“Cherry on top of the Vegan Ice Cream!” – 2013 Oscar Recap

Excuse me while I rub the glitter from my eyes – I haven’t yet recovered from the glitz and glamor of last night’s Academy Awards!

The Food

Perhaps Hollywood is finally catching on! No starving vegans at the Governor’s Ball (aka the after party!) this year. For the 19th year (in a row!) world-renowned chef Wolfgang Puck was serving up dinner, taking special care that those of us who live-by-the-veg were well taken care of. In addition to a full menu for carnivores, Puck’s menu included;

vegetable spring rolls, rosemary spiced nuts, edamame guacamole, Japanese baby peach salad, Chinese mustard dressing kale salad with grilled artichokes and lemon vinaigrette, lentils with cauliflower and baby vegetables, and for dessert shaved espresso ice

Now – I’ve had my fair share of vegetable spring rolls. Sometimes they come from restaurants, sometimes they come from the back of my freezer when I’m feeling particularly lazy. But I’m going to venture a guess that Puck’s are probably better. And “shaved espresso ice” – can I get that at my local farmer’s market?!

Over 1,300 staff members were brought in to help make the Governer’s Ball as delicious as it was fun! (although my invitation got lost in the mail, I’m guessing it was fun)

The Fashion

You know who we have to discuss first, don’t you? Anne. Our dear girl Anne Hathaway… who should immediately fire her stylist as NO ONE should be allowed to walk out of the house without the proper…ahem… undergarments. I don’t care if you’re Lady Godiva – pasties are about $5.00/pair – invest! Although – we will give her a shout out for the fabulous vegan Giuseppe Zanotti strappy sandals

I’m a firm believer in, “if it ain’t broke – don’t fix it”, and clearly so is vegan-diva Jessica Chastain. Slinky fitted gown + sparkly diamonds + soft, “Old Hollywood” curls = Red Carpet Royalty! Looking stellar in an Armani Prive gown and Christian Louboutin heels girlfriend is flawless. Not only do I think she knocked it out of the park – but an entire awards season of stunning choices, and she is my choice for  Best Dressed – 2013 Award Season!! Thank you for proving that vegan is beautiful!

Your favorite (and mine) Worst Dressed goes to Real Housewife of Beverly Hills – Brandi Glanville – while Glanville has her moment in trashy TV (and no judgement here – I will watch any/everything Real Housewives) – what the heck was she doing here? And with her lady-bits all out?! According to sources, she designed this mess of a gown herself – but apparently she forgot to order enough fabric!

A special nod to fashionistas of the night  goes out to omnivores Naomi Watts, also wearing Armani Prive and Halle Berry in Versace. While I wouldn’t normally have chosen Berry for one of my “Best Dressed”, at around 8:15pm last night my parents called to say, “Did you see Halle Berry?! She looks so great! She’s sill a Bond girl! – Are you going to put her in your article!?”

The Fun

Cue a moderately amusing opening monologue from funny-man Seth McFarlane. Potty humor galore, his “We Saw Your Boobs” number was met with mixed reviews, although I will forgive him that ridiculously sexist performance as he did have Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Channing Tatum do a little soft shoe. You can read his best/uber-forced one liners here

Jessica Lawrence unceremoniously stole the “Best Actress” award from my choice, Jessica Chastian, and immediately face-planted going up the stairs to collect her award. Just goes to show you, don’t send a girl to do a women’s job! :)

And what would an awards show be without the world’s most awkward acceptance speech! This probably has to be one of my favorite moments in Oscar history; “Life of Pi” won for “Best Visual Effects” and VFX supervisor Bill Westenhofer launched into a rather long, and very bizarre “thank you” speech. He started talking about Rhythm & Hues (the VFX folks who worked on “Life of Pi”) bankruptcy  – and managed to get played off the stage to, what else, but the JAWS theme song. How appropriate for a movie about someone being stranded in the middle of the ocean!

While I may not have agreed with her last minute fashion choice – the line of the night goes to Anne Hathaway, “this has just been the cherry on top of a wonderful, wonderful dish of vegan ice cream.” And nothing is better than vegan ice cream!