Plates of Shrimp and 100 Posts

By the end of yesterday, more than my tie was crooked. My brain was slightly on tilt. It was one of the longest days of my professional career. I arrived in Hollywood at 9:30am...I was home at 3am. And in between was a mix of chaos, boredom, memories, and shrimp.

I was placed in the interview room backstage at last night's broadcast. I was the producer for my station, and was joined in the room by two reporters. We had one more on the red carpet, and another at the "Night of 100 Stars" Oscar viewing party at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Most of my broadcast equipment was setup by Saturday, so when I showed up on Sunday there was very little setup I needed to do. The Academy, in their infinite wisdom, closed the interview room from 11-2pm on Sunday. For stations broadcasting from the room, like us, that's not nearly enough time to get ready if you want to go on the air by 3. The room was open between 9 and 11, so that meant I had to get there by 10, setup for an hour, and then sit around for the next three hours. I had a nice breakfast with the station engineer at the Renaissance Hotel (Bagel, Salmon, Cream Cheese, Capers, Onions, Tomato for a staggering $18...and the only bagel choice was water. I mean, if you're gonna serve a bagel and fish breakfast, you AT LEAST have to have an onion or sesame available), and then tried to find a chair to sit in for the next three hours.

I walked around the Hollywood and Highland complex, marveling at all the setup that goes into this awards show and trying to plot the best route for sneaking into the Governor's Ball. Security was fairly tight to get into the complex, but once there if you had a badge you could wander around pretty much at will. My red carpet talent showed up around 12:30, and I snuck down to hang out with him. I wasn't credentialed to be on the red carpet, but the arrivals didn't start until 3:30 or so, so since it was early no one bothered me. As soon as I stepped foot on it, I was hit pretty hard with the sense of how cool it was. I mean, this was THE red carpet at THE awards show. A show with so much history and power and prestige. A show I had watched and gotten excited about since I was a kid. It was a nice moment.

Through sheer luck of the draw, we got the best red carpet spot possible of any media outlet, radio or television. We were right next to the ABC camera platform, where the stars HAD to stop to wait to be interviewed for the network broadcasting the event. And we got everybody. Al Gore, Jodi Foster, J-Lo, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Will Smith, Beyonce, Eddie Murphy, Nicole Kidman, Steve Carell, Sascha Baron Cohen, Helen Mirren, Ryan Gosling, John Travolta, Wolfgang Puck...It was great. I wish I could have been down there, but I had to leave at 2pm to go set up and I couldn't get back in. We got the biggest interviews of any radio outlet, local or national, and as the producer I couldn't ask for anything better than that.

By this time I was hungry. I was told the spread the Academy put out for the media room was impressive, but I had no idea. The Golden Globes was decent, the SAG awards served moldy sandwiches, and the Grammy's served moldy sandwiches left over from the SAG awards. But this was a buffet of a different color. Huge plates of shrimp, meats and cheeses, skewers and roasted vegetables, egg rolls, raw veggies, sandwiches, and all sorts of drinks (but unfortunately no alcohol). It was all finger food, and I couldn't eat most of it because it was meat based, but still. When the media gets a spread like that, it's appreciated. And did I mention the desserts? Plates and plates of petite fours, cheesecake, cookies, and other assorted pastries. And everything was refilled during the whole show. We were fat and happy.

Everything from there on out was like every other awards show. We watched the broadcast on televisions....The winners were brought back so the hundreds of media could shout questions...the big stars didn't come through until the end of the night causing everyone to have to stay late. The biggest deal was Martin Scorsese, because this was his first press room appearance of the awards season. Sure, Helen Mirren and Forrest Whitaker were fun to talk to, but we'd seen them over and over at the SAG awards and Golden Globes. When Scorsese won for Best Director, the media room erupted in an ear splitting cheer. The other person I was excited to see come back was Al Gore. Here I was, 50 feet from the former Vice President of the United States, 50 feet from the man who should have been president 7 years ago. That was cool.

I didn't get to sneak into any parties, because by the time we were down breaking down our equipment it was 11:15pm. I still had a couple of hours of work to do cutting up audio back at the station. I was asleep on my feet. The Governor's Ball was RIGHT THERE next to me, but I just didn't have the time or energy to go. I did see Jack Black and Abigail Breslin come off the escalator from the party (not together), and that was my only close proximity celebrity sighting.

I'm dead tired. Awards season is over. It was my first one, and I have to say it was a pretty exciting couple of months. I had no idea when I quit my job last year that in the beginning of 2007 I'd be going to the Golden Globes, the SAG Awards, the Grammys, and the Academy Awards. Oh, and I almost forgot, the Razzies! The awards show for WORST movies of the year was Saturday night, and not only was I there, I was the one broadcasting! It was my first reporting gig with the new station, and things went well enough that I think it may be the first of many.

It's been a great couple of months. Professionally, everything is falling into place and I'm doing exactly what I wanted to do. Life has taken some strange turns over the past year since I started this blog. This is officially post 100. I hope my life over the next 100 posts are exciting as the last 100.