Essential California

PRESENTED BY GUNDRY MD*

February 10, 2020

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Monday, Feb. 10, and I’m writing from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. How much does Oscars fervor permeate the city of Los Angeles at large? Take Johnny Morales, who immediately knew where I was heading when he saw me in a floor-length dress on the L.A. subway early Sunday afternoon. Morales, who was on his way from South L.A. to North Hollywood, said he hadn’t seen any of this year’s movies. But he still sounded like a film pundit as he speculated on “1917’s” chances, and how “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” being a movie about, well, Hollywood, might help it. All of which is to say that for many Angelenos, the Oscar hype is near impossible to avoid, even if your knowledge seems to be acquired from near-osmosis. On the walk from the Hollywood and Vine Metro station to the Dolby Theatre, I stopped to chat with Carlos Gomez and his wife Sandra Perez, who were selling sliced fruit and bacon-wrapped hot dogs on the Walk of Fame. The rain meant there were far fewer tourists crowding the sidewalk than I would have expected, and Gomez said that with the street closed, business was actually slower than a normal day. We could see limos starting to pull up through the barricades separating the sidewalk from the closed-off street, and Gomez and his wife were both hoping to catch a glimpse of Joaquin Phoenix — they loved “Joker” and hoped it would win lots of awards. (It ended up with two: for Phoenix’s acting and for Hildur Guðnadóttir’s original score.) So how did I end up going to the Oscars this year and what was it like inside? Veteran entertainment reporters typically cover the ceremony, but my editors sent me with an extra ticket to give newsletter readers a sense of what Hollywood’s biggest night is like behind the scenes. (Hollywood’s biggest night, by the way, happens to be held in a mall that also has a Cabo Wabo Cantina and a California Pizza Kitchen. I got a good look at the backside of the Hollywood & Highland center while trying to figure out how to get to into the theater on foot, which was not easy.) The view inside the Dolby was a surreal mix of total glamour and the quotidian. Think watching nominees touch up their lipstick in the bathroom two feet away from you, and also watching the lady sitting in front of you read the Sherman Oaks Nextdoor neighborhood digest on her phone during the show. Inside the glitzy downstairs bar, a man quietly vacuumed up stray sequins and popcorn kernels while two old guys leaned against the wall commenting on the relative hotness of the best supporting actress nominees. The lobby snack tables, which had little plastic packets of popcorn, cookies and trail mix, were perpetually swarmed. Yes, every celebrity seemed to know one another. And no one inside knew what was going on with Eminem’s 18th anniversaryperformance either. “It’s vomit. Mom’s. Spaghetti. On your sweater,” I heard a man say at the bar, parsing the lyrics to “Lose Yourself” with a Talmudic intensity, while an otherworldly beautiful woman vaped next to him, looking bored. My seat was in the nosebleeds with the working people (read: non-stars) of Hollywood, so high up that one aisle-mate brought his own binoculars. Clearly not his first time at the rodeo. “Parasite’s” stunning victory for best picture was foreshadowed early, as the crowd hooted and hollered with increasing excitement each time the film won. When the Korean-language film finally took home the big trophy, it became the first foreign-language film ever to win the film academy’s top prize. More Oscars coverage: “Parasite” was the big winner at the 92nd Academy Awards, pulling off a historic upset. Los Angeles Times What will it take for Netflix to win a best picture Oscar? The streaming service spent tens of millions to campaign for “The Irishman” and “Marriage Story.” And yet the company still came up short, winning only two awards of their 24 nominations. Los Angeles Times What you didn’t see on TV: Entertainment writer Amy Kaufman gives the dish from backstage. Los Angeles Times Plus, the complete list of winners. Los Angeles Times And now, here’s what’s happening across California: L.A. STORIES Orson Bean’s death on a Venice street sparks mourning and concern over pedestrian safety. The 91-year-old actor-comedian was killed when he was hit by two cars Friday night while crossing Venice Boulevard on his way to see a play. Los Angeles Times The 1971 Sylmar quake is keeping veterans homeless in L.A. in 2020. A deadly earthquake 49 years ago led to the removal of 1,460 veterans from the West L.A. VA campus. That decision continues to shape the homelessness crisis among veterans today. Los Angeles Times The Spice Table cheeseburger has returned, seven years after the restaurant in question closed. “Created by a rising chef who’d cooked at Pizzeria Mozza and at Daniel in New York, the sambal-laced ‘gourmet’ burger was a rite of passage for a certain kind of food blogger.” Los Angeles Times Some streets around Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre will remain closed days after the Oscars. Hollywood Boulevard between Orange Drive and Highland Avenue will remain closed until 6 a.m. Wednesday. Los Angeles Times