About an hour before the Academy Awards red-carpet shows get going this afternoon, Loretta Robinson will roll out a real red carpet at her Parker home, anticipating the arrival of a black-tie crowd of friends who love the movies – or at least the Oscars – as much as she does.
She started planning her party a year ago, almost as soon as last year’s gala was over. She’ll have beautiful flowers, elegant props, swanky beverages and maybe a niece working as “paparazzo” as the guests arrive. But really, Robinson says, there are just three must-have elements for an excellent Oscar party: a fabulous outfit, good food and good friends, which means it is possible to pull off a successful spur-of-the-moment shindig.
Here’s how she and Britta Erikson from the Denver Film Society advise getting a last-minute gig going:
Dining: At this late hour, you’re not going to replicate Wolfgang Puck’s Governor’s Ball menu at home. (Trust us. You don’t have the fixings for Kobe beef with Bordelaise sauce, or risotto with black truffles hanging around your kitchen.) Try Robinson’s theater-themed menu: nachos, hot dogs and popcorn.
Table setting: No point in risking a plate of pasta flying into space when your pal Bubba leaps up to cheer Borat’s glorious win for best screenplay adaptation. Serve easy-to-eat food in hard-to-spill Chinese-restaurant-style takeout cartons. You can get them at Cost Plus World Market.
Ambience: Ennio Morricone will be honored for his original film compositions tonight. Download some of them – you’ve got more than 500 films to choose from – from iTunes and let them play during your red-carpet cocktail party, or spin the soundtrack from “Little Miss Sunshine,” credited mostly to local Gypsy-folk-punk group DeVotchKa.
Balloting: The academy makes it easy. Go to oscar.com and download the official ballot.
Oscar bingo: Not everyone can pick a winner in categories like “Best Animated Short,” so take an idea from the Denver Film Society’s play book and go for a game of bingo. Make bingo cards, but where the numbers normally go, describe what might happen at the Oscars, i.e., “Winner thanks their spouse,” “Winner trips on stairs,” or “Ellen makes joke at Jack Nicholson’s expense.” The first one to fill a line on the card wins a prize. Or a swag bag.
Swag bags: It doesn’t have to be something big, just something to make your friends feel like they’ve been gifted. Maybe one of the Oscar-nominated soundtracks, or a package of microwave popcorn. “Remember, there’s that new swag-bag tax,” DFS’s Erikson notes. “You don’t want your guests to have to pay the taxes on that!”
