Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Providence Journal video by Connie Grosch
Video: Oscar Night America party at Federal Reserve in Providence.

PROVIDENCE -- Viola Davis lost the best supporting actress award to Penelope Cruz of the Woody Allen film Vicky Cristina Barcelona last night.

The news from Hollywood was a disappointment to the guests at the Oscar Night America party at the Federal Reserve in downtown Providence, who were watching the telecast on a big-screen TV.

Still, in true movie fashion, the show had to go on, with spotlights playing across the front of the Federal Reserve, pink lights highlighting the windows and a red carpet inside with live coverage by Channel 6 anchors John DeLuca and Allison Alexander inside. It was Rhode Island's glamor take on the show going on 3,000 miles away in California.

Sanctioned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Providence's Oscar Night America was a benefit for the American Diabetes Association. Going in, everyone at the Federal Reserve shindig (black-tie optional) seemed to be rooting for the Rhode Island contingent at the show -- best actor nominee Richard Jenkins of The Visitor and best supporting actress nominee Viola Davis of Doubt (pictured at right) -- even if they hadn't seen the films.

"I haven't been to a movie in four years," said Providence Municipal Judge Frank Caprio as he greeted red carpet emcee DeLuca. Nevertheless, he was "rooting for the Rhode Islanders."

Lawyer and onetime radio talk show host Arlene Violet had seen all the films "except for Slumdog Millionaire," the odds-on favorite to win best picture. Violet, a former nun, said she was especially rooting for Davis and for Meryl Streep, who played a nun in Doubt, which is set at a Catholic school. "But as nuns we weren't that mean," she said with a laugh.

Cranston Mayor Alan W. Fung said, "I got a chance to see Slumdog Millionaire," but as a Rhode Islander he wanted to see a win for the local stars. "I think it's an outside chance for Richard Jenkins. Sean Penn will probably get it," but the mayor had his fingers crossed.

Allison Alexander almost got tripped up when she forgot she was wearing her microphone battery pack at one point. "Someone had to unplug me," she said with a chuckle. Last night wasn't Alexander's first encounter with the red carpet. When she was a reporter at a Cleveland TV station she'd done the red carpet at the Academy Awards in Hollywood where she said the reporters only had little square spaces to stand in and then "you had to fight with the other reporters" to get an interview with one of the stars as they paraded by.

Scott Levine has done publicity for major Hollywood studios for 20 years, and for the past several years has been a unit publicist for films that have been shot in New England, including Underdog, Dan in Real Life and The Pink Panther 2. Levine said that although "a lot of pilots" are going to be shot here and in Boston," film work has slowed because the studios have stockpiled films in anticipation of a possible strike by the Screen Actors Guild. Levine most recently worked on the film Dear John, starring Richard Jenkins, which was shot in South Carolina. He recently returned from Los Angeles, where he said the SAG situation right now is "at a stalemate."

Attendees were greeted by Ms. Rhode Island, Francesca Simone of North Smithfield, in a floor-length green gown, a tiara and her Ms. Rhode Island sash. A student at the Boston Conservatory, she made sure people got their spot on the red carpet. Servers passed around crab cakes, jumbo shrimp and cocktail sauce in tiny plastic martini glasses, spicy Thai beef lollipops on sticks, dry aged sirloin, scallops in bacon and more from establishments and companies that included the Waterman Grille, the Capital Grille, Hemenway's, the Bluefin Grille, Cabot Cheese, Aqua and Edible Arrangements.

Others in the crowd included Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline; Clay Pell, grandson of the late U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell; Steven Feinberg, head of the Rhode Island Film and TV Office, and Anne Mulhall, owner of LDI Casting, who finds actors for most of the films and TV shows shot in Rhode Island. She received the aptly named "Dream Maker Award."

There was a silent auction that included a green basketball signed by Kendrick Perkins of the Boston Celtics; a red boxing glove signed by Sylvester Stallone; an original script from Dumb and Dumber, and four official Academy Awards posters.

In the evening's most dramatic real-life moment, a young woman took the dais as Mulhall walked off, chastised the crowd for not paying enough attention to Mulhall while she was getting her award and then called Mulhall back to the podium to a round of applause.

Afterwards, Allison Alexander said it was a surprise moment. "I didn't know where that was going," she said. It was the kind of dramatic moment that could have fit into a Hollywood movie.

Photos of Richard Jenkins and Viola Davis arriving at the Academy Awards are by AP.

More from Projo.com's Oscars blog

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