He shoulders my wife aside and supports his weight on her shoulder

General — July 19, 2010 at 14:50

He shoulders my wife aside and supports his weight on her shoulder. She tries to get out of his way and he tells her, annoyed, “Relax”. The only moment of genuine audience response was to the English group Stomp, who managed to get something cooking for a short moment. There seemed to be a bit of an obsession with death; the idea that film gives some kind of immortality and that the ageing or the dying of actors is some kind of special event, different from ordinary folk.It was also clear that the technical awards seemed to reflect some kind of internal carve-up. Kirk walks with difficulty and has problems with his speech after his recent stroke. During every break she gets a mobile phone out of her bag and makes calls. Later, Steven Spielberg does a nice speech leading up to Kirk Douglas’s honorary award.

At the break there is a stampede for the bar, the only place where smoking is permitted. Substitute guests come in to fill all the empty seats.Richard Dreyfuss is sitting in front of me He has his teenage daughter with him. He gets a standing ovation, but as he finishes we go into a commercial break and a barrier slowly comes down between him and us. As the barrier is coming down we see on a huge TV screen a Revlon commercial by Cindy Crawford I found the two images together quite disturbing. I wish everyone luck and realise afterwards that half of them are guests and not nominees.At this point it is still exciting An atmosphere of something about to happen The show starts.

Three and a half hours later it finishes and by that time I am very depressed and bored Nic wins his award, Elisabeth and I do not. It’s a huge relief that it is over and that this is the final ceremony. Here are a few images from the three and a half hours:Christopher Reeve is revealed in the middle of the stage in a wheelchair He makes a very moving speech and I find myself in tears. It’s impossible to hear properly or to think straight and I have no recollection of any conversation. As I wait behind Claudia Schiffer and her magician, I become aware that my foot is stuck to the red carpet, courtesy of a huge wedge of bubblegum which some celebrity has dropped The gum dogs my footsteps all evening Eventually we get into the theatre. It is impossible not to peer into the faces for a famous name We make our way to our allocated seats It seems that all nominees have aisle seats Rod Steiger makes himself known as a fan of the film Anthony Hopkins says hello Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman say hello Sharon Stone says hello. Our windows are dark but people press their faces against the glass, trying to work out if we mean anything It’s very hot in the back.