Lord of the Rings Fans Hold Their Own Oscar Party, With Elves, Hobbits and Middle Earth Drinking Songs

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Liz Ohanesian
Chris Carwithen and Matt Musgrove brought Tolkien-style songs to the stage and the live stream of the One Expected Party
If you're going to go to an Oscar party, make sure it's one involving J.R.R. Tolkien fans. On Sunday afternoon, the One Expected Party took over American Legion Post 43 for a Hobbit-centric event that lasted late into the night. We were only a couple blocks away from the Dolby Theater, but the vibe here couldn't have been more different. Amongst the usual men in tuxes and women in evening gowns, there were hobbits and elves and an assortment of other characters you thought you could only find in Middle Earth.

The One Expected Party is put together by Lord of the Rings fan site, TheOneRing.net, aka TORn. They throw Oscar parties any year that one of the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit movies has been in the running. Their first event took place at Hollywood Athletic Club when The Fellowship of the Ring was nominated. About 400 people attended the event, including director Peter Jackson. In 2004, the year that The Return of the King picked up a whopping eleven Oscars, the LOTR team headed down to TORn's party.

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Oscars 2013: Blogging From the Press Room

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Argo
See also:
*More L.A. Weekly film coverage
*How a $45,000 Oscar Gift Bag Is Born

Our report from the press room is adapted from tweets at @laweeklyarts and @zpincusroth -- follow us there too.

[Updated: 10:25 pm]

10:11 pm Anne Hathaway has press room's most sincere line of the night, on why she said "it happened" during her acceptance speech: "I had a dream & it came true & that can happen & that's wonderful"

10:10 pm David Arquette was apparently in the press room for Sirius radio

9:56 pm Anne Hathaway in Oscars press room, giving thoughts on her song: "All I can hear are the notes I didn't quite hit...maybe I'll get over it some day"

9:55 pm Anne Hathaway, inexplicably saying: "You're always looking for the next job. No matter what's happened before you think no one's going to hire me again"

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How a $45,000 Oscar Gift Bag Is Born

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Distinctive Assets
The goodies in the gift bag for the "losers"
Each golden Oscar statuette costs about $500 to make, although of course its monetary value ends up being more than that. But for those nominees who don't get that particular golden ticket, Los Angeles-based marketing firm Distinctive Assets will give them something pleasant to wake up to -- a swag bag worth $45,000 will be waiting on their doorsteps Monday morning. (This is in addition, of course, to the scores of "gifting suites" that take place in fancy hotels in the days before the Oscar ceremony, in which celebrities -- or their handlers -- can pick up thousands of dollars worth of free goodies...just because.)

"This is designed to be the ultimate consolation prize for those who don't go home with an Oscar Sunday night," says Lash Fary, founder and president of Distinctive, which has been crafting the "Everyone Wins" gift bag for 11 years. Twenty nominees (the four losing nominees in the best actor/actress, supporting actor/actress and director categories), plus the host of the show, will receive the goodies (sorry, sound mixers).

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Streamy Awards: Online Video's Biggest Night Accepts Old Hollywood Into the Fold

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Nanette Gonzales
Chris Hardwick hosts the Streamy Awards

See also:
*Our Streamy Awards slideshow
*Our profile of Jenna Marbles, from our People Issue

The 3rd annual Streamy awards, honoring excellence in original online video, streamed live online (appropriately) Sunday night at the Hollywood Palladium. More than ever before, nominees ran the gamut of new and old media faces from YouTube vlogger Grace Helbig (DailyGrace), who won Personality of the Year and Best First Person Series, to Tom Hanks, whose web series Electric City won Best Animated Show.

Newsman Larry King and YouTube star Jenna Marbles summed up the diversity of artists nicely when they presented the first award together. "Here we are with the legendary icon of entertainment," began Marbles, gesturing to King, "And the sexiest person on the Internet," he added. Then, "You guess which is which." King has his own web series Larry King Now on Hulu. Comedian Chris Hardwick hosted the event, which featured performances by Vanilla Ice, Soulja Boy and Shontelle.

The "annual" in "3rd annual Streamys" isn't quite accurate...yet. The awards premiered in 2009, but in 2010 were thwarted by technical difficulties and unexpected butt-naked streakers. There were also creative conflicts behind the scenes and the IAWTV (International Academy for Web Television) split from the Streamys to create their own web awards show, which had their second annual awards last month.

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Writers Guild Awards 2013: Behind the Scenes

Jonathan Pierce
Jessica Chastain should always be preceded with a sign that reads: "May cause seizures."
See also:
*More L.A. Weekly Film Coverage
*Streamy Awards: Online Video's Biggest Night

Last night, men and women who are more used to working at home in their pajamas donned black tie attire for the 2013 Writers Guild Awards at the J.W. Marriott Los Angeles L.A. Live -- and it seemed like a surprisingly number of media didn't really care. (Except us, of course.)

With a red carpet that could probably fit into the SAG awards' setup over a hundred times over, a handful of nominees and presenters made their way through this cordoned-off section of the Diamond Ball foyer. Don't be fooled by the photos; everything took place inside. There were even fake hedges with a large Writers Guild Award statuette to add to this illusion that we were outdoors. And within this area that is probably smaller than most people's living rooms, we all crammed ourselves on the three-tiered stands and attempted to stay in our designated positions. Or, as one of our fellow press members joked, "We're called 'press' because we're pressed together."

Lucky for us, our immediate neighbors decided not to show up, so we actually were able to breathe and not receive a head contusion from an errant camera battery pack. Actually, we felt pretty damn special that we even got a fixed spot and didn't have to resort to a temper tantrum -- as a few did -- to find space to park their equipment and themselves.


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