Unreal Estate

ICYMI, the Academy Award nominations came out this past Thursday. So first of all, I have to make some predictions.  As I had forecasted, my ex boyfriend Benedict Cumberbatch was nominated for Best Actor in The Imitation Game.  However it pains me to say it, he will NOT win the Oscar.

I think the battle will come down to Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything and Michael Keaton in my favorite movie of the year, Birdman.

Keaton’s was a bravura performance and I saw saw him get rewarded for it at the Golden Globes.  (And terrific though Redmayne’s acting was, didn’t Daniel Day Lewis do the terribly-impaired genius first in My Left Foot?)

I’m voting American.  Go Keaton!

Best Actress?  This year we have a French actress, two Brits and two ladies born in the USA.  But I think this category’s winner is easy to pick.

It’s Julianne Moore in Still Alice.  Great performance, and she’s been nominated five times already.  Very important in the behind-the-scenes Hollywood maneuvering/campaigning.  It’s her turn, folks.

Best Supporting Actor?  As much as I would like to give it to Edward Norton, I have to say it’s going to go to J.K. Simmons.  This wonderful, old school character actor blew me away in Juno.  His performance as the low key, ironic, supportive father was dead on. Haven’t seen Whiplash yet, but if he’s half as good, he should get the Little Gold Man.

(Btw, if he wins, he could be the first Farmer’s Insurance spokesperson to win one.)

Best Supporting Actress is going to be Patricia Arquette in Boyhood.  All the buzz tells me so.

Best Picture?  Me:  Birdman.  No contest.  Voting Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences:  Boyhood.  I think they’ll want to reward the mastermind, Richard Linklater, for perseverance.  And for employing the same actors for twelve years.

Best Director?  This really is the cliff-hanger.  Two directors absolutely broke the mold this year- Linklater and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñàrittu.  I’m leaning towards Linklater.

Okay, the crystal ball portion of the post is over.  But let’s stay in a cinematic frame of mind, shall we?

And go house-hunting.

Although Fate has allowed me to have lived in some very beautiful houses, I still hanker after some domiciles that exist only on celluloid.

Here are some dream houses that dwell in the eye of the set designer. But you can hand me the virtual deed to any of these babies any time.

Let’s start in California.  I wouldn’t want to be poor tormented her, but I’d live in Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray’s Chinatown hacienda mañana.

Although this casa linda is actually in Pasadena, it’s a perfect period stand in for Noah Cross’s cross (and who can blame her?) little girl.

Now let’s file a flight plan and take our G-5 straight to New York.  I sure do like that media tycoon William Parrish’s penthouse in Meet Joe Black. Anthony Hopkins may not know Death when he first sees him, but boy does he have an eye for a great interior designer.

And a view.

The penthouse at the Pierre doubled for the Parrish mansion in the sky. Breathtaking, but what I really envy is his library.

Widow’s walk, shelves lined with vellum and calf-bound first signed editions.  For me, the library is the most important feature in any house. You can keep Brad Pitt- although he never looked better.

I’ll take the apartment any day.

Now I’m going to grab the Concord (this post defies all laws of time, space and reality.  It’s strictly wishful thinking, so I’ll take an SST if I want to.) and cross the pond.  Hmmm.  Where do I want a fabulous European vacation villa?

I think I’m going to have to vote with the Riviera.

More specifically, John Robie’s spectacular hill top hideaway in To Catch A Thief.

True, it was bought by ill-gotten gains.  But in this real estate case, crime certainly paid.  Handsomely.  All that Côte d’Azure glory- and the fabled Hôtel Du Cap just a diamond’s throw away.

But one can’t spend all one’s time sunbathing around the Eden Roc. You know how I like to ski.  So next winter I’ll need to helicopter over the Dolomites to Cortina d’Ampezzo.

There I’ll cozy up for some champagne and après-ski in the chalet from The Pink Panther.

Oh, and while we’re at it, I’ll take Yves St. Laurent’s couture wardrobe for Madame Clouseau, too. Classics never go out of fashion.  All the clothes are still picture-perfect.

But I can’t be an ex pat all my life.  The lure of my home country is too much for me to resist.

When I’m tired of all this European decadence, just give me some good old Boston domestic architecture.

In case you don’t recognize it, that’s Mt.Vernon Street in posh Beacon Hill.

And that’s Thomas Crown’s town house.

I’m done with my shopping spree.  Time to be a homebody.  Think I’ll curl up with a copy of Architectural Digest.

Or maybe just play a little chess….

There’s no place like home.