2005 Backstage Oscar Blog
This year, whether Oscar winners accepted their kudos on the Kodak Theater's stage or from the balcony, the middle of the audience or the third urinal in the men's room, they all had to come backstage to meet the press. That's where the stars face a roomful of reporters from around the world and try to look composed as they answer our many goofy questions intelligently. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes not so much. Here's TVGuide.com's timeline of Sunday night's most memorable moments backstage at the Academy Awards:
5:15 PST My Oscar night gets off to an auspicious start when I discover I'm seated right next to Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper! Only the best for TVGuide.com. I even help the Chicagoan film pundits plug in their laptops, putting them in my eternal debt. Natch, this means we'll be best friends all evening.
5:21 Roeper, or as I like to call him, Richie (OK, not really) agrees we'd better steer clear of Amp — the super-caffeinated Mountain Dew version of Red Bull. I, for one, am too excited tonight to need the chemical boost.
5:29 OK, I was lying. I totally tried Amp and now I'm feeling very hyper.
When is the actual awards show gonna start already?!
5:43 The international press emits delighted "oohs" every time host
Chris Rock takes a movie star down a peg. Our fave? His reference to
Halle Berry's "eagerly awaited
Catwoman 2." Ouch!
Burn.
5:49 The usually dignified Ebert cries out "Yes!" at
Morgan Freeman's best supporting actor victory for
Million Dollar Baby. Roeper and I agree the acceptance speech was mercifully short and classy. If only all the speeches were so.
6:03 Whilst
Beyonce's onstage singing fabulously
in French, Freeman is ushered backstage for a Q&A. Argh! The Academy staffers
always do this to us.
6:04 A reporter asks Freeman if he thinks mainstream Hollywood will
ever let him get the girl in a film. "Good question," he grinned. "Um... no." After a pause, he added: "But I think that we're working on a couple of pieces where I
do get the girl." That aside, Freeman hardly can feel left out with a golden guy in his hand. "I think it's kind of total acceptance — [that's] the best way I can explain an Oscar," he beamed. "Because so many people vote for you when you get it, you know you're part of a very small group of people."
6:05 Like many nominees, Freeman armed himself with a good-luck charm tonight. "There is a gentleman here who, for every one of the awards shows, he comes with silver dollars and he gives them out. And I have about five of them." OK, it's bad enough these millionaire movie stars receive lavish goodie bags, but someone actually gives them
money for showing up? This is where I draw the line.
6:23 Now let me take advantage of the annual post-supporting-actress lull to give props and love to the Kodak's backstage press-room buffet. By my most recent count, I have now eaten 20 — yeah, you read that right — jumbo shrimp. My only complaint: There's no bar back here! Come
on, people, it's Oscar night. Can't a brotha get a Bombay Sapphire martini with an olive?
6:41 Cate Blanchett arrived backstage with an Oscar statuette in one hand and a champagne flute in the other. (Oh sure,
she gets a drink.) Before fielding questions, Galadriel excused herself, turned her back to us and swigged the champers for courage. Then, she expressed gratitude to
Katharine Hepburn's goddaughter, ABC newswoman
Cynthia McFadden, for lending her Hepburn's gloves for luck. "[That] was incredibly generous and also a huge compliment," she said. "I could only fit one into my purse. I have a ridiculously small purse. Isn't that dreadful?"
6:42 A reporter praised Blanchett for behaving more like an actress and less like a movie star. "Oh, darling, you've caught me on the wrong day!" she sassily fired back. "Will it change me? Absolutely, you a--hole!" Nah, she's not mad, just joshing the boys, as good ol' Kate Hepburn might say.
6:50 It's best documentary feature winners
Ross Kauffman and
Zana Briski, who directed
Born into Brothels, that movie about the unfortunate offspring of Calcutta's ladies of the evening. "We're actually planning to build a school in Calcutta, specifically for children of prostitutes," Briski happily announced. Well, isn't that special.
7:01 Thelma Schoonmaker — the winner for achievement in film editing — answers the question
Aviator fans everywhere are asking: Will the DVD include additional takes of
Leonardo DiCaprio's naked backside? "No," she responded, noting that's not for lack of willingness on Leo's part. "He was completely committed to the role [of
Howard Hughes]. He would have done 150 takes if
Marty [Scorsese] wanted him to. There was never any moment of him saying [he didn't] want to do anything."
