Hollywood's High Holy Day - The Oscars

We started our observance of the day with brunch. I made a potato dish I can't pronounce, inspired by a visit to one of my favorite places in LA, Creme de la Crepe Cafe. Their crepes are what draws us (when you come to visit I'll take you to get the Zidane, strawberries, bananas, melted Nutella, whip cream and ice cream, all in perfect proportion) but after a lunch time visit, the side dish to my sandwich inspired me to go home and recreate the baked slightly custard-y potato casserole. The Joy of Cooking led me to Gratin Dauphinois. This was served along with omelets made with fontina, ham and mushrooms.

I also attempted to make a batch of low fat blueberry muffins. I was inspired by the juicy blueberries we got for all of fifty cents at an outdoor market in downtown LA the day before. Apparently I unconsciously wanted make them low sugar as well, as I mistakenly only put in half the amount the recipe called for. Fearless Hero pronounced them delicious despite their unnecessary virtue. Even though the recipe was only supposed to make 12, we ended up with 18. The extra ones became spiced chocolate chip. I'll leave out the part where this baking error had me convinced that this was further evidence of the ineptitude that has seemed to pervade my LA life. I commiserated on a phone call with my fellow LA transplant friend Traci and later managed to come out of my funk. Anyone want to come over for muffins? We'll sprinkle some sugar on top for you.

Oscar coverage began on the local stations at 3:00pm. If you had cable you could have tuned in to coverage starting at 11:00am. Seriously. We turned it on at 3:45 but quickly put it on mute to protect us from the inane questions the two anchors were pelting the stars with. The blonde female reporter cornered Mickey Rourke. She asked him, in light of his revitalized career and on a night surrounded by so many stars, careerwise, if he could "do anything with anyone here what would it be?" He responded only with a bemused lascivious look as he checked her out in her lowcut gown, and gave her a small grin before walking away. It was the best pre-awards show bit I have ever seen. And it suceeded in making both reporters silent for a few blessed moments. Oscar worthy performance, indeed.

Midway through the performance Fearless Hero's diligent work in the kitchen produced Rosemary-Orange Glazed Chicken, Spicy Egg and Vegetable Fried Rice and Steamed Carrots. It was delicious. He must have washed every dish we own in the process of the day's activities. Later, I turned on the oven to make dessert, unaware that due to space constraints, Fearless Hero had set the roasting pan in the oven filled with water to soak overnight. We had inadvertantly made a sort of steaming inedible chicken au jus. Despite our mishaps we managed to eat pretty well today. In stark contrast to all the women attended the Oscars, many of whom starved themselves to fit into their fabulous gowns. Highlights were the dresses worn by Penelope Cruz, Sarah Jessica Parker, Natalie Portman and Marisa Tomei.

During the ceremony, Jerry Lewis was the recipient of an humanitarian award. To date he has raised over two billion dollars towards the fight against muscular dystrophy. This had special interest to Fearless Hero as he is a Jerry Lewis fan. I often have to remind him that he is not, in fact, the famed comedian when he starts to drop things or inadvertantly runs into a walls or in other ways seems about to fall into a bumbling comic routine straight out of one of Lewis' movies.

Our picks for favorite documentary, Man on Wire, documentary short, Smile Pinki, and foreign language, Departures,all were winners. We now wish we had joined some sort of Oscar pool.

Overall it must be said that the show was rather hip. I heard songs by The Hives and Beck during the show. And it was streamlined as well, which is not a word usually associated with the Oscars. People were seated close to the stage so they could make it up to accept their awards quickly. Awards of a similar nature and timeline in actual film production were given together. No one got cut off during their acceptance speeches and there was no boring speech by the Academy president.

A welcome addition to the proceedings were in the form of a few handsome tuxedo clad men who shared the duties of escorting the stars off the stage after the award presentation with their similarly attractive female counterparts. That along with Hugh Jackman as host raised the male eye candy quotient considerably.

There were inevitably parts we didn't like. The tribute to the departed was marred by moving angles that didn't allow for clear viewing or reading of the peoples' names and I had complaints about a few of the musical numbers as well as lingering questions about why original songs from several movies weren't nominated.

What we did like the best was for the four major acting awards, fellow actors, previous Oscar winners, assembled on stage to summarize each actor's performance and pay tribute for the nomination. It made for some touching moments and made the awards not only about the winner but a celebration of the craft and each actors' individual talent. I love watching the reactions of the winners significant others. There is such joy and pride in their faces.

After Slumdog Millionaire's giddy win, we begrudgingly tuned in to the Barbara Walter's show, mostly on mute, so we could see the interview with Mickey Rourke. That's probably the first and last time the Jonas Brothers will appear on our screen.

The night was capped by warm homemade chocolate cake from my Aunt Marilyn's recipe served with vanilla ice cream on fancy dessert plates which were a gift from Mom. I guess by tonight Fearless Hero will have washed every dish we own.

This week you will find me lurking around the Chateau Marmont, hoping to run into Mickey Rourke. If Meryl Streep would join us for our drinks at the bar, that would be perfect.