It's Not White... It's Not Black... It's All GREY...

The Oscars, Hollywood’s most anticipated celebration, has come and gone. The red carpet. The dresses. The tuxes. The jewelry. The celebrities. The prestige. The talent. First off, I would like to say congratulations to the nominees and the winners. They were all much deserved. P.S. Sandra Bullock, you looked phenomenal. That dress was absolutely gorgeous on you. P.P.S. Kathryn Bigelow, I am so stoked that you won both for Best Director and Motion Picture. You deserved it all. That movie was beyond words. And did you and James Cameron like make a bet before hand on who would win? Take score on all of the victories? I would have, just to rub it in. But really, congrats!

Anyway, as I was watching some of the cast and crew of The Hurt Locker take stage on this much-looked-forward-to night, I saw something. It was a twinkle of light in the eyes of Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty. This could perhaps be the fact that a movie they all starred in has just won the esteemed Oscar award; however, I think it was something else. I think it was something more powerful and more exciting. I think that it was the amount of fun to be looked forward to at the Oscar after parties.

Oh celebrity parties. I have never been to one, nor do I expect to ever go to one (despite how much I hope and pray), but after having this thought come across my mind, I began to wonder, why isn’t it politically and/or socially correct for celebrities to just get super drunk sometimes? I feel like we, outsiders looking in, tend to judge those in this spotlight for letting loose and putting down those guards, which were put up for us in the first place. Take Lindsey Lohan or Paris Hilton for instance. I just want to ask you, what were you doing when you were between the ages of 21 and 28? I mean we shouldn’t be blacked-out all of the time (if so, there might be a problem), but an occasional “grey-out” I think is totally acceptable. My friend Ashlyn likes to use this term for those nights where the entire night isn’t blank, but there are certain parts where a good friend might have to fill you in, and whether or not you actually want to hear those grey moments is a completely different story.

I look back at my high school days, my college days, and well… my post-graduate days, and my friends and I knew how to party and knew how to rally. Yes as we got older, those days were limited in number, but what group of friends has 2 keggers in their freshman-year dorms just because? Who organizes a 64-team beer bong tournament for March Madness? What friend can single-handedly create an Oktoberfest and a Beerfest party with games, trophies, and souvenirs? No one cared what were doing or how old we were when we were drinking, so why care what these people are doing? Being the occasional reckless drunk person is a part of growing up. I’m sure many of us could come up with life-long valuable lessons from drunk nights. For instance, just because he’s cute after a few drinks doesn’t mean he’s actually cute. Boys, especially, should go to the bathroom at least three times before actually getting in bed. No matter how good of a reason, NEVER steal your friends’ car keys to go to campus to hook up with a freshman. For those of us that do opt to drink, I don’t think that there is one person who hasn’t had a night like this; whether it be last night or seven years ago, we have all been there my friend. Yesiree, we have.

So again, why do we tend to criticize those in the public limelight that do this occasionally? I think it’s totally acceptable. I think it humanizes celebrities. The celebs are the ones with enough money to go out every night, get tables, and multiple top shelf bottles (another luxury some of us normal peeps don’t have), and yet, they remained somewhat constrained in this box because of us. We, normal, poor people, sacrifice other necessities (oh you know, just little things like food, gas, clothes, etc.) in order to enjoy a good night out with friends. I do hope to see pictures of the winners and noms drunk from Oscar night. Whether it be at the Vanity Fair Party or Elton John’s Viewing Party or another private party, I hope these celebrities show us that they know how to party. We all know they can act. That’s what makes them famous. But, everyone always needs a reality check to remember that these famous people are also just people. Please, I beg of you, get greyed out. Have a friend tell you a story that you don’t remember. You’re famous. You’re doing something that most normal people would love to be doing, mingling amongst all of you, all glam’d up and enjoying the night. Most of you probably aren’t working on Monday, so become one with the night. Take massive amounts of shots with the top shelf liquor. Have drunk munchies of pizza and ramen noodles. Sleep in so the hangover isn’t so bad. Be a normal person every so often. Make stupid mistakes. Wake up and wonder “WHAT IN THE HOLY HELL HAPPENED LAST NIGHT?” It’s all about of being young and making memories, whether they’re crystal clear, greyed out, or just blacked out.