7:06 Sideways director
Alexander Payne (who inevitably lost best director to you-know-who) was, of course, pleased about winning best adapted screenplay along with partner
Jim Taylor. "We just had a couple shots of Patron down there," he said, then went on to yammer on about the award bringing him some "benign power" and "political capitol" and... Zzz...
7:15 Sorry, I think I'm coming down off the caffeine high. Like other non-celebrities who've come backstage tonight, Payne was a bit boring, but at least he has a nice thick head of hair. I'll grant him that.
8:21 After sitting through a slew of non-celeb Q&As, Richard Roeper skips out early, but we exchange cell-phone digits. We're totally BFF now. (You know, best friends forever.) Ebert, meanwhile, has benignly ignored me all evening. That's the last time I'll go outta my way to give
him free technical support. (Just kidding, kids. Roger's a busy guy. And the only backstage journalist who comes with his own personal assistant, FYI. Am I envious? You betcha!)
8:58 Chris Rock said "I liked the
Sean Penn comeback. Any time you can get something funny like that [that] we didn't have [pre-written] coming into the show, I take a little more pride in that." By the way, there are no hard feelings between Rock and
Madonna's notoriously broody ex. "I just hugged Sean," the comic revealed. "He said — because he's working with
Jude Law in a movie right now — 'I felt the need to [say something].' It was kind of funny."
9:01 Of course, it could've been much worse than the tame Penn-Law incident. Rock might've easily caused a commotion by working blue. (That means cussing, for you children too young to know that expression.) "There were some language restrictions that were placed on me," he admitted, "but everything worked out. I don't curse in front of my mother. And my mother was [sitting] front and center, right in my view. I would never curse in front of
Rose Rock, so why would I do it on [broadcast] television?"
9:07 At last!
Ray Charles doppelganger
Jamie Foxx in da house. Natch, he viewed his best actor win as a win for African-Americans everywhere. "The significance is for the young kids in our community," he enthused. "There's so many negative things that we're influenced by. Why not have something positive and then stamp it with blackness? It's not to say that we're excluding everybody and this is a black thing. We just want to be included into the pot and make everything artistically better."
9:09 Foxx went on to extol the virtues of Charles' music over the violent hip-hop that's dominating youngsters' attention today. "I said earlier at the Golden Globes that I was the supporting actor and Ray Charles was the lead actor... A lot of the Academy members came up to me... and would say, 'That was my era. That was my music. Thank you for bringing that back. Thank you for a little bit of culture.' Because Ray Charles is now being played in the Escalades as you drive by. My daughter and her friends are getting into this music. The other night, there were people at my house from 18 all the way to 50. And we put on the Ray Charles CD and we danced to all those songs. And nobody even tripped that there's not any rap lyrics, not any foul things going on. It was beautiful."
9:15 Million Dollar Baby leading-lady Hilary Swank has been telling reporters for months that it took five years to snag another film as good as Boys Don't Cry. So what'll she do for an encore? "I joke around with Clint, because his next movie doesn't have a woman," she winked. "I said, 'I've played a boy before...' and I think I've gotten closer to [getting] my way of shaving my hair off and letting me be in his movie."
9:27 In an impressive show of dexterity, best director
Clint Eastwood came back holding two Oscars
and Flat Stanley, "my kid's class project."
9:28 Dirty Harry tells former
TV Guide staffer
Lisa Bernhard — who's now a Fox News reporter — "You're a lot better lookin' than
O'Reilly." True that!
9:32 Eastwood's asked if his and Morgan Freeman's Oscar triumphs mark a victory for die-hard old-timers. "Yeah, we're takin' over. The AARP and me!" he laughed. "No, I think there is room for everybody. I love to see young directors come along. I happen to be a big fan of Alexander Payne — Election was one of the great movies of the last [few years] — and I liked Sideways very much. But I would like to say to the various [film] financiers, don't forget the senior guys and gals are both there ready to do their best work for you. [Lifetime of Achievement honoree] Sidney Lumet tonight was bouncing around like he was 25 years old. You don't want to write off the guy who directed 12 Angry Men, ever." As for Clint, he's got no plans of retiring anytime soon. "I'll try anything, I don't care. One good thing about getting into your seventh decade of life is, what the hell can they do to you? Nothing," he grinned. "When I get to Lumet's age, if that all works out nicely, he must really be smug."
