THB #681: 3 Hours To Oscar - Donning The Cape

Watching TV At The Oscars

I’ve been doing this a long time.

When I first moved to Los Angeles, living in a crappy little apartment on Larrabee, without even owning a car yet, I would put on my tux (which I owned from my years in New York) and wander up the hill, past the Swifty Lazar party at Spago, to Le Dome, kind of play acting the role of having been to the Oscars. I was young and could catch some eyes and had my fun, as I reached for the hem of the garment. It was exciting. Oscar felt important. (Swifty is long gone, Spago moved to Beverly Hills, and Le Dome has become a half dozen things, the last being a Tocaya Organica, which now seems to be closed. Things change.)

I would get the car and the better apartment and after a couple years away from Los Angeles and the Northridge earthquake, I came back to L.A. and eventually started covering the industry as a journalist, eventually becoming a specialist in the Oscar season.

Season after season, I would fight my way through the parade…