February 7, 2005
"AND THE OSCAR GOES TO..."

I have wanted to provide you web tourists with some Oscar-related material. Just when I was thinking I was completely out of touch with the show business, someone walks into my life (Hepcat) who has been wired in for years. To my delight, Anastasia...

Here is the transcript of the interview.

ME: Is it Anastasia?

ANASTASIA: Yes.

ME: And there's no last name?

ANASTASIA: No, just Anastasia.

ME: And what do people call you?

ANASTASIA: Anastasia.

ME: I see. Anastasia has an incredibly long list of credits in the motion picture industry. Mostly, she says, she is recognized as an Oscar-winning prop master.

ANASTASIA: Not recognized on the street.

ME: No?

ANASTASIA: No, recognized maybe by name by the people who watch the credits run at the end of a movie. The people who either have nowhere else to go or have dropped a glove or sat on a Milk Dud or something. They know me.

ME: Well, I'm sure glad to know you. I confess I've never actually seen your name on the screen, but the list of films you told me you've worked on is phenomenal. When you originally E-mailed Hep about your cat....

ANASTASIA: Fasty.

ME: ...Yes, Fasty...I had no idea I had the honor of addressing someone with such a rich history in movies.

ANASTASIA: Fasty was named after a character in "Chariots of Fire," which I won an Oscar for. I also worked on "Gandhi," for which I also won an Oscar that same year and after whom Fasty could also have been named.

ME: That's great. Were you always a prop master?

ANASTASIA: No, not at all. I started out as a wardrobe mistress's assistant, which most people don't know because I never actually received screen credit for that work.

ME: So, not even the people with Milk Duds on their butts would know about that.

ANASTASIA: No.

ME: So how did you make the transition from wardrobe mistress's assistant to prop master. Was there a training? Is it a natural progression up the show business ladder? Did you know somebody in that line?

ANASTASIA: I'll tell you. I'm going to tell you. If you'll just wait a second. I'll tell you.

ME: Oh. O.K.

ANASTASIA: No, there was no training. I was ready to get out....

ME: Of show business?

ANASTASIA: Will you wait? No, not out of show business...

ME: Out of wardrobe.

ANASTASIA: No.... Why are you asking me if you know?

ME: I'm sorry. I've been very jumpy ever since the timer broke on my toaster oven. I've gone through hundreds of dollars in bread and the house is always filled with smoke....

ANASTASIA: Out of the wardrobe mistress's assistant role. I was sick of saying, "These run small," and I was sick of hangers. For years, even as a prop master, I steered clear of any movie with packing or unpacking. I almost turned down "Mommie Dearest," which I'm glad I didn't because I won an Oscar for that.

ME: That's great. I didn't know they gave Oscars to prop masters.

ANASTASIA: Well, how would you know, have you been in films?

ME: Just one actually. It was a low budget sci-fi thing -- a long time ago.

ANASTASIA: I didn't see it.

ME: I don't think it played in this country.

ANASTASIA: I see. Here's a picture of me actually handing the wire hanger to Faye Dunaway.

ME: Sure, I recognize your red nail polish. So, that other person was Faye Dunaway?

ANASTASIA: Yes, she was wonderful. She says ever since Bonnie and Clyde she can't carry a gun into a bank without getting stopped.

ME: Really.

ANASTASIA: Yes.

ME: I understand you got to keep a lot of the props.

ANASTASIA: Yes, my house is a virtual museum.

ME: I tend to hold onto pants that don't fit me anymore.

ANASTASIA: Here is one of the eggs from "Cool Hand Luke." I won an Oscar for my work in this film.

ME: It's a hardboiled egg.

ANASTASIA: Yes, from "Cool Hand Luke."

ME: It's in your house?

ANASTASIA: Yes.

ME: I would think it would've rotted.

ANASTASIA: It didn't. Here are some props from one of my best films. These, of course, are from "Rocky," which I won an Oscar for.

ME: More eggs. I never realized how important the poultry business was to movie making.

ANASTASIA: People never do.

ME: How come nobody ever seems to notice that, yes, the Rocky character transforms in the course of training for his fight, but Adrienne? Adrienne goes from being a painfully shy, retiring, hidden, abuse victim, who is perceived to be retarded, to the hippest-sporting, feminist dynamo the world has ever seen just by sleeping with Rocky.

ANASTASIA: I just set the props.

ME: What are these?

ANASTASIA: Scrambled eggs and the folded napkin from "The Miracle Worker," This is from the Oscar winning "Searching For Bobby Fisher."

ME: I didn't know that won an Oscar.

ANASTASIA: It didn't. I did. That was a tough job, too, because you have to put the pieces in the right places on the board. Originally, the script was about Chinese checkers. They couldn't keep a prop master.

ME: I didn't know that. How about these?

ANASTASIA: "Schindler's List."

ME: I never saw it up close before. What are these?

ANASTASIA: These are from "The Apartment." Boy, I had my work cut out for me winning that Oscar. What a film -- Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. Neither one could keep track of the keys. What does she say?

That she's had ten lives or something? I'll bet she doesn't know where she put the keys in any of them. And Jack Lemmon? The man couldn't keep track of a thing. It's no wonder he starred in "Missing." He says he still can't look for his keys without yelling "Anastasia."

ME: He's dead now, isn't he?

ANASTASIA: Shirley MacLaine doesn't think so.

ME: What's this from?

ANASTASIA: "My Left Foot."

ME: Let me guess. "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"?

ANASTASIA: How'd you know?

ME: I just showed it to my kids a couple of days ago.

ANASTASIA: This is from "Amadeus."

ME: That sheet music was a prop in "Amadeus"?

ANASTASIA: Yes.

ME: Mozart didn't write "Camp Town Races."

ANASTASIA: A good actor makes the audience believe the prop is real.

ME: What's this from?

ANASTASIA: "Patton."

ME: George C. Scott was brilliant.

ME: This is just great, Anastasia, thank you. Where are you going to be on Oscar Night?

ANASTASIA: At the Oscars.

ME: You're up for an Oscar again? What movie did you master?

ANASTASIA: "The Aviator."

ME: Did you set those big planes?

ANASTASIA: They weren't that big.

ME: They looked big.

ANASTASIA: You weren't that good in the sci-fi film, were you?

ME: No. Well, thanks so much for talking to me – us – my web tourists and myself.

ANASTASIA: Thank you.

THIS JUST IN!