The 83rd Academy Awards on Sunday night were chock full of New England connections from start to finish. While many were preoccupied with evaluating the skills of first time hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco, who recently admitted to only rehearsing the show on the weekends because of his course load at Yale, or checking their watch to see how long the show went over, those of us in Hollywood East were anxiously keeping tabs on the awards tally for films made in New England.
Boston’s Maria Menounos worked the red carpet arrivals in the official pre-show. On the E cable network, Ryan Seacrest talked to Mark Wahlberg, producer and star of The Fighter.
“It exceeded my expectations. We were fortunate to make the best possible version of the film, we just had so much support. I promised Mickey and Dicky I would get the movie made,” said Wahlberg.
Melissa Leo, who won her first Academy Award in 2 nominations for her role in The Fighter, secured her own quirky point in the history of the awards–uttering the F-word during her acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress. Though the word was bleeped by the censors for the telecast, Leo later apologized for her inappropriate choice of language.
Her award counterpart, and costar, Christian Bale also picked up his first Oscar for his supporting role in The Fighter.
Natalie Portman Photo Courtesy of Makoto
Harvard grad Natalie Portman completed, as expected, a whirlwind awards season, picking up her first Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her turn in Black Swan.
The Social Network, which was partially filmed in Boston and Cambridge, picked up a number of awards, including Best Screenplay, Best Score, and Best Film Editing. The film, of course, follows the story of the creation of Facebook by Harvard grad Mark Zuckerberg.
The New England connections weren’t limited to the Oscars telecast; commercials for the Rhode Island shot “Body of Proof” TV show aired during the breaks, as it will be premiering on the alphabet network in March.
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