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At the annual Oscar nominees luncheon, there’s always one leader that even a ballroom full of celebrities will clamor to meet. Last year, that honor went to “Top Gun: Maverick” producer Tom Cruise, a star so big that the other nominees began orbiting around him, waiting for the right moment to jump in to kiss the ring.
The luncheon held Monday afternoon at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, initially seemed to lack that supernova presence, even though there were plenty of famous names, including Robert Downey Jr., Emma Stone and Martin Scorsese. Still, everyone’s gotten too used to each other to do much genuflecting: When you treat an awards campaign like a full-time job, the other contenders might as well be your co-workers.
Was there anyone who could revive this starry but sleepy scene? I didn’t think about it, until I saw nominated supporting actress America Ferrera turn to her left, look down, and gasp.
“Oh Lord!” She exclaimed. “He’s the acting dog!”
At his feet was Messi, the beautiful black and white Border collie from the French courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall.” I gasped too, and not just because I’m a dog lover: This was Messi’s first big appearance of awards season, although his star has risen on social media for a performance on par with some of the human nominees. .
As Snoop, the family pet who witnesses the controversial death at the heart of “Anatomy of a Fall,” 7-year-old Messi does things you wouldn’t think a canine actor is capable of, including a fake death scene executed with disturbing aplomb. At the Cannes Film Festival, where “Anatomy of a Fall” won the prestigious Palme d’Or, Messi even received the award palm dog. What more could a dog want besides treats?
Although I’ve been to many awards season events where stars were kept in line by their handlers, this luncheon was the first time it wasn’t metaphorical. “Can I say hello?” Ferrera asked Messi’s owner and trainer, Laura Martín Contini.
“Please!” Continini said.
Ferrera knelt next to Messi and caressed his head. “You did a fabulous job,” he told the dog.
Messi, looking at us with a pair of convincingly human blue eyes, happily accepted praise and neck massages from Ferrera, whose “Barbie” colleagues proved equally seduced. Billie Eilish, nominated for her song “Barbie”What was I made for?“She left her Gucci bag on the floor to scratch Messi under the chin. Later, when ryan gosling When he was introduced to the dog, the supporting actor nominee put his hand over his heart and walked away for a moment, overwhelmed.
For once, the main dog at lunch was a real dog. “He’s crazy,” reflected the director of “Anatomy of a Fall,” Justine Triet. “I think he is much more famous here than in France.”
Navigating the Hollywood scene for the first time, Messi handled the room like a pro, politely accepting hugs from anyone who passed by. Even though he was wearing a blue bow tie and nothing else (an awards look that even Timothée Chalamet would find too intimidating to attempt), Messi proved to be well behaved, at least until Contini offered me a toy bone emblazoned with the Beverly Hilton logo. .
Messi, who had been scanning the room for more people to pet him, suddenly focused on that toy bone with laser focus. It was as if I had offered him a best director nomination over Bradley Cooper, and all the other noise in the room died down when Messi ordered me to play fetch with him. “Are you sure?” I asked. The damn dog nodded.
I threw the bone and Messi jumped to the left, catching it in the air and almost colliding with a group of champagne drinkers. Suffice it to say, this wasn’t the kind of scene you get with Meryl Streep.
Although Messi turned out to be the luncheon’s biggest draw, the event has always been designed to foster unusual connections, bringing together nominated actors, behind-the-scenes technicians and documentary subjects for an electric and egalitarian afternoon. In a corner of the room, I met director Sean Wang, nominated for the short documentary “Nai Nai & Wai Po,” about his elderly grandmothers, Chang Li Hua and Yi Yan Fuei. Both women had gone with Wang to lunch.
“I can’t even express how happy I am to think that my grandson could be in a place like this,” Yi said.
Raney Aronson-Rath, who produced the nominated documentary “20 Days in Mariupol,” told me that she had ventured outside her comfort zone to request a photo with “Barbie” star Margot Robbie.
“My daughter now literally thinks I walk on water because I was able to take a photo with her,” he said.
Robbie received one of the biggest applauses of the afternoon, when she was summoned to the steps at the front of the room to pose for a class photo with her fellow nominees. Robbie, a contender to produce “Barbie,” still received a headline-making snub when she failed to make the best actress shortlist. A similar wave of enthusiastic applause greeted Greta Gerwig, who received an adapted screenplay nomination but was ousted from the best director category.
While the nominees were gathering and the photo was being taken, I caught up with Messi, who had sat at a back table next to Contini while she ate vegan scallops. Erased from all attention, Messi had spent the last 20 minutes drifting in and out of sleep.
Tom Quinn, whose studio Neon distributed “Anatomy of a Fall,” sat on the steps next to Messi, silently administering scratches and shoulder massages. Was this the kind of deal that exhausted awards hopefuls could count on from him?
“Only those who deserve it,” he said.