next day when it's all boiled down to more manageable chunks of highlights. If you want to see what the Academy wants to offer, then by all means do so--but get ready to hunker down

--Mangar

(To find or answer this post, click here.)

(3/26)

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