Happy Weekend and Happy Oscars!

A very contemplative Faye Dunaway the morning after she won the Oscar for Network. Could this be Jessica Chastain come Monday morning? Perhaps but I’m going with Jennifer Lawrence.

I love Oscar night. Growing up, I used to watch it every year with my parents. I remember the highlights and even more fondly, the lowlights. I’ll never forget a singing Rob Lowe and Snow White circa 1989. A serious WTF. Even as an 8th grader, I knew this was probably a junk food-fueled late night brainstorm in the writers’ room gone bad. Memorable though. Go Rob for sticking your neck out there. Hey, Aaron Sorkin didn’t hold it against him. It so awesomely terrible, I would actually pay to see this.

Read Snow White’s account here as the actress who played the fairy tale princess breaks her silence about the now infamous”Snow White Incident”. Seriously unbelievable with tales of poolside auditions led by Allan Carr in a robe, Bob Mackie wondering aloud why in God’s name he was making a bedazzled Snow White costume, etc. You can’t make this stuff up.

I was lucky enough to be a part of Oscar legend. I always dreamed of dancing on the Oscars and I realized that dream when I found myself onstage at the Shrine Auditorium in a kickline with Robin Williams. We were the Royal Canadian Mounties/Rockettes and he sang the South Park tune, Blame Canada. Pure awesomeness. I remember saying to a friend that I was nervous because it was live and there were like a million viewers. He responded, “mmm… more like a billion, but you’ll be fine.” Gulp.

At least 1/2 of me made the photo.

I like to place my bets and play along with the broadcast. I’m rooting for Argo and would root for Ben Affleck if he’d been nominated- tsk tsk, Academy. Shoo-ins in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress have to be Daniel Day-Lewis and Anne Hathaway and Amour for best foreign film. I’m no pro but I have won my fair share of Oscar office pools. To play along, print out your own Oscar Ballot here.

My picks:
(Like I said, I’m pretty good at this but don’t bet the farm. It’s always anyone’s night.)

Picture: Argo
Director: Steven Spielberg
Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis
Actress: Jennifer Lawrence
Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones
Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway
Cinematography: Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi
Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio for Argo
Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained
Animated Feature Film: Wreck-It Ralph
Documentary: Searching for Sugar Man
Editing: Argo
Foreign Language Film: Amour
Makeup and Hairstyling: Les Misérables
Costume Design: Anna Karenina
Original Score: Argo
Production Design: Les Misérables
Orignal Song: Adele’s Skyfall
Sound Editing: Skyfall
Sound Mixing: Les Misérables
Visual Effects: Life of Pi

Ok, the former picks are somewhat educated. The picks below I am literally pulling out of my you know what. These are always anybody’s guess. Outside of Academy members who receive screeners in order to vote, has anyone really seen the Live Action Short nominees… that’s what I thought.

Documentary Short: Openheart
Animated Short: Paperman
Live Action Short: Curfew

What I’ll be drinking:
You guessed it- Champers. Come on, it’s the Oscars. We’ll be toasting the stars with some delicious grower Champagne by Eric Rodez.

We went to an excellent Champagne tasting last weekend at Grape + Bean. Led by Olivier Daubresse (former somm at NYC’s Daniel), we tasted through some Eric Rodez, Billecart-Salmon and Krug selections. Talk about yum. The Krug Grande Cuvée was exquisitely complex- full of delicious yeasty and mineral notes with even a hint of smoky bacon. You read that right- bacon. But the surprise of the night was Eric Rodez’s finessed winemaking. Rodez apprenticed at Krug and aims to produce a similar refined complexity. In my opinion, he does. We bought a bottle of the the Cuvée des Crayeres for ourselves and a bottle of the more complex Cuvée des Grands Vintages for a gift. I think the Grands Vintages is an excellent value at around $69.

So Cin Cin Hollywood! If I had my druthers, I’d be celebrating at Swifty Lazar’s annual Oscar party at the original Spago but alas, neither he nor the restaurant still exists. Oh well. My couch, a glass of great champagne, the hubby and my ballot will do just fine. How will you celebrate?

{Image Credit: The Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows, The Hollywood Reporter}

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