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Jane Clark Blog - February 11th 2007
Los Angeles was buzzing last night with the excitement of the Grammy Awards. Downtown was actually open past 7 pm. All across town individuals were holding Grammy parties, clogging the neighborhoods with parked cars and overworked valets. Across town, however, another awards show was taking place. It was a quiet affair, without much fanfare, but no less important to the nominees attending. It was the Writer's Guild of America's annual writing awards. As I knew I was attending the affair, I had planned to write about the evening, but after the event was over I was stumped as to what to say. Until I started writing a stream of conciousness description of the night. That stream turned into a rant and it finally dawned on me, the overarching impression that the evening left with me. And it is this. There is very little grace left in Hollywood. I might even conjecture that grace is gone from our society as a whole. The awards show has been held for thirty some years now, always a black tie event and very often previewing winners of the Oscars several weeks later. This year the party was held at the Century City Plaza, a high end hotel that is host to some of the most prestigious events in town. The place was packed with revered names in film and television, such as Robert Towne and John Wells respectively...okay, maybe revered names in the script writing world. The evening started with cocktails and I thought the event might have potential when the pass around drinks, which are normally glasses of wine or champagne at these events, were martinis. It's a romantic drink, I think, sort of a throwback to the 40's and 50's glamour of Hollywood. My hopes of an elegant evening were quickly dashed however when I had a chance to scan the room. It is unfortunate that writers are either not good readers or perhaps just bad dressers, because despite the black tie only on the invitation there were many people sans tux and gown, with some women wearing pants and a couple actually wearing jeans. To a black tie affair. I mean really. Would it kill you to dress up for a change? The young Hollywood actors have already turned premieres into grunge affairs. Can we not preserve one area that still requires a dress code?
At our table was a mismash of people, all very nice and diverse. None of us were there to accept an award, including Antwone Fisher and his wife. Antwone won a WGA award years back for his screenplay about his life. So I thought it was either humble or stupid that he only introduced himself using his first name, considering he was obviously there to network. His wife was much more aggressive on his behalf. The event was long and there were a lot of categories. Furthering my claims that grace is gone from town, it was in bad form that the tv people got up and took the party outside to the bar after their awards were announced instead of staying to support their fellow nominees in the film categories. And not only did they move outside, but they were loud and rowdy. Their voices could be heard filtering through the doors and conflicting with the screenwriters voices accepting their awards. I find that incredibly disrespectful. Moreover, I am not sure what that says about the unity of the WGA. They better be willing to stand more united when the guild faces striking later this year. In fact the overall behavior of the television writers was a disappointing. One writer, from Grey's Anatomy, was actually booing when his competitor nominees names were called out. Has our society disintegrated to the point where we can't support our peers? At the very least is the layer of etiquette so completely gone, that even if one doesn't support their peers they can't at least fake it? I get that it's always better to win and I know most people don't really mean it when they say "it is just great to be nominated." Nothing wrong with wanting to win. But shouldn't there be a sense of sportsmanship? I hope some day I will attend as a nominee any and all of the awards shows, WGA, DGA, PGA, BAFTA, SAG, OSCAR, Spirit awards, Golden Globes etc. etc. And if I am so lucky to be nominated, yes I will most definitely want to win. But I will not insult my fellow nominees, I will find it in my heart to be glad for the winner if it isn't me, and I will, without question, show up to the event wearing a gorgeous and drop dead glamorous gown, with my handsome tuxedo'd husband by my side. Jane Clark filmmcqueen@yahoo.com
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