Jennifer Lawrence Made Me Lose an Earring

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Which stinks because I only had, like, three to begin with.

What happened was Lawrence, the Best Actress winner for Silver Linings Playbook, entered the Oscar press-interview room while I was out of my seat, and across the room, talking Oscar things with the always-helpful Oscar historian. In order to ask Lawrence my Pulitzer Prize-winning question, I needed to be in my seat and on the other side of the room. So I ran. And I shoved. And, in the melee, I lost an earring.

But I got to ask my Pulitzer Prize-winning question, so it was all worth it.

So, About the Oscar Telecast’s “In Memoriam” Package…

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The subject is sad, if not a touch ghoulish, but it’s also a fact of Academy Awards life. (Here’s the New York Times on the most under-the-radar of awards-season campaigns.)

With that disclaimer, here goes:

Harry Carey Jr., Charles Durning, Jack Klugman, Herbert Lom, Michael Clarke Duncan, Tony Scott, Frank Pierson, William Windom, Nora Eprhon, Andy Griffith, Ann Rutherford, Robin Gibb, Ralph McQuarrie, Donna Summer, Marvin Hamlisch, Richard Zanuck, Adam Yauch, Ernest Borgnine—they all passed away since the 2012 Oscars. Do they all make the “In Memoriam” package on tonight’s telecast? That’s 18 names, and I’m either leaving out or forgetting several more. In the past, I’ve tallied such things, and there have been only about 25 available spots, as it were.

I couldn’t find a betting line on the “In Memoriam” package (which is probably good). But if there were a better line, I’d bet the favorite to anchor tonight’s tribute would be a behind-the-camera notable rather than a star, either Pierson (Dog Day Afternoon), Ephron (When Harry Met Sally…), Zanuck (Jaws) or Hamlish, who composed the song Barbra Streisand reportedly will be signing during the segment, “The Way We Were.”

Update: And the anchor spot goes to Hamlisch. Nice.