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Oscar Fashion Disasters

February 22, 2012 by · Comments Off on Oscar Fashion Disasters 

Oscar Fashion Disasters, There were two TV programs I never missed once my father relented and let us have a television set: Miss America and the Academy Awards. I wanted to grow up to be Miss America (didn’t every girl growing up in the 50s in the South?) and I wanted to walk the red carpet at the Oscar ceremony. Competing for the Miss America crown was soon replaced by more obtainable goals: getting out of the South, making a living, making a difference. And the Academy Awards? Well, that dream actually did come true… once.

It was 1995 and I was heading up the documentary division of Turner Broadcasting. One of the docs that I commissioned and executive produced was nominated for an Oscar: Chasing the Dream: the Hank Aaron Story. Not only did I get an invitation, along with the film’s directors, but I also got to attend with the baseball legend himself and his wife. As you might imagine, especially those reading this old enough to remember this legendary slugger in action, Hank was the biggest star that year at the ceremony. Forget Warren Beatty or Robert Redford or Clint Eastwood… from the minute Hank Aaron stepped onto the red carpet, he was besieged with requests for autographs and pictures. By the time we sat in our seats (in the nosebleed section, because that’s where documentary nominees often end up!) the show was already starting. Clearly, the person who arranged the seats didn’t realize that we were bringing Hammerin’ Hank, himself, to the Oscars.

You can’t leave the auditorium during the taping of the Oscars unless you agree to stay outside until the next commercial break, so when Hank decided he has to go, I tried to explain that he wouldn’t be able to get back in and our award was coming up. He leaned over and whispered in my ear: “I’ll be back, because I know we’re going to win.”

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