Daily Front Row

2009 March 5

Catching Up With...Ingrid Sischy

Comments | | Print

(PARIS) The Daily only glimpsed Ingrid Sischy at a few select shows in Milan, but given that we hadn't had the requisite Oscar recap with the editrix who knows that world best, we nabbed her before she took a front-row seat at Balmain. Behold the dish!

What did you think of the new Oscar format?
“I am a huge Hugh Jackman fan. This guy is the real archetype of a great host. We had Thanksgiving with him at some other friends', and even at Thanksgiving, when he gave the toast, even though he's an Australian, he was like, 'It's a great world here...' He loves people, and he loves giving them a good time. You could tell he had a ball. I'm mixed about saying this, because it's great that all different aspects of the movies get awards, but I kind of wish they'd put those other things at the end. It was sort of deadly waiting for the person that ties the shoelaces to get their Oscar, and whoever brushed the diva's teeth got their Oscar...I think it's something they've got to solve, because entertainment is entertainment, and that was not entertaining. Well, a lot of it wasn't.”

How was the Vanity Fair gala?
“The Vanity Fair dinner was really fun. I think it's always fun, but they scaled down the list this year. Big isn't always better, and this was spectacular--a great feeling, really relaxed. Everyone was so happy to be together. Then afterward [at the party], everywhere you turned, it was like being on Sunset Boulevard in the '40s. We really, really had fun.”

How did you feel about the Slumdog Millionaire win?
"Sandy [Brant] and I saw Slumdog very early, before it hit the movie theaters, because Danny Boyle sent Jon Bon Jovi a tape. Jon called us--he has a screening room--and asked if we wanted to go over on a Friday night. We saw it, and even though there were like six of us in the room, you just knew that this movie was going to absolutely capture the hearts of people. We're all looking for ways to use our imagination and memories to negotiate our way to a new place in the world, and this film epitomized this."

Milk was pretty fantastic.
"The two great performances [last year] were Sean [Penn] and Mickey [Rourke], but I think that Milk was about things that really, really matter. As we saw from the last election, we were celebrating with Obama, but Proposition 8 went through, too. I guess it's one group of civil rights at a time, unfortunately. I think for that reason, it was fantastic that Hollywood voted for Milk. A lot of people felt this was really only of interest in America. We put Sean Penn on the cover of Vanity Fair Italy, and Elvis Mitchell, that great writer, interviewed him--it did incredibly. This issue really matters for the whole world."
ASHLEY BAKER