That's right, we went to the Oscars...I shall now define "went to"...
We decided since we live about 15 minutes from Hollywood we should probably go check out the Oscar scene. We got into the Hollywood area without any problems, but once in there were street closures, sidewalk closures, lane closures, store closures, and I'm sure more closures I can't remember. You would have thought the President was in town or something. I've never seen so many orange cones all assembled in one place!
So what'd we learn from this visit?
- You have to get there much earlier than we did to get close to the viewing point for the red carpet entrance (our picture shows the entrance, but we are about a block down, or so. Thank god for zoom)
- For those that have been here, they don't actually walk the red carpet into the Kodak Theatre...nope they trot right on down Hollywood (the road) and then take a right into the Kodak.
- There are a lot more limos in LA than we ever thought there could be. So much for having an annual "green" Oscars
- Only the Academy executives and business types stay at the Renaissance Hotel behind the Hollywood/Highland intersection (Thanks to the bouncer, Cornelius, for filling us in). Most of the stars ride over from the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. So if you ever try to do some "lobby spotting" by renting a room on the day of, save up an go to the Four Seasons.
- They employ about two-thousand valets for all the folks who don't get to walk the red carpet and don't have limos...it was seriously crazy.
- And most importantly, although it was crowded red carpet spotting is much more fun than watching the long, drawn out show.
So did we see anyone? Unfortunately, no. But, we did hear George Clooney arrive. That's right, when you were watching him arrive on TV we were across the street, about a block north, standing behind a stinky little Chinese lady. The crowd erupted and about a minute later it made it down to use that it was Mr. Clooney himself. Ah, to be in his presence.
