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Thursday, February 21, 2008
Me and Ruby Dee, Jon Stewart and Jamia Nash
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Los Angeles — I’ve been here only 24 hours and this year’s 80th annual Academy Awards is already way ahead of last year’s initial pre-Oscar moments.
On my first day in 2007, my car was nearly sideswiped by a moptopped man who I still believe could only have been questionable awards-show writer Bruce Vilanch. Later, Ryan Seacrest busily marched through a swarm of press with his busy, busy entourage.
This year, I first spotted Alan Thicke at a restaurant’s outdoor table. Or do you care?
But it gets better. The smaller, but just as busy entourage that next came into view was led by Oscar show host Jon Stewart.
Late Wednesday, I struck a gawking fan’s motherlode at the Black Enterprise magazine’s pre-Oscar party at the Beverly Hills Hilton.
Supporting actress Oscar nominee Ruby Dee sat centerstage on a comfy couch behind protective velvet ropes and between large posters of “American Gangster” in the ballroom that was converted into a kind of music-blaring nightclub. The DJ cranked up Beyonce Knowles’ “Crazy in Love” as the 83-year-old actress radiantly smiled for TV crews recording her every glance.
She and I, naturally, reminisced for a while about her last visit to Atlanta in 2006 when she brought her indie film “No. 2” to the Atlanta Film Festival.
Certainly with the Oscar nomination, I said, she must be feeling Hollywood’s love.
“It’s a heady situation,” she said. “I have a hard time getting my head around the whole idea.”
Dee also squeezed, laughed and talked with Jamia Nash, the 11-year-old Gwinnett County songstress who on Sunday’s Oscar show will sing best song nominee “Raise It Up” from “August Rush.”
They represent the youngest performer and oldest acting nominee who’ll appear on the show.
Among the many others I spotted at the Black Enterprise event: producer-director John Singleton, actor Tyrese Gibson and one-time Broadway “Dreamgirls” diva Sheryl Lee Ralph.
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