"The last time I was at this thing," said Javier Bardem, looking around the International Ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, "I got so drunk."
By this thing, Bardem meant the Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon, an annual event at which those honored by Oscar voters receive their certificates of nomination, pose for a class photo and mingle with fellow nominees in an atmosphere mostly devoid of the competitive air in which they otherwise exist.
The last time the Best Picture nominee attended, he told TheWrap, he was a Supporting Actor contender (and eventual winner) for "No Country for Old Men." "George Clooney was going from table to table with a bottle," he said with a laugh. "And he got to my table and stopped."
Monday's Nominees Luncheon, the 30th the Academy has held, did not appear to end with any soused actors. But the soiree drew 151 nominees, the biggest field ever, including all of the acting nominees except Christian Bale and all of the Best Director contenders except David Fincher.
(Also missing: the elusive graffiti artist Banksy, nominated for directing "Exit Through the Gift Shop.")
The event, which began as a way to get a little extra publicity during what was then a dry spot on the Oscar calendar, has grown to be one of the friendliest and most collegial awards events, where nominees can try to grab a few bites to eat in between posing for the annual "class photo" and hobnobbing with each other.
A few looks inside the luncheon:
LOST IN TRANSLATION
Each nominee is able to bring a guest – and Bardem's was not his wife, Penelope Cruz, at home with the couple's first child, but the director of his film "Biutiful," Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
You'd think that Inarritu would receive an invitation on his own, since "Biutiful" was nominated for Best Foreign-Language Film and the director will pick up the statuette if it wins. But under Academy rules, the nomination actually goes to the country of Mexico, even if the statuette would go home with Inarritu – so the slightly perplexed director said he had to come as a guest.
"I don't really understand it," said Inarritu, who was nonetheless elated by the nomination. "I think they should let the directors come to the luncheon as representatives of their countries."
Inarritu is not the first Spanish-speaking director to wonder about the rule. When Pedro Almodovar accepted the Foreign-Language Oscar for his film "All About My Mother" in 2000, he cornered Oscar show producer Lili Fini Zanuck at the Governors Ball and berated the Oscars for, among other things, not inviting the foreign-film directors to the Nominees Luncheon.
"He took me aside for 30 f---ing minutes," Zanuck said later. "And I thought, God, what if this guy hadn't won?"
MIXED COMPANY
As guests were sitting down to eat, "The Kids Are All Right" writer-director Lisa Cholodenko wandered around the floor of the ballroom, looking perplexed.
