Hollywood, California
Hello Darlings,Good and bad, there's no place quite like Hollywood. And during Oscar weekend, I surely experienced my fair share of both!Starting with the bad, since it's the ugly stereotype and also impressively terrible. Staying at a hotel at celebrity ground zero on Sunset Boulevard, almost directly across from where Vanity Fair hosts their Oscar after-party, one could expect a self-indulgent and raucous crowd.
But I never expected to hear a 40 something year old woman screaming in her corner suite across the hall from mine the morning after the Oscars, yelling about some some party straggler in her room WHO WAS ARMED. Maybe I've watched too many movies and reality shows, but it sure seemed as if they were all on high on cocaine. Enough said, the bad side of Hollywood.
The good side, definitely enjoyable being behind-the-scenes to experience what are the real lives of Hollywood celebrities. I am not celebrity crazed - if you can believe it my celebrity crush is Robert Redford - but I am curious to see how people live their lives and of course with exploring fabulous places and attending fun events.
And for the second year in a row, I was invited to attend the OK! Magazine pre-Oscar party as media so I was able to be in the photographers row in front of the Red Carpet to interview celebrities and take photos for the site. The first photo is one that I took of Redfoo from the band LMFAO with his tennis superstar girlfriend Victoria Azarenka, and the photo directly above is Kristin Cavallari who used to star in the TV show The Hills.
The not so fabulous and somewhat comical is how celebrities have to wait their turn to walk the Red Carpet, and how publicists pull bigger name stars ahead of others in the line! But I have to say that of the 50 or so celebrities that were on the Red Carpet in front of me, and also the 50 or so journalists covering the Red Carpet, pretty much everyone was intelligent, respectful, and a decent sort of people - nice to see and maybe a bit surprising especially from some of the reality stars with so many fake attributes!
As for my Oscar night, I attended a few events including a big rooftop party on Sunset Boulevard. Hollywood in February is cold at night so I wore my Marc Jacobs fur vest over my dress most of the night. Sad to report that I never actually spoke with anyone new for the whole evening, since it seemed people were more there to see and be seen than to actually have fun!
The best part of my Oscar night was dinner at the famous Bar Marmont on Sunset Boulevard. Definitely worth checking out especially for their oh so appropriate dessert called "Welcome to Hollywood", notice the lines!
For more photos, I post often while travelling on instagram.com/martatryshak
With Love...
Marta