L.A. is very Oscar-hyped before the event. Oscar-this, oscar-that. Radio, newspaper, and TV. On Saturday night when we arrived late, we were looking for a simple place for a midnight dinner. Well, we found Denny's, two blocks from the Shrine Auditorium. There were campers inside playing cards, waiting to get good stargazing spots two nights before the show.

After the show, we decided we wanted to have a nice dinner in LA. After all, we were all decked out in our formal duds. Not being from the area, we didn't know a lot of restaurants that we could head to. What we found out, rather quickly, that all the nice ones like Morton's were CLOSED! All the top restaurants were hosting Oscar parties, and we couldn't find a place to eat! We ended up at about 2am in some diner-type place, and I have no idea where it was or what it was called. We were just so tired of searching for an open restaurant that we didn't care anymore.

We never imagined that we would actually have GOOD SEATS! Thirty-second row, dead center. Here's the beauty of the seats: we were right next to the center door to the auditorium, with an aisle right in front of us. Everyone sitting in the front rows had to walk past us to get to their seats.

Who did we see up close and personal? Kim Basinger (looked incredible). Cher, with her son and a building on her head. Claudia Schiffer and David Copperfield. All three Judds (including Ashly and the "crotch dress".) Robert Duvall. Greg Kinnear. Matt Dillon and Cameron Diaz (she wins our looked-the-worst award). Angelica Huston (in the bathroom). Rosanna Arquette. Madonna. Lots more that I can't remember at the moment. And the funny thing is, we saw lots of people that made us think, "who is that?"

Who did we talk to? Helena Bonham Carter and Linda Hamilton. Both very nice women. We had no idea Linda Hamilton was married to James "Titanic" Cameron until we got back to Dallas and someone told us.

The interesting thing about the stars was who wasn't there. We imagined that EVERYONE who had ever made a movie would be there, from Brad Pitt to Gene Hackman to Tom Cruise. In reality, there weren't as many stars there as we expected, or as many as it looks like when you watch it on TV.

When our tickets to the Oscars arrived at the hotel Monday morning, they came with a Limo Pass and a Car Pass. No limo for us, which ended up being to our advantage (though we did make a couple of calls to see how much it would cost.) We arrived at the Oscars about two hours before show time to take in the scene. We started to take the back entrance in, then asked "why are we back here with the nobodies?" So we cruised around front.

We walked down the red carpet entrance somewhere between Robert Duvall and Greg Kinnear. The lobby to the Shrine Auditorium held a big cocktail party, with open bar. Great people watching, but it was sort of like a ball in Dallas - you're actually at some great event, but no one knows anyone else. Except that Gregory Peck is standing next to you. And we were interviewed by the Australian press.