Yesterday, I watched “Julie & Julia”. Meryl Streep and Amy Adams in a movie directed by Nora Ephron, what more can you ask for? And if that wasn’t enough, the movie also tells the true story of two women who discover their passion and manage to change their entire life while pursuing it.

So, considering that I love Nora Ephron movies, that I think that Meryl Streep is among the best actresses, if not THE best actress of our time, and that I’m usually a sucker for that kind of inspiring, how-to-change-your-life storylines in movies, you would think that “Julie & Julia” now has a top spot on the list of my favorite movies, right?

Well, it doesn’t, and here is why. When the movie ended, there was one thing that really, really bothered me, that I felt was missing to make the ending a happy one, at least for me.

In the movie, Julia Child became an inspiration for Julie Powell, she became her hero. Julie Powell admired Julia Child and credited her for turning her life around, for helping her find a meaning in life. She described her like she knew her, and she talked about feeling like Julia Child was standing right beside her when she cooked, like she was looking over her shoulder.

Aside from the fact that those last statements sounded a little arrogant to me, it made me wonder why she never tried to get in touch with and get to know the “real” Julia? Julia Child was still alive when Julie Powell started to write her blog. In fact, we learn in the movie that she knew the blog, and didn’t like it. So why doesn’t Julie try to find out the reasons for Julia Child’s disapproval from herself, personally, instead of speculating with her husband?

Maybe the real Julie Powell did. Or maybe it wasn’t actually about the real Julia Child, but about an idea of her, an image that Julie Powell created for herself and that didn’t necessarily have to be realistic. Which is okay if it worked for her, but which is why the story doesn’t work for me.

When I left home to go to university, back in the mid-nineties, I suffered from a severe case of homesickness. One thing that would distract me from it, that made me feel less alone for at least half an hour every week, was watching a little show called “Ellen”. And even though it was an ensemble show, I especially watched it because of the woman who played the title character: Ellen DeGeneres.

A few years later, Ellen DeGeneres publicly announced that she is a lesbian on TV and on the cover of Time Magazine. Her openness helped a lot of people to come to terms with their sexuality, and I was one of them. I needed someone who I liked and admired to show me that it was okay to feel how I felt for another woman. Ellen did that and so much more.

And if that wasn’t enough, Ellen was even the inspiration for writing online and creating my very first website. Which means that if it wasn’t for her, I would probably not even have this blog that you’re reading at the moment.

So, to sum it all up: Ellen DeGeneres is my Julia Child. And even though she lives not only in a different country, but on a different continent, I dreamed of one day having the chance to see her in person. I wanted to know what she was like – not the actress, not the comedian, but the “real” Ellen.

Of course, I had my doubts. What if the woman who had become so important to me, so inspirational, wasn’t a nice person at all? Would I be able to deal with that? And why did it matter what she was like? Couldn’t I just let her actions and her art speak for herself?

I couldn’t, and I’m glad that I didn’t, because in the fall of 2007, I found myself in the audience of her talk show, with weak knees and butterflies in my stomach, face to face with my “Julia Child” – and she was like I had hoped her to be and so much more.

So that’s why personally, I didn’t find Julie Powell’s story so inspiring, at least when it comes to her relationship with her idol.

Because in that regard, I like my own story better.

Yep, I’m there — I was in the audience of The Ellen DeGeneres Show on October 2, 2007.
If you know me, see if you can spot me. If you don’t, maybe you can make a guess?

Sie übertrumpfte alle, sogar ihren Ex-Mann James Cameron: Kathryn Bigelow

Drei Frauen im Oscar-Glück: Kathryn Bigelow (Beste Regisseurin), Sandra Bullock (Beste Hauptdarstellerin) und Mo’Nique (Beste Nebendarstellerin)

Den Oscar für die beste Regie überreichte Barbra Streisand…

… die selbst genau weiß wie es ist, einen Oscar überreicht zu bekommen.

Dass ausgerechnet Barbra Streisand den Oscar für die beste Regie an Kathryn Bigelow überreichen durfte, erschien vielen insbesondere deshalb passen, weil sie selbst nach Meinung vieler Film-Experten um einen Regie-Oscar bzw. zumindest eine Nominierung betrogen wurde. Denn dass sie für ihre Filme “Yentl” (1983) und “Herr der Gezeiten” (1991) in der Regie-Kategorie nicht einmal nominiert wurde, gilt heute als einer der größten Affronts in der Geschichte der Oscars. Allzu sehr muss sie sich allerdings nicht grämen, denn immerhin hat sie schon zwei von den Goldjungs zuhause: 1969 gewann sie den Oscar als beste Hauptdarstellerin für den Film “Funny Girl”, 1977 für den besten Filmsong (“Evergreen” aus “A Star Is Born”).

So oft wie sie wurde noch keine Schauspielerin für den Oscar nominiert: Meryl Streep (hier 1983)

Auch wenn Meryl Streep in diesem Jahr erneut leer ausging, zweimal durfte sie sich schon freuen: 1980 gewann sie in der Kategorie “Beste Nebendarstellerin” für “Kramer gegen Kramer”, 1983 wurde sie – hochschwanger – als beste Hauptdarstellerin für “Sophies Entscheidung” ausgezeichnet (siehe oben).

