Edwina Bartholomew: Why motherhood and celebrity red carpet events are exactly the same

Interviewing a Hollywood A-lister might seem mysterious from the outside, but really, it’s just like raising children, writes Edwina Bartholomew.

Snacks and spanxs are the two essentials for motherhood and for covering a red carpet.

Normally at this time of year, I jet off to Los Angeles to report on the Academy Awards. It’s a surreal once-in-a-lifetime experience that I’ve been lucky to have had a number of times.

This week, however, when the stars gathered in Hollywood in their Georgio Armani and Chanel, I was watching at home in my Target trackies, suffering a serious case of FOMO.

It’s not the movies or the stars I miss, it’s the adrenaline of the event and the challenge of trying to score an interview. Kind of like parenting – it looks easy from the outside and then you actually have a child and very quickly get schooled.

Sunrise presenter Edwina Bartholomew at the 2016 Oscars red carpet. Picture: Instagram

Here’s how the Oscars work in any ordinary year. The stars arrive a couple of hours before the ceremony begins. Most years there is an express lane for the big names. They can skip the red carpet interviews entirely or just drop in to speak to the influential names like E! News. Most choose the latter so it becomes a competition to try and get their attention.

This is where a well-honed ‘Mum’ voice comes into play. It’s the perfect level of loud but not rude, firm but not shouty. It’s a delicate balance to strike as my Channel Seven News colleague, David Woiwod, found out this week. One publication suggested he shouted at celebrities like he was at the pub and “screamed” at Glenn Close. It’s rather humiliating for those of us on the other side of the velvet rope but this is genuinely the only way to secure a few words from a passing star.

David Woiwod was slammed for “screaming” at Glenn Close on the 2021 Oscars red carpet this week. Picture: Chris Pizzello / AFP

Secondly, as we often tell our kids, remember your manners. After you’ve politely shouted at a celebrity to get their attention, it pays to take a second to introduce yourself. I have suffered various embarrassing “Who are you?” moments over the years with the likes of Mel Gibson and Geoffrey Rush. I still cringe just thinking about these awkward encounters, most of them broadcast live on TV.

Mostly red carpets are about survival and endurance. The last big event I went to in Hollywood was the Emmys. I was seven months pregnant and wearing the most divine sequined midnight blue dress. Beautiful on the outside, schvitzing on the inside. I had to take the ice packs from the Esky and stuff them down