Oscar parties bring Hollywood glitz to SLO County

One evening each year, an odd assortment of guests shows up at the doorstep of San Luis Obispo residents Gary and Muriel Harkins — among them, giant insects, spacemen, terrorists, and people missing limbs.

It may sound like Halloween, but in reality, it’s Academy Awards night. The Harkinses have hosted an Oscar party for nearly a decade, as founders of SLO Movie Group, an association of film enthusiasts.

Pamela Brown of San Luis Obispo has attended every one of those parties. “Grownups don’t get much of a chance to get into costume and be somebody else for a while,” she noted. “It’s a chance to get out of your normal comfort zone and just be playful.”

Each of the 40 or so party guests are encouraged to dress as a character from a film released that past year — and to stay in character as much as possible during the party. The payoff for their efforts could be the much-coveted “best costume” award, commemorated with an Oscar statuette replica. Each guest votes for their favorite costume.

Notable entries from years past have included Osama bin Laden from “Zero Dark Thirty,” nuns from the movie “Philomena,” and a man wearing a jacket lined with paint store color chips — his interpretation of “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

Brown once came as the comatose wife of George Clooney’s character in “The Descendants,” wearing a hospital gown and sipping her wine from a flexi-straw. Last year’s costume contest winner emphasized daring over substance. He streaked through the party wearing nothing but underpants in a reenactment of a scene from “Birdman.”

Another local party hosted for 31 years by Los Osos residents Mark and Valery Plater takes a different approach to attire, playing up the glitz and glamour of the Academy Awards. Although they sometimes ask guests to dress according to a designated theme, they usually encourage black-tie attire, as in tuxedoes and evening gowns.

In keeping with the red-carpet vibe, the couple has been known to roll out an actual red carpet on their front walk, and they’ve enlisted their son and his friends to act as paparazzi as guests arrive. One year, they hired a limousine driver to pick up partygoers at their homes. Another year, they ordered “Walk of Fame” decals for their front steps from a website called shindigz.com, then personalized them with the names of their guests.

The Platers keep refreshments simple — mostly finger foods and wine. The SLO Movie Group opts for a potluck dinner. San Luis Obispo resident Robin Kirk Wolf and her husband Matthew Hanson, who have been throwing Oscar parties for over 10 years, have found a way to put out an elegant spread on the cheap.

Wolf, who is a professional event planner, offers gourmet nibbles like cheese, charcuterie, fruit and nuts, along with a “bubbly bar,” consisting of budget-friendly cava or Prosecco, fancy glassware, and mixers such as raw sugar cubes, lemon peel, fruit juices, and liqueurs, with fruit and edible flowers for garnish.

She also includes flavored bitters made by her own company, SLO Bitter Co. Wolf likes the bubbly bar because it’s an activity in itself, and also “allows people to customize their cocktail and doesn’t break the bank,” she said.

Wolf says it’s always a good idea to add a little bling to an Oscar party. Her favorite palette for the occasion is black and gold, which opens the way for numerous inexpensive yet opulent-looking decorations.

Think mylar balloons from the dollar store, gold confetti on a length of black fabric (cheaper than a tablecloth), gold-toned serving trays, and decorative gold film reels or Oscar replicas that can be easily and inexpensively sourced online.

What all three parties have in common is an Oscar pool, where guests try to predict award winners. Each person puts a set amount of money into the pot — usually $10 — and the winner takes all. Tiebreakers are decided with movie trivia questions.

The contest can get rather competitive, the hosts say. Longtime guest of the Plater Oscar party, Jay Hieatt, will often go out of his way to watch documentaries and short films in order to offer the most educated predictions. “It forces me to see some films I wouldn’t have seen otherwise,” he said.

Tracking results can be a laborious task for the host, so the Platers and their guests have come up with a creative solution. Guests swap ballots and each one is responsible for posting results on a graph printed on a large poster board. “It becomes like a horse race, with people cheering as results are posted,” Hieatt said.

Along with the top awards for costume and award predictions, hosts often present smaller prizes. Some throw out trivia questions during commercial breaks, awarding winners with small gifts, such as boxes of movie candy and microwave popcorn. Wolf presents certificates for distinctions such as “loudest laugh” or “most star-struck.”

All of these diversions keep guests engaged during what can be a very long night. Wolf advises hosts to be sensitive to the comfort of their guests. For instance, three-and-a-half hours may be too long to sit on a folding chair in an evening gown.

So dressing up is entirely optional at these parties, which means it would be just fine to swap out your cocktail dress for a pair of jeans sometime around the Best Supporting Actress presentation. Or, you can do what Mark Plater is planning to do this year, and just go casual. “Sometimes it’s tuxedoes,” he said, “and sometimes it’s beer and pizza.”

This story was originally published February 29, 2016 at 5:34 AM with the headline "Oscar parties bring Hollywood glitz to SLO County."