By Scott Rosenberg Mar 4, 2007, 4:41 GMT
After all the statuettes were handed out, and the official Oscar photographs taken, the trophy holders were shepherded up to the fifth floor of the Hollywood and Highland complex to the Governors Ball being held in the Grand Ballroom.
Bruce Davis, the Executive Director of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, chats with Academy Award winner Helen Mirren at the Governors Ball after the 79th Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, February 25, 2007. photo copyright © A.M.P.A.S.
This year the familiar formal seating was not to be found as organizers Sequoia Productions decided on a more informal buffet style dinner. Catered by Wolfgang Puck and pastry chef Sherry Yard – this is the eleventh year Puck has catered the Ball – the menu is adhering to the Awards “go green” theme.
For a list of Governor’s Ball “fun facts” go here.
Meanwhile, back at the Ball, Leonardo DiCaprio’s mother, Irmalin, hanging on Leonardo’s arm kept asking, “Can we finally eat?” DiCaprio hung around the Ball for a couple of hours waiting for Martin Scorsese to arrive. After Scorsese ate, DiCaprio hurried him off to another party.
Celine Dion favored a miniature baked potato given to her by husband Rene Angelil.
Oscar host Ellen DeGeneres walked arm and arm with girlfriend Portia de Rossi while her mother Elizabeth took pictures of the couple.
Wolfgang Puck went up to the table occupied by Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood and Ken Watanabe asking them what they would like to eat. Several minutes later, he returned with a tray full of miniature cheeseburgers. While chomping down on the burgers Eastwood said “I’m so happy that Marty (Scorsese) finally won. Although this maybe isn’t the movie I would have had him win for. I probably would have given him the award for ‘Raging Bull.’ (many in the room shared that sentiment)
Jennifer Hudson was heard explaining her new “dream” – a duet with Whitney Houston. “That’s my goal,” she said. “Hopefully I can be just as successful in music and 20 years from now I’ll be both acting and singing.”
As soon as she “chills” from the Awards, Hudson will head into the recording studio with producer Clive Davis to record her first album.
On the back patio of the Ballroom, Mark Wahlberg talked about a prequel to best picture ‘The Departed.’ “With DiCaprio and Matt Damon’s characters dead and buried, we need some new good-looking guys so I can beat the $%^! out of them.”
Best actress winner Helen Mirren admitted that if she won, she would raise the winning Oscar to the Queen. “That’s a toast in Britain,” Mirren said. “If you say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Queen,’ everyone would raise their glasses and say ‘The queen.’ But I thought, oh, no, this is America. It’s a republic, I shouldn’t make them toast the queen. So I toasted her myself.”
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