Mere hours after all of the famous directors, actors and actresses left the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood last Sunday night, one St. Albert librarian was standing outside in a large crowd of people waiting to get in.
They obviously didn’t care about catching glimpses of Angelina Jolie or Natalie Portman. They were there to see one of the most powerful people in entertainment do her show in front of a live studio audience.
Linda Schwam won a pair of tickets to attend a taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show on Monday. This was the television host’s famous post-Academy Award special called Oprah’s Ultimate After-Oscar Party. As expected, there were many special guests including Colin Firth, Tom Hooper and Geoffrey Rush of The King’s Speech, Melissa Leo from The Fighter and Oscar telecast co-host Anne Hathaway, plus a surprise performance by Katy Perry.
“Nobody, of course, knew she was coming,” Schwam stated, clearly still riding a wave of energy from the experience even days later.
“It was fun,” she said, calling it a dream come true. She was especially thrilled she and her guest — daughter-in-law Cheryl — were among so many like-minded people. There were about 3,000 people in total that came from all over the U.S. and Canada. “We just had lots of fun chatting with everybody.”
Schwam got the good news after she filled out a contest application on the show’s website. She still had to pay for her airfare and accommodations and take an extra day off work but it was all worth it.
The experience opened her eyes in more ways than one. Sure, she was thrilled with the celebrities on stage but there was more. The Kodak Theatre, for instance, looks much bigger on TV but she likened its size to that of the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium. That doesn’t mean she was able to shake the star’s hand though.
“Oprah has more security than the airport.”
No one was allowed to bring in a camera but somehow many did anyway.
“We were doing the right thing, following the rules. We saw so many other people in the audience taking absolutely unlimited photos and videos. They all had their cameras and cellphones with them. We were just disappointed that we followed the rules and didn’t get anything out of it. They don’t even sell any goodies to buy. Nothing.”
Apart from being given other explicit instructions on what to wear or how to behave, she was also told that she couldn’t bring any food or water.
For six hours, all 3,000 people had nothing to eat or drink. Schwam ate her breakfast in the taxi at 5:30 a.m. and didn’t eat again until 1 p.m.
“Oprah didn’t even give us a bottle of water to drink and you couldn’t buy anything there.”
Did this unpleasant treatment change her from being an Oprah fan?
“Not really! We just thought it was a bit odd.”
