Whew! It’s been a minute, but for good reason! Yours truly flew cross country with a friend to catch some Oscars related activities all weekend! You read that right, friend. And in just over 72 hours, my friend and I packed as much touristy fun as we could manage.
Landing at 8:30 in the morning, we headed straight over to an Oscars panel shining a spotlight on all the animated features nominated this year. Moderators for the event were last year’s winners from Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. Each film got an extended scene shown before the directors, writers, and producers were brought up on stage. First up was How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, followed by I Lost My Body, Klaus, Missing Link, and Toy Story 4. Now, I had only seen How to Train Your Dragon, so those scenes and discussions were quite insightful. After the panel, I think I would really like to check out I Lost My Body.
Straight after that, we jetted over to Paramount Studios for a tour! Before the tour kicked off, we saw some live and in-person Oscars, one of which was the one won and held onstage for The Godfather! We also got to hold the Oscar – that thing is heavy! In a small group, we took off on a golf cart and was driven around the studio. We saw the famous gate, the sets of Grace and Frankie, Dr. Phil, and The Doctors along with a props warehouse! This two hour tour was supplemented with lots of fun facts and jokes from our guide along with some videos. It’s crazy to think some of these structures are still the same from when Lucille Ball and Alfred Hitchcock were around.
Not to be outdone, we headed directly over to Warner Bros Studio for their tour directly after. This place was huge! While the tour itself was a little more structured and meant to be part of a tour, we did see a lot of sets that were used for so many projects! Most popular were the sets of Annie, Friends, Gilmore Girls, and Pretty Little Liars. It was fascinating to learn what all was filmed in certain location, and how something that was used as an ocean was also used as a cemetery! There were also a lot of archive buildings, with my favorite being the Batman building, although I was also fond of the DC building which housed Aquaman and Wonder Woman costumes. At the end we got dropped off at a massive gift shop which also had a more interactive touring element on the other side of the building where we got to see Big Bang Theory and The Hobbit sets!
Our second day in Hollywood saw us equally as busy, though in fewer locations. Around noon we headed over to the Montálban Theater for the People Magazine Oscars Viewing Party. There was a small red carpet, and PeopleTV’s Jeremy Parsons hosted most of the evening. There were special guests in the likes of People editors and writers, along with former Bachelor contestants, now husband and wife, Jared Haibon and Ashley Iaconetti. The latter couple also asked the audience some trivia for some pretty sweet prizes! Just before the Oscars were set to play out on the big screen, the bar and food, catered by Umami Burger, opened up to the masses.
As far as the Oscars themselves went, there weren’t too many surprises for me, especially in the acting categories. But lo and behold, Parasite swept the most awards for the night! Yay for making history! I didn’t seem to mind as much the lack of a host, but I did find it odd and unnecessary to have celebrities introducing other celebrities. Also strange was the surprise Eminem performance, but I certainly wasn’t mad about it! Another comedic stand-out moment was James Corden and Rebel Wilson poking fun at the catastrophe that was Cats. The rest kept it pretty PG, and slightly forgettable, but I won’t forget who won, and that’s what matters most.
Following the viewing party, we headed out to an after party at Sofitel Los Angeles. It gave off a very strong Vegas vibe, and I was into it! Lots of good songs, drinks, and dancing. We didn’t stay too late, and sadly, no celebrity sightings were made despite that being the major selling point for attending.
It’s a good thing we left early, because approximately three hours later, we were stood in line to attend Live with Kelly and Ryan! Lots of waiting here, but it was totally worth it when we got seated in the Dolby Theater, which is right where every A-list celebrity was sitting not even 10 hours prior! The show was quick and fun, with interviews of the Best Animated Short winners, Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness, and Maria Menounos. Then we got a performance from Kesha! With confetti cannons, it was a very fun experience!
Straight after that, we went into another line to be on The Price is Right! It was quite a long and arduous process, but the excitement from everyone around us made it better. These people seemed to have lived to be on this show and their energy was palpable. We got out numbers, then our name tags, before being photographed and interviewed to see if we were going to be chosen as a contestant. Truthfully, neither of us wanted to be, so we were just fine clapping along in the audience. A women behind us got selected, so we definitely got some peripheral screen-time (check out the May 1st episode!). They encouraged lots of cheering and helping, and announcer, George, was always looking to our section of the crowd for our opinions. Very fun time!
After another little break, we headed back to Warner Bros to be part of a taping of The Conners! While this past Tuesday a live episode took place, we attended the day before. So that same episode was acted and taped to be aired in case something went wrong during the live show. It was really cool to see all of the detailed sets and how great the acting was! I fan-girled a little over seeing John Goodman and Katy Sagal, for sure.
On our last morning, we took a walk back down to the Dolby Theater and TCL Chinese Theater, where they were still cleaning up from the Oscars. Sadly, it was too early to watch anything, so we just took in all the hand and footprints, and a lot of the stars on the Walk of Fame.
It was a dream trip for me, and I’d really have to think about how to top it the next time I go!