Monday, April 6, 1998
Beyond the red carpet
FILM: There’s just
as much drama across
the street and in the press
tents as in the Shrine.
By Stephanie Sheh
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The articles have been written and the television specials are
over. Under a cloudy sky, the white walls are bare and the red
carpet is rolled up. Aside from the occasional bustle of the USC
students across the street, everything is pretty calm. But that
wasn’t the case two weeks ago.
On March 23, while most Bruins were taking finals or cramming
for them, the world focused its attention on the 70th Annual
Academy Awards. Truckloads of bright flowers were brought in while
red and gold flags flew high. Numerous different replicas of "the
golden dude" littered the exterior of the Shrine Auditorium to
accompany the hundreds of enthusiastic fans who were there to see
what the average public didn’t get to see, like Minnie Driver
taking some altoids from the Channel 7 reporters.
"I’m basically obsessed with movie stars. I would love to see
Meg Ryan or Tom Cruise or oh-my-God Madonna. I would seriously die
if I saw Madonna," said 19-year-old San Diego State student Brooke
Neveu, who resorted to waiting for the arrivals on Jefferson
Avenue, across from the Shrine, after failing to get into the much
coveted fan bleacher seats. "God I just want to go in there," said
Neveu.
Other fans on Jefferson, like Anne McCracken who flew in from
England, were not aware that the Academy had changed its policy
this year regarding the bleacher seating. This time, to discourage
fans from camping out, they passed out some of the bleacher seats a
week before the event, leaving only the remaining seats available
to those camping out two days before the show. But it didn’t keep
the fans from showing up.
"The people who have been camping out for the last two days have
been extremely well behaved. I think, in fact, the folks who didn’t
get a ticket, they managed to get a poster. They were pretty
happy," explained Lt. Chuck Mealey of the southwest police
division. "We have had no problems. We’ve had extra units over here
for the last couple of days just keeping an eye on things. We
pretty much got enough resources here now that if anything
happened, we have enough police-type folks here to handle it."
Although no major incidents occurred, there were complaints,
even from the chosen few who were lucky enough to get bleacher
seating.
USC freshmen Wendy Hui, who was skipping class, had several
unpleasant encounters with the security guards from Pinkerton.
After confiscating one of her camera lenses, a guard told her she
could retrieve it after putting the rest of her things at her seat.
However, Hui said the guard at the top of the bleachers would not
let her back down. Hours later, after she finally located the
initial guard, Hui discovered he had thrown her lens away. The
guard eventually dug through the trash to recover her lens, but Hui
says not until after some undeserved and harsh scolding.
"It was so much easier last year. It was so much more
comfortable," said Leann Stockwell of Mission Viejo. "Compared to
last year, there’s got to be like 500 more people, I would guess.
Last year, sleeping, we had enough room for every single person to
completely spread out and then some. This year, half the night we
were sitting up because there wasn’t enough room for us to lie
down. Last year, they also gave us wristbands. We were also able to
go out and get coffee in the morning, go over to Burger King. We
are not let out at all this year."
Complete with specially made Academy Awards sweatshirts,
Stockwell and her 14 friends sweated it out in the hot sun, playing
games to pass the time. She smiled, "Even the uncomfortable parts
we laugh about. We’re having a great time. We’ll never regret
coming."
Seated behind a wall of journalists and cameramen, the bleacher
fans caught glimpses of familiar reporters powdering their breasts
in between shots and glamorous stars gliding down the carpet. One
radio journalist dubbed it the "silicon and Rogaine parade." Though
they couldn’t hear their favorite celebs amid the excitement, they
watched intently to each nod, each grin, each gesture.
Occasionally, someone would shout a name out like "Robin! Robin!"
And the star would look up and give the fans a precious wave.
Variety columnist Armie Archer was on hand there. Equipped with
a sound system, he roused the crowd by having them cheer for who
they thought should win. The results weren’t surprising: Robin
Williams for Supporting Actor, Gloria Stuart for Supporting
Actress, Jack Nicholson for Lead Actor, Kate Winslet for Lead
Actress and of course "Titanic" for Best Picture. The most amusing
occurrence was the noticeably lukewarm obligatory cheers for the
actresses in the smaller films that the masses obviously didn’t
see, like "Wings of the Dove," "Mrs. Brown" and "Afterglow."
Archer then proceeded to interview several celebrities over the
sound system for the fans to hear. The columnist also made a few
embarrassing blunders over the system for the public to hear. At
one point he mistook Jack Palance’s wife for his daughter. Then,
Archer proceeded to call the Academy Award nominee Judi Dench,
"Judi Bench" throughout his interview with her. Later, he
congratulated Samuel L. Jackson on his film "Mr. Brown." It’s too
bad no one saw him in it, because Jackson actually was making the
film "Jackie Brown."
After all the fanfare and all the stars had filed into the
Shrine, the press made their way into the tents located behind the
auditorium. Rows and rows of journalists filled the large tent.
Pressured with deadlines, reporters with laptops in front of them
were seated at tables where masses of tangled wires snaked around
phones and extra outlets. They wore headsets, which allowed them to
tune into the live broadcast of the Academy Awards in between the
interviews of the winners.
One by one the winners, mostly from the technical team of
"Titanic," entered the tents. Oscar in hand, they were greeted with
eager reporters waving numbered cards in the air. The Academy
representative with the microphone chose the lucky numbers of the
reporters who would be allowed to ask questions. Funnyman Robin
Williams couldn’t help playing around, pretending to be an
auctioneer calling out various numbers in quick succession.
The show proceeded and the press interviewed yet more "Titanic"
winners. Few in the tent were surprised when the only American
nominee beat out the Brits for Best Actress. An awkward moment came
when journalist number 25 asked Helen Hunt, "You weren’t thinking
that you weren’t as deserving (as Judi Dench)?" To which a
bewildered and slightly offended Hunt replied "Goodness gracious.
No I wasn’t, but I’ll think about it now," as the tent laughed in
approval.
The longest night in Oscar history drew to a close as the
longest movie nominated predictably won the Best Picture Award. And
as viewers at home watched James Cameron ask for a moment of
silence, the tent was anything but as most groaned or chuckled in
disbelief. Then when the self-proclaimed "king of the world" was in
the tent, he was as self-confident as ever, commenting on the
burdensome weight of his three Academy Awards before resting
several on the ground.
Despite all of the minor complaints, everything was exciting.
There were no major surprises, and most of the public’s and
industry’s favorites didn’t come home empty handed. And in the end,
the awards proved that people don’t go to see "Titanic" for it’s
acting or writing.
But today much of it has come and gone, leaving Bruins to start
the spring quarter and the rest of Los Angeles to ponder when the
next storm will arrive.