In March of 2003 I was blessed with the luck to attend TheOneRing.net sponsored “The One Party” Oscar celebration as a freelance member of the press. It was a night filled with memorable moments, of good food and drink, of friendships made and renewed, networking and conversations, cheers and laughter….

It was a night where I gave up most of an evening’s entertainment and basic creature comforts to stand 2 1/12 hours in heels in a cold drafty hallway, behind a velvet rope, in the hope of meeting at least ONE of the hobbits from Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” movie. But I’ll spare you this much suspense. I did it. It happened. This was the night where, in person I saw, spoke, truly MET hobbits. Saw Billy Boyd. Spoke to Dominick Monaghan. Met Sean Astin. Was it worth it? Would I do it again? Read on and find out.

But let me begin at the beginning. Hollywood during the Oscars, March 2003. My first trip to California. What a way to start. The first thing you must realize is that getting around in Hollywood during the Oscars is an experience. There are the closings of the roads. You see these barricades, some of which look like wooden sawhorses sealing off both main and secondary thoroughfares. Then there are the lane closures on the roads that ARE open. The left lane is the “Oscar pass” lane, which on vehicles who have special authorization can use. And this year… there were the protesters. Little groups of earnest shouting people, holding hastily lettered signs. There was a low key, mostly middle-aged group on the street our hotel was on. My favorite protester was one of their number – a large golden dog wearing the sign "Pups for Peace"

I’m driving with a fan friend I met online. She is a native Californian, very capable and patient. But her patience was wearing thin that late afternoon. After being grumped at by several surly uniformed directors of traffic and gaping at the sight of FOUR helicopters in the air at the same time, we managed to work ourselves over to the neighborhood of Sunset Boulevard where the Hollywood Athletic Club and the One Party (sponsored by the well known Tolkien website, TheOneRing.net) was located. After circling the area several times in a frustrating search for parking, we ended up at a lot several blocks away but the best we were likely to find.

We arrived promptly at the start time of the party (4:30 p.m.) but the line had been forming for hours and was already long, but so friendly and upbeat that we didn’t mind. The weather was cool for California but sunny, and there were a quantity of good conversationalists standing near us who were likewise hobbit-loving fans. Besides, as we waited we were treated to the entertainment of several police convoys roaring past, on motorcycles or in cars dressed in riot gear, sirens wailing.

After the better part of an hour we were finally up at the entrance door and the security station. My search consisted of presenting my ID and my ticket number and having the interior of my little bag glanced at... and then I was inside picking up my ticket. The Hollywood Athletic Club is the classic sort of old style nightspot dressed up with wood paneling, brass and jewel toned colored walls where Humphrey Bogart would feel at home lingering over a drink at the gleaming mahogany bar. On any other day you could described the place as oozing “masculine charm”. Tonight however “elegantly geeky” would be closer to the mark. I would also have to add slightly confusing, at least to me, mostly cause of the quantity of rooms the party was spread through and the hallway-heavy layout of the Athletic Club.

After getting my bearings I saw how the party for the general public took up the whole of the street level and part of the level below that (the “pool room” to be specific). Upstairs, off the main hall and the press entrance, were the “VIP Rooms” into which the Very Important Persons would be expected to disappear soon after arriving on site. On the public level the Gathering rooms were named after locations in TTT, the plentiful hallways also were also impressively decorated and used for such activities as the selling of t-shirts, cd’s from the bands appearing that night and raffle tickets. The buffet room with its twin tables covered in steam plates and its gleaming wooden bar was "Rohan" and “Edoras” was the ladies bathroom. The basement gathering and pool table map that had the clouds of dry ice and the stage with the harp on it was "The Dead Marshes".

There was a huge Ringwraith statue in one corner and an enormous Orc in another, and cardboard standees of the hobbits, Aragorn and Saruman were scattered throughout for picture taking and gazing at. The lighting was so subdued that it was actually quite dim in spots, enough so that the movie depiction of the Prancing Pony would seem bright as a movie set by comparison. I began wondering if even my 1000 film would be up to giving me an adequate exposure. Thankfully, the main hallway, I noted passing through it to get my press pack and laminated pass WAS well lit. And this would be where any celebrity guests – and hopefully some hobbits – were supposed to arrive. I met Stacy, the event’s press coordinator, as she handed me my pass told me to go enjoy myself, and that someone would be around to let me know when the special guests would be arriving. (Wow…. What organization! I began to be truly impressed.)

By the time my friends and I arrived, gotten through the security and checked in, quite a crowd had assembled in the main hall. Many people are in costume. I saw a remarkably authentic looking Boromir and many Elvish ladies. My own Californian friend was attracting a measure of attention as a pretty hobbit Lass – thanks to her there will at least be ONE hobbit sighting at this party!

We enter the main meeting room, already crowded, which features a truly enormous screen for watching the Oscars on as well as two TRULY HUGE TTT wall hangings. Just minutes after finding and taking a seats we were treated to watching Keanu Reeves present the Oscar for... I believe Visual Effects …. to TTT. I must say… you should have HEARD the cheers coming from 800+ throats as they announced the first LOTR win for the night! As a card-carrying hobbit I try never to let a meal go by if I can help it, so I didn’t let much grass grow under my feet before I went in search of the buffet table and the beverage bar. After deciding on a nice burgundy for my right hand and a plate filled with a delectable assortment of kabobs and pasta dishes and fresh vegetables for my left, I settled down on a couch and spend time people watching. After dining, I decided to wander back casually to the press area, to look up some of the organizer folks to extend my greetings and nearly run into Carlene (Asfaloth), the press person I had met the previous summer at DragonCon and one of the people I had been looking for.

“Ah… hi there Maria… yes of COURSE I remember you”… she responds to my inquiry.
And then, somewhat breathlessly announced “Ahhh… you’d better get out there you know…”
"What.... out where?." I’m ask, clueless to meaning.
She indicates a curtain in front of which two beefy guards stood... "Out there... cause people are beginning to come in..."
Ah well…. so much for someone finding me to let me know when special guests were arriving!

So.. I walk up to a pair of beefy guards, hold up the laminated my pass... and like I said “open sesame” they let me through... holding the curtain open for me ! On the other side was the entranceway to the press area. I wandered into the middle of it... and moments later some guy came up to me with a “May I help you?” (translation – “Why the heck are you standing there?”) so I waved my press pass and made confused sign language gestures that indicated that I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing at this moment. And out of the corner of my eye caught Carlene motioning frantically, calling out something about standing on my name. With no idea what she was talking about... I found myself being escorted politely but very definitely into an area behind some velvet ropes, and my name - in red marker on a crumpled square of paper on the floor – pointed out to me.

There. Right at end of a line. In the back. Just behind the rubber plant. (As an embarrassing moment, that one was turning out pretty good!) But any embarrassment faded quickly as I looked around at the dozen or so press people assembled there. Some videographers were on hand, but most people looked to be press folk, “stringers” and/or website journalists, same as me. Some people begin whispering that Sean Astin was “confirmed” to come. He was certainly in town… in fact we all seen glimpses of him from the Oscar broadcast as the camera pointed to him after each LOTR nomination was read. I had high hopes of seeing at least him before the night was done.

So.. there I stand... on my name, fighting what turned out to be a FAKE rubber plant for the corner spot. All official, and with high hopes of seeing lots of movie people, beginning to get excited!
And stand.
And stand. (And think…. why oh WHY did I decide to wear my fancy heels tonight?)
And standing there I slowly come to realize that while I only came with my good, serviceable 35 M camera my Californian friend had a perfectly new, decent quality digital that she MIGHT have wanted to use to capture the images of any celebrities with.
Or then, I could take them for her
Soooo I slip out if line, find her, hurriedly but humbly convince her to relinquish her camera to me for an hour or so, and jump back behind the rope (literally), knocking the whole thing down in the process.
This night isn’t starting out so good after all.
However, from that point on it was only a relatively short wait the first celebrity walked through the door and into the party. That distinction belongs to John Rhys Davies, who I was pleased to see appeared completely recovered from his recent accident in Eastern Europe where a portion of movie set fell down on him. I was told that his coming was a surprise, that party organizers apparently had NOT been informed that he was coming, in fact, no one knew he was even in the country! (Hmm… must be nice to just walk into a party and be welcomed like that… ah….it’s GOOD to be famous!) He only stayed in the hallway for a minute or two… just enough time for him to mug with some fans and for me to snap a picture of him.
Then there was... some waiting. And look.....MORE waiting.....
Some false alarms... ah look .. a limo... uh no... not for us....
Then... Bruce Hopkins... he played Gamling in The Two Towers.
And then.. onto more standing around. And waiting...
You pretty much can guess that this became the drill for the rest of the night. And just when I was beginning to think that I would jut swoon under the pressure of all this glamorous excitement we got the word.
Billy Boyd and Dom Monaghan were outside. We could see them lingering in the doorway.
First impression… they were NOT in tuxes, so that meant they had not gone to the Oscars. They wore conservative dark suits paired with colorful, widely striped shirts. Both of them looked - well not exactly tan – but like they had taken some sun recently.
(Ahhhh ….California!)
I think Billy came in first. And what struck me struck me immediately was his lack of a smile and general feeling of tiredness coming from him. I later heard reports mentioning he had been battling the flu and was still not quite recovered. But other accounts contradictorily reported that the true story was that Billy was still recovering from going with Dom on the town the previous night and his “illness” was really Billy suffering the aftereffects of too much celebration. (Or perhaps both accounts were true… alas, we’ll probably never know for sure!) Whatever the reason, he looked under the weather enough that I felt sorry for him and resolved not to bother him.
Don’t know… guess I just don’t have that take-no-prisoners, reporter’s killer instinct!
To be Continued...