Hatte den Oscar schon zweimal fest im Griff: Jode Foster

Auch Jodie Foster ist zwar Regisseurin, ihre beiden Oscars hat sie jedoch als Schauspielerin gewonnen: 1989 für “Angeklagt”, 1992 für “Das Schweigen der Lämmer”, jeweils in der Kategorie “Beste Hauptdarstellerin”. Zum ersten Mal für einen Oscar nominiert war sie übrigens 1977 für den Film “Taxi Driver”, und zwar im zarten Alter von 14 Jahren.

Nennt ebenfalls einen Oscar ihr Eigen: Marlee Matlin

Vielen gerade jüngeren Fans von “The L Word” dürfte gar nicht bekannt sein, dass auch “Jodi” Marlee Matlin eine Oscar-Preisträgerin ist. Sie gewann 1987 mit nur 21 Jahren den Oscar als beste Hauptdarstellerin für den Film “Gottes vergessene Kinder”. Anders als die Damen auf dem vorhergehenden und auch auf dem nachfolgenden Bild liebt die vierfache Mutter allerdings (leider) nur vor der Kamera Frauen…

Flirt mit Oscar: Melissa Etheridge

Für Melissa Etheridge ist der Oscar “der einzige nackte Mann, der jemals in mein Schlafzimmer kommt”. Auch Gattin Tammy dürfte die Anwesenheit des Goldjungen, den Melissa 2007 in der Kategorie “Bester Filmsong” für “I Need To Wake Up”, das Titellied von Al Gores Film “An Inconvenient Truth”, gewann, kaum stören.

Und last but not least: Sie hat zwar keinen Oscar gewonnen, aber für die Moderation der Oscarverleihung im Jahr 2007 hätte sie ihn mindestens verdient gehabt:

Im Partnerlook: Ellen DeGeneres und Oscar

(Ich gebe zu, ich konnte es mir nicht verkneifen, ich liebe diese Frau einfach… )

A few years ago, if somebody had told me that one day, Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock would both win Golden Globe Awards, I would have believed it. What I would most certainly not have believed is that Sandra Bullock would win for Drama and Meryl Streep for Comedy.

It’s just too bad that the two actresses didn’t get to be on the same stage again, like at VH1′s Critics’ Choice Awards on Saturday. Maybe there would have been an encore kiss.

Won for the comedy “Julie & Julia”: Meryl Streep

Won for “The Blind Side”: Sandra Bullock

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Even though it weren’t Meryl and Sandra (again), there actually were two women kissing: After her show “Glee” won “Best Television Series – Comedy Or Musical”, out actress Jane Lynch kissed the woman next to her, who turned out to be her girlfriend.

Won as part of the cast of “Glee”: Jane Lynch

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Do we have to worry about our well-loved Hollywood stereotypes? Like, for example, that there’s always a stream of upcoming, young and talented actors and actresses? This year, there were as many as 3 actresses and 1 actor who were nominated twice – Sandra Bullock, Meryl Streep, Anna Paquin and Matt Damon – all of them established and well-known.

And even if there were some “newcomers” among the nominees, like Gabourey Sidibe from “Precious” or Anna Kendrick from “Up in the Air”, with the noticeable exception of Mo’nique and Christoph Waltz the winners were household names as well, most of whom had even been nominated before: Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock, Toni Collette, Julianna Margulies, Drew Barrymore, Chloe Sevigny, Jeff Bridges, Robert Downey Jr., Kevin Bacon, Michael C. Hall, Alec Baldwin and John Lithgow.

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Another Hollywood cliché used to be that your career as an actress ends or might not even take off when you are older than 40 or have a “full figure”. The list of Sunday night’s winners seems to prove that wrong, with a 60-year-old Meryl Streep and a full-figured Mo’nique leading the way. So take that, you skinny youngsters!

Won for “Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire”: Mo’nique

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Speaking of skinny, could somebody please feed Jennifer Garner and Suzy Amis? They looked like they were in desperate need of something to eat.

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If – two paragraphs later – you are still trying to figure out why you should know Anna Paquin, let me remind you that this young woman calls an Academy Award her own, which she won at the tender age of 11 for her role in Jane Campion’s “The Piano”. Other former child actors who were present at the Golden Globes (and in one case even won an award) were Jodie Foster, Drew Barrymore, Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

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The Hollywood Foreign Press Association lived up to its name once again, which includes not only “Hollywood”, but also “Foreign”. There were nominees from all over the world, especially the UK (like Helen Mirren, Kenneth Branagh, Colin Firth and many more), but also Spain (Penelope Cruz), France (Marion Cotillard) and New Zealand (Anna Paquin). But it were the Austrians who ruled – both Michael Haneke, the director of “Best Foreign Language Film” winner “The White Ribbon”, and Christoph Waltz, who won for his role in Quentin Tarrantino’s “Inglorious Basterds”, are from Austria.

Won for “Inglorious Basterds”: Christoph Waltz

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Also from Austria is the “Gouvernator”, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Add to that Sandra Bullock, who greeted her family in German, and there were at least 4 German-speaking people on the stage of the Golden Globes, and none of them was actually German. At least Germany could take the the credit for “Best Foreign Language Film”, but that was because we paid for it. Which means that even if you might not be able to actually buy a Golden Globe, you can at least buy the credit for it.

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By the way, in case you are still wondering what Sandra Bullock said in German: She told her family that they could go to bed now, but not without brushing their teeth. I wonder whether this sounded somehow familiar to Leo DiCaprio, who happened to have a German grandmother.

Sandra Bullock sends her German family to bed

Did you watch the Golden Globe Awards? If so, what were your favourite or least favourite moments? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.