A couple years ago, we drove down to the film festival at Santa Barbara where, for his birthday, I got my boyfriend tickets to see a special tribute to Naomi Watts, one of his all-time favorites (for her acting, right?). She sat on the stage and was interviewed about her career, and they showed lots of clips from her films, and finally she got up to receive the festival’s “Montecito Award,” which was presented to her by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who had directed her in 21 Grams. True, we were sitting up in the nosebleed seats for all of this, but still my other half got to see one of his favorite actresses in the flesh (And have I ever seen Benicio del Toro in person? Hell, no).
Before the ceremony, we stood out on the red carpet and watched Naomi Watts arrive. We had great rope-side spots (achieved, I must confess, with a wee bit of elbowing), and she passed within feet of us. And yet, even then, we never got a really good look. The media were lined up on the opposite side, and as she made her way down the red carpet she was almost always facing toward them and away from us (We did get a few good glimpses of her back). On top of that, Naomi is a petite little thing, and our view was frequently obscured by a cluster of burly bodyguards who towered over her.
But it’s better that way. For celebrity to work, you need the mystery and the distance. You can’t stargaze in the full light of day, because then all the glitter fades away.
Naomi Watts’s back, working the red carpet
