My Night At The Oscars As A “Bleacher Fan” – Part 1

By now, most Hollywood reporters have given you their blow-by-blow of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards from every imaginable angle.

However I’ll bet none of them has given it to you from the “bleacher fan’s” (i.e. the spectators in the bleachers running alongside the red carpet) point of view. Which is exactly where “yours truly” was sitting on Sunday, from 8am until Showtime, on Oscar day.

So here‘s my take on one of Hollywood’s most glamorous nights from that unique point of view…

My two friends, David & Fabrice, and I arrived at the Hollywood & Highland complex at 7:45am, Sunday morning, to claim our Oscar bleacher seats - which we’d won via the annual online lottery that the Academy holds for them every year.

As a “bleacher fan” you had the rare opportunity of sitting alongside the red carpet and enjoying the Oscars in a completely different way.

But why would “Mr Nightlife” do such an off-the-wall thing? Primarily, because I’ve always had a secret desire to see the greatest actress of our time - Meryl Streep - in the flesh. But there’s also the fact that I live in Hollywood and I figured that it was some sort of “right of passage” that I just HAD to do once in my life. Like seeing the ball drop in Times Square on New Years Eve, which I’ve also done.

Now there’s one thing you have to understand before I get to the good stuff – the people that win these tickets are “true” fans. They aren’t friends of the nominated actors and actresses, or rich people who know somebody or even city officials that are use to these swanky events. These were your average Joe and Jane Schmo that came from all across the country just to see their favorite stars, in the flesh, and cheer with delight as they walked down the red carpet into the Kodak Theater. In other words…I was sitting with people that weren’t jaded and industry savvy – like me. J

This hit me like a brick when we arrived at check in. Everyone around us were truly excited with being in the entertainment capitol of the world on this most celebrated night. For example, the women ahead of me flew in from Indiana the night before, the family behind me was from a small town in Texas and the little old lady behind them was from some no-name place in Canada. I have to admit - it was strange for someone like me to think that people like this still existed. I mean…these people had never been anywhere that a celebrity had been….EVER! But as the day, with them, went on their genuine excitement became quite refreshing to me. I started to look at everything from their unsullied point of view. Which, I must say, eventually made the whole experience feel a bit more magical for me.

Now the first thing you do as a “bleacher fan” is check in for your official Oscar badge, after that you have to step through the metal detectors. Once inside the back area you received your official Oscar gift bag. Unfortunately it wasn’t anything like the spectacular bags the stars get. Our low-rent swag consisted of a hat, t-shirt, suntan lotion, lip balm, sugar free gum and a disposable Kodak camera. Not very glamorous, right? Anyway, so after you got your bag you were handed coffee and donuts and finally lead to your seat.

In retrospect, we were lucky that we had the 8am call time because that meant we were sitting in the section closest to theater’s front doors. Once in our seats it was basically a waiting game. The red carpet doesn’t officially open to invited guests until 2:30pm PST. However, press from all over the world was allowed on the carpet to shoot all the B-roll (opening and closing commentary that you see on your local and national broadcasts) they wanted throughout the day. So it was during this time that we got to see people like Mario Lopez doing his thing for Extra and Mary Hart doing her thing for Entertainment Tonight. By the way….Mary Hart looks like a wax figure of herself in real life. I’m not kidding you. It’s kind of scary actually.

So what did we do that whole time waiting for the stars to arrive, you ask? Well, if you weren’t watching the press run around like crazed ants, you could always leave the bleachers and stand behind the scenes drink a coke or water and socialize with people by the port-a-potties or smoking area (I did a lot of that). Some people brought games with them, like scrabble, that they played with their neighbor or friends. Some read their personal magazines and books, while others took pictures of everything around us or updated their Facebook page every ten minutes (that would be me). Basically we were bored to tears sitting on those hard bleacher seats and roasting under the hot sun. But we were at the Oscars and we were all excited about what was yet to come.

Our free lunch was served to us at 11:30 and it consisted of a turkey sandwich, potato chips, a chocolate chip cookie and an apple. Wolfgang Puck gourmet it wasn’t, but it certainly did the trick. Then around 2pm we were informed that once the red carpet opened we weren’t allowed to stand up – at all!!! Except if we had to go to the bathroom. We were warned that anyone that stood up during the red carpet ceremony might be removed from the stands. I’m not kidding. That’s what they said.

By the way, going to the restroom if you were stuck sitting in the middle of your row was nearly an impossible thing to do. Every time you had to go pee the entire row had to stand up to make way for you. Then there were the countless bags, coats, gift bags, drinks, etc that you had to step over or around in order to move forward. It truly was a battle that you eventually thought twice about doing.

To be continued…

It's quiet on Hollywood Boulevard at 8am

"Bleacher Fan" check in

My official "Bleacher Fan" badge

The media milling about on the red carpet

Our Oscar gift bag

Fabrice and I behind the scenes

It was crowded and hot under those clear plastic tents

The three of us waiting for the stars to arrive

The red carpet is about to open to guest......