'I was at the Oscars!'

Sharlene Pinto

It's that time of the year again when moviebuffs like myself are overwhelmed by the Oscar fever.

Which talented artiste will get to go up on stage and give the acceptance speech? Which film will be the hot favourite this year? It was City of Angels, Los Angeles, played host to the Oscar Night.

I was lucky enough to have been part of the action once. In 1996, I was one of the lucky winners of one of those competitions most people including myself dream of winning but never quite do.

It was the Be A Star For A Day Competition sponsored by Star Movies. The winner got to go to LA for Oscar night.

I was the kind of person who always knew the answers but never could bring myself to send in that postcard. But this... this was one of the times when I took a chance.

I said, why not? What have I got to lose? That one small action of writing down the answer and then the address on a postcard and posting it gave me this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The sponsors called me to tell me that I had won. I thought my friends had found out that I had sent in the postcard and had decided to play an early April Fool's joke on me. But this was real and very exciting.

The next few days were filled with the formalities of tickets and visas and, of course, the big decision what to wear on Oscar night.

I arrived in Los Angeles two days before the ceremony and the city was already abuzz with talks of the prospective winners.

My companion and I were picked up at the airport by a very mafia-type gentleman with a dark suit and dark glasses. Very seriously, he told us very as we approached the parking lot that he had brought the smallest car along with him since he had been told to expect two kids.

Imagine our awe when he put our suitcases into a very long, white limousine. The chauffeur, who we came to realise was a sweet man, turned out to be a musician of sorts, who was a part-time chauffeur, kept telling us his predictions for the big night.

As if we weren't excited enough, he parks the limo in from of the most beautiful hotel I had ever seen in my life -- the Century Plaza Hotel.

I would have been happy just to spend about half an hour in the lobby. But of course, that wasn't about to happen -- I was a 'star' and stars don't sit in lobbies. The rooms were fantastic and so was the 24-hour room service.

We were on our own for a day. The "activities", they said, would begin the next day.

The next day, I had to meet the public relations person in her room at 9 am. I walked into the room. There was a host of people around. Among them was a cameraman, a sound guy and a young girl with a vanity case. I later found that she was my make-up person. I was told that these guys would film us taking in the sights and sounds of LA all that day.

We first headed to Rodeo Drive, where the rich and famous shop. We being the default stars -- for one day, that too -- were happy just to window shop.

At the beginning of Rodeo Drive, the camera guys wanted a shot of us getting out of the limo. As they went about setting their equipment outside the limo, they managed to attract a small crowd of people, who thought they were shooting someone really famous. They were waiting to see which famous star they would get a glimpse of that day.

For lunch, they took us to Steven Spielberg's restaurant, La Dive, where we were treated by our sponsors to some scrumptious submarine sandwiches.

After lunch, it was time to see the famous Hall of Fame and the imprints of the stars' hands and their signatures.

They also took us to Mann's Chinese Theatre, where all the film premieres are held. Because we had the film crew with us all the time, some people actually mistook us for stars and asked for autographs. Nothing would have been greater than signing my name on some pieces of paper. But we couldn't possibly fool those people. So the truth it was that we uttered.

It was time then to go to the huge and beautiful auditorium where the Oscars would be held the next day. The entire area was abuzz with activity -- people setting up huge Oscar statues, some rolling out red carpets, and the rehearsals were on... it was fantastic. The auditorium was huge and very beautiful.

A very informal Will Smith was presenting an award we got to sit and watch for a while it was overwhelming to think that in about 24 hrs somebody really famous would be sitting in the same seats that we were sitting in.

We were then taken back to our hotel and told to rest before they took us out to a very special dinner. Dinner was at the very famous and very glamorous Planet Hollywood Beverly Hills, where we got to see memorabilia from different films.

The next day, we started of early and were taken to Universal Studios. We had a chance to go behind the cameras on the sets of some famous films like ET, Back Draft, King Kong...

We also had a lot of fun on the rides. We couldn't go on all of them because we had to look our best at the Oscar viewing party that night.

The limo was to pick us up at 7 pm to take us to the very happening Roxbury Club for the Oscar viewing party. The whole city had this electric feel to it. Everyone was excited and all dressed up for the movies' biggest night of the year.

The party started even as the show was being broadcast live all over the world.

One of the nicest things to see was how involved the people were involved. With every announcement of a winner, there were shouts of excitement and I-told-you-sos.

My high point was when Mel Gibson won director of the year. I loved Braveheart.

It was an evening to remember. My last impression was my drive back to the hotel, watching the Hollywood sign with the big flashlights gleaming bright in the night.

A perfect end to a perfect Oscar experience.

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The Oscar Fever!