Meeting stars ‘like winning lottery’ for Irish father and daughter
AN Irish father and daughter were “mesmerised” when they found themselves in the middle of the 89th Oscars ceremony.
Aer Lingus cabin crew member Lisa Lucas and her father Tom, from Co Carlow, were on a three-day stopover in Los Angeles and ended up in the middle of the star-studded event after they jumped aboard a celeb-spotting bus tour.
Ceremony
Host Jimmy Kimmel welcomed 10 lucky punters from the tour into the Dolby Theatre during the Academy Awards ceremony.
The two met stars such as Ryan Gosling and Denzel Washington.
They spoke to the ‘Eoghan McDermott Show’ on RTÉ 2FM about their surreal experience after landing back in Dublin.
Lisa said they had finished the bus tour and were dropped off in the “Hall of Fame” to be collected later.
“They said we were going to be brought backstage, just to look at the gowns, jewellery, things like that,” she said.
“The next thing they’re like ‘1,2,3’ and we walk in. We were just like, ‘what?’.”
Tom shook hands with ‘La La Land’ star Gosling, whom he described as a “pure gentleman”.
“I’ll never forget it, it was like winning the lottery.
“Money doesn’t matter, this is much better than the lottery.”
Tom admitted he didn’t actually recognise many of the famous Hollywood faces in the Oscars audience.
Lisa said: “He said: ‘Who’s that, Li?’ I said: ‘Seriously? Jennifer Aniston’.”
However, Lisa immediately had fashion concerns: “[I was wearing] a peaked hat, ripped jeans and a North Face fleece, seriously, and they’re all in these amazing gowns, which were beautiful. My face was mortified,” she said.