I love the movies. I love to go the movies, I love to watch movies at home. I love the stars that work so hard to entertain us. It stands to reason, therefore, that I love Oscar night – it’s the biggest TV event of the year for a movie lover like me. And you know, we kind of get into it over at my house. I make food that represents each of the Best Picture nominees, we play Oscar bingo, we drink champagne and (sometimes) dress up and I really enjoy the whole night.
This year’s show did not disappoint me at all. I know there have been mixed reviews of Seth MacFarlane’s hosting performance but I thought he was funny and that opening was one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. Sure, he was crass and some of the jokes were in poor taste but, well, have you seen Ted? No one should be surprised by any of this. And honestly, I’m going to watch the show to the bitter end whether I like the job the host is doing or not because I love the movies. I managed to stick with the entire show when Ann Hathaway and James Franco did it back in 2011, after all, and I can’t picture anyone doing a worse job than they did.
Anyway.
The fashion is always a big part of the show for me and I thought the choices of many of the stars this year were terrific. Jessica Chastain, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington, Amanda Seyfried and Sally Field all nailed it, in my world. Anne Hathaway? Not so much. I will say, though, that I miss the days before stylists as we just don’t see the Red Carpet disasters we used to see. Remember Bjork?
I was also pretty happy with the distribution of awards. Dale was quite disappointed that Lincoln didn’t win for Best Picture but I honestly think that Daniel Day Lewis winning Best Actor for his portrayal of Lincoln is all that really mattered. Sure, I would have loved to see Sally Field win Best Supporting Actress because, really Anne Hathaway sang a song, but still, I’m okay with that. I loved Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty and thought she gave twice the performance Jennifer Lawrence did in Silver Linings Playbook but the post win interviews with Jennifer Lawrence are fantastic and that alone makes me happy that she won. And I’m glad that Argo won for Best Picture. I’m not sure it was my favorite as I truly enjoyed all of this year’s nominated films, but I think the win was deserved.
And finally, here’s the stuff you really want to see: the food I prepared.
Sushi for Life of Pi. I know, it’s a stretch but poor Pi had to eat raw fish while he was on that raft so sushi made it to our menu. Plus, if Wolfgang Puck can serve it to the stars then I can serve it to my family.
We had red white and blue fruit kabobs in the design of the American flag for Lincoln. No one ate in this movie so it wasn’t easy coming up with this one. Work with me here, people.
There was baked brie for Amour and a baguette to go along with it for Les Miserables. Not pictured but also delicious was hummus for Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, crabby snacks (of course!) for Silver Linings Playbook – I figured those could also represent Beasts of the Southern Wild since they ate a bunch of crab in that movie – and white cake for Django Unchained. That white cake actually fell apart when I took it from the cake pan so I made it into parfaits instead, complete with raspberries to represent all the damn blood in that movie.
And there you have it, my summation of Oscar Night 2013. I can’t wait to do it all again next year!
