Students celebrate Oscars in Lourie-Love basement

Who knew a group of freshmen girls could dream so big?

A fabulous Oscars' party, right here in Princeton: a real red carpet, all the guests glittering in dresses seen last on the Street at winter formals — these plans were on the agenda for Julia Cain '07, Emily Stolzenberg '07 and Ronee Penoi '07. The party was located in the basement of Lourie-Love, and word got out via mass email.

Other locations on campus seemed to be treating the Oscars with an unexpected degree of decorum; of course one would dare not say, disinterest. Surely it was merely pretended disinterest. Who can fail to be captivated by the fashion-conscious Barbie-doll dresses, the lights, the glamour or the suspense?

At Quandrangle club, around seven students (five of whom were female) sat around the bar watching the TV.

"If Lord of the Rings doesn't win I will be so angry," Matt Foulger '05 said. "It is the one movie that's allowed to have a half-hour ending. It's just number one."

He attributed his favoritism to, "The fact that everyone had read the book and had it in their head how it was and they still nailed it."

Meanwhile, the girls contented themselves with making comments like, "Look at that dress!" and, "Well she's kind of chubby now."

At Frist, there was silence. People were intent on munching on dinners, and several stood as if to prove that they were not staying for long.

In the basement of Dod, both TVs were keened to the right channel, but there was practically no one there to partake in an Oscars' celebration.

Clearly, then, the place to be was Lourie-Love. Though many of their plans failed to materialize, the turnout was impressive.

Stolzenberg greeted friends in an elegant evening gown, "I like the whole cultural experience of it. The company is great."

How to get a "company" there?

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"The added incentive that you could bring your own work really helped. People would be under the delusion that they could come and get stuff done," Penoi explained the success.

It seemed as if many students had no delusions at all: they meant business. When someone went to turn off the lights, there was a unanimous cry, "No! I can't read in the dark!"

In the background of the awards there were murmurs, "Why don't you just draw a graph . . .?"

"I'm surprised, a Sunday night close to midterms. I thought we wouldn't get anyone," Penoi said.

Some students came to the basement of their own accord, never expecting to find a party going on downstairs. Two students arrived on the scene, exclaiming, "There's an Oscars party going on? You're wearing a dress!"

Some students found that they had not actually seen many of the movies that were up for awards. "I haven't gotten to see a lot of the movies this year because the movie theater is so far away," Stolzenberg said. But she added, "I'm glad 'Finding Nemo' won."

"I'm pulling for Pirates of the Caribbean," Shulman said. "Billy Crystal is such a great host."

"I'm just a big movie fanatic," Cain said. "I'm a big Lord of the Rings crazy person."

Penoi said of the party, "It stemmed from a group of friends. We live in 194, and we're really close." She added that they had met primarily through the theater.

Stolzenberg sighed at the fact that she was almost alone in dressing up, looking at the paper decorations and food from the Wa. "We wanted to encourage dressing up and have voting on people's favorites. We just didn't plan early enough."

Luckily, there's always next year. The girls plan to try to reserve the big TV in Frist and ask for Alcohol Initiative money to throw a huge party next year, Oscars-style.