NEW ZEALAND OSCARS PARTY



Friday night before the Oscars the NZ Govt hosted a party in LA at the Beverly Hills Hotel in honor of the NZ-made movies that were up for Oscars -- LOTR, Whale Rider and Last Samurai. I was kindly invited as we have done a fair bit of business in NZ the past few years over and above the two America's Cups. And it was a convenient stopover en route to Auckland where I had to be in late Feb anyway.



Meg had met Elijah Wood during the '03 Cup, and has a nice photo posing with him taken by Fredelle "Super Snapper" Menin. Here we are at the NZ Oscar party having a quick chat about the day he spent with ORACLE BMW Racing in early '03, about which Mr Wood was quite enthused as you can see....







During dinner I was seated with, among others, Louise Kiely, sister of our good Auckland friend Peter Kiely (also at our table), and Ngila (say NIGH luh) Dickson whom I had not previously met but has a home in Auckland near where Leslie, Meg and I lived during the Cup. About halfway through the dinner the speeches began, and we soon realized that Ms Dickson was a double-nominee for best costumes in both LOTR and Last Samurai. Therefore, she was one of the main celebs in attendance that evening along with LOTR Director Peter Jackson, Whale Rider star Keisha Castle-Hughes, and, of course, the Hobbits. (No, sorry, Tom Cruise was a no-show).



Ngila is modest, down-to-earth and charming -- was neat being seated with her and learning about the making of both movies and filmmaking in general. She went on to win an Oscar for the LOTR costuming, one of the 11 the movie garnered, and I believe tieing the all-time record previously held alone by Ben Hur.







Ngila is on my right, partially hidden by the vegetation; Louise on my left (and who very kindly organized the above photos).



So, Meg a.k.a. "MovieQueen," now do you believe it? ;)