jamaicablueescape | Summer 2015/16
JB red carpet insider
18
Aussie TV’s night of nights. Fragile egos out of control. Local stars behaving grandly. International guests misbehaving even worse. And a TV telecast that remains one of the top raters of the year. It is a recipe where something out of the ordinary is bound to happen. As a disclaimer, I have worked on the Logies seven times, and was Senior Editor of TV Week magazine for a number of years. And there was one question I was asked every year as Logies time rolled around – is it rigged? And every year, I responded with the same line – I wish it was, as it would have saved me and a whole team of lawyers, accountants and assorted fact checkers from many long days and nights of intricate checking and double-checking and triple checking the tabulated results. But it turns out it is no different on the other side of the Pacific. I have attended the Golden Globes twice in Hollywood, and chats with their team reveal the same question about the veracity of the voting is regularly asked of them. But that is about where the similarities between the two award shows end. The Globes in Los Angeles is best described as ‘the Logies on steroids’, as everything about it is bigger – bigger stars, bigger budgets and far bigger hair. But surprisingly, not bigger egos. It was astounding just how chilled out most stars were once inside the Globes ceremony and ready to chat, as I found out while standing at the bar, with Mark Wahlberg to my left and Jake Gyllenhaal
JB38 p16-18_Red Carpet.indd 18
Kate Hudson
to the right, who piped up a friendly conversation, asking how my night was going, if I was an actor and what I was working on. Later on in a corner, I found myself drawn into a conversation with Melanie Griffith and Glee’s Jane Lynch on the topic of Frank Sinatra, and then in the men’s room, I was washing my hands at the sink next to Kevin Spacey. After exchanging smiles in the mirror, I reminded him about an interview we had done a few years before, and he happily chatted on as we walked back into the room. I had a reminder that even stars even get star-struck when my conversation with Nicole Kidman was interrupted as Jane
Fonda came over to introduce herself to Nicole. After polite words were exchanged and Jane departed, Nicole giggled with excitement as she exclaimed, ‘Wow, that was Jane Fonda!’ And that moment is something no cameras captured. Neither did they at the end of the night see a barefoot Robin Wright holding her shoes as she patiently stood in line waiting for her car. That sight reminded me of another barefoot diva – this one, a presenter on an Aussie lifestyle TV show after the Logies a few years back – who approached me as we left one of the network parties and confessed she was too drunk to remember how to get back to her hotel. As I walked her back to her hotel foyer in the early hours, we gossiped about the highs and lows of the evening, and she revealed details of a fight in the ladies room she had broken up between two rival TV reporters. “Only at the Logies!” she laughed. And I smiled, as I figured an awards show just wouldn’t be the same if it were any different.
AWARDS SEASON ACCTAS December 9 New York Film Critics Circle December (date TBC) Golden Globes January 10 Screen Actor Guild Awards January 30 BAFTAS February 14 Oscars February 28 Logie Awards April (date TBC)
25/10/2015 16:14:30