An Insider’s View of the People, Parties, and Pomp Leading Up To the Oscars
This year I was able to participate in all the Oscar hoopla from a very unique and specific vantage point. I acted in Milk, one of the five movies nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for best picture. More than that, Milk was one of Hollywood’s favorite horses because the movie was about a subject that had gravitas and was on everyone’s mind after the disaster of the passage of the notorious Proposition 8. The film dealt with the exact same issue some 30 plus years earlier with the execrable Anita Bryant’s anti-homosexual initiative in Dade County in Florida.
I was invited to every major Hollywood party, where everywhere I went people made a fuss over me — especially actors. I had about four memorable encounters. At the Oscar party for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button after the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards, CAA agent Kevin Huvane introduced me to Meryl Streep, whom I had never met. She is one of a handful of actors that totally intimidate me, so prodigious is her talent. Meryl looked at me, her hand in her chin and said: “You were so great in Milk. I watched you very closely and you just exuded power and confidence. But one thing intrigued me. I had never seen you before. Where did you do your training?”
I answered her truthfully: “I’ve never acted professionally before.”
She looked at me, her eyes squinting: “I hate you,” she said, and pivoted on her heel. She then came back laughing and proceeded to analyze my performance for the next 10 minutes.
“You’re Meryl Streep” I said.
“Yes, I am.”
“I can now die and go to heaven!”
“Well, I look forward to working with you soon.”
Meryl Streep!!
Then I was in the elevator going from the American Movie Classics (AMC) party, and John Hamm (from the television series Mad Men) nudged his girlfriend, actress Jennifer Westerfeldt. “There’s the guy from Milk, honey.” He looked at me and said: “Man, you were awesome in Milk!”
John Hamm!!
Bruce Springstein, Angelina Jolie, and Brad Pitt all had the same reaction about my performance. I am like a pig in shit! Paul Newman called it the power of the 60 foot face.
It turns out in this pre-Oscar party season, Collen Camp has become the party person of note. She threw three very glamorous parties; one for Milk, together with Carrie Fisher at Carrie’s wonderfully warm and cozy home; and one for Slumdog Millionaire and one for The Wrestler, both at Colleen’s beautiful home where her former husband John Goldwyn had grown up. At these parties there were “stars by the yard” and “directors by the foot.” There were so many legends in each room that one would have thought you were in Madame Tussaud’s except that everyone was alive — from Dustin Hoffman, Cameron Diaz, and Gus van Zant, to Forrest Whitaker, Natalie Portman, Danny Boyle, and Melanie Griffith. It’s official. Colleen Camp is now the new social arbiter in Hollywood.
An essay on name dropping. What, exactly, is the point of the article?
A total waste of time…unless you live and die by celebrity worship.
Oh, come on, the guy is thrilled and having a great time, and dropping names is a huge part of the fun. I hope he tells us about the Red Carpet trip, too!
Mr. Rosenman:
“A star-struck Hollywood producer with a small part in “Milk” dishes from the red carpet.”
I’m sure this was the personal shiznit for you, but did it ever occur to you that some of us would find this utterly nauseating?
You’re “The Man Who Once Met Andy Griffith”.
BFD!
Man, this guy has his head so far up celebrities’ butts he can see fillings! Horrible!
I do agree with one point, however. MILK is most definitely being judged on material instead of merit. If MILK sweeps the Oscars, it would be for the same reason Jimmy Carter won the Nobel: to give his political opposite (Bush) ‘a kick in the leg.’ That’s a quote from Nobel Committee member, BTW.
So how many soon-to-be white ribbon-wearing Academy members voted for MILK to give Prop 8 proponents ‘a kick in the leg’ as opposed to voting for a real screen gem?
Don’t answer, it’s a rhetorical question.
Here’s another one. Who were the big winners the past two years? Ummm…
Screw this. I’m tuning in to the Peoples’ Choice Awards. At least there’s some connection to film and box office reality there.
Too funny. Another pretentious backslapping name dropping self absorbed hollywood nitwit gushing in his blog like anyone cares. The Oscars will have by far their lowest rating ever this year, partly because of movies like MILK which were elevated not for their quality but for their content. Academy voters that voted for their own agenda continue to kill the awards and put them into their deathbed. Wheres TORINO and BLACK KNIGHT?
Hey, I saw Michelle Malken at CPAC! She’s even smaller in person.
Yawn.
Can. Barely. Type. These. Words. So. Drowsy. After. Reading.
I finally thought I something I care about less than the oscars: the current condition of the rear left tire of the Chevette I traded in on a new car in 1981. Wasn’t sure I was going to come up with anything.
I just hope the author took a good long shower afterward. He needed to get the scum off himself after hobnobbing with that gang of horribles. I can’t understand how someone can get this orgasmic over hanging out with pretentious empty-heads. Strike a pose! I do make an exception for the guy whose dad actually experienced the holocaust. He would at least have something interesting to say. As a lawyer in L.A. during the seventies and eighties, I represented a large number of A- and B list Hollywood celebrities. When I got home I talked about traffic, the weather, the judges, opposing counsel, anything rather than talk about the “pretty people.” And I NEVER socialized with them (and yes, I was invited).
I find your fawning over Meryl extremely unattractive.
This is the 5th consecutive year we will skip (boycott, actually) the Oscars. Life is improved without it. The last time it had any relevance for our family was when LOTR won – when a movie people actually gave a d@mn about was nominated. Life is also much improved without having to watch mentally challenged narcissists prattle on about the Evil Bushitler and their glorious Dear Leader.
Skip the Oscars and enjoy life.
ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I have BOYCOTTED the Oscars for years and it’s because of this ilk and spewing that I have!!! And MILK is propaganda pink!
It is so wonderful to be able to watch this big event, where all the well to do actors/ actresses put on another show.
So nice to hear them express their appreciation for the freedoms that made it all possible for them to reach their dreams, (millions$$$$$$)
huhh….oh crap what was I thinking, I must have been dreaming.
The day I watch that drivel is the day I need to be committed.
I’m not worthy.
what is this drivel doing in PJ media?
Aw . . . c’mon, guys and gals. You know darn well if you had a chance to do a Hollywood hangout, you’d do it in a heartbeat and shrag (share/brag)it with wall your friends/readers. I haven’t watched the oscars in years because I don’t like that crowd, but I be shragging with the worst of them if I had been.
I’d rather sit down for a spot of tea with Anita Bryant!
I don’t believe I have ever read a more sycophantic bag of words than is.
As soon as I saw ‘very unique’ I thought ah, an idiot.
Turned out to be a vacuous fawning idiot.
11. Peg C.:
Right on! I have not watched the Oscars in many years. The idiots can dribble on their selves without my participation. I don’t go to most of their movies either.
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Who is John Galt?
How, exactly, did Milk deal with the “same issue” as Prop 8? Unless the failure of half the population to embrace all things homosexual counts as an “issue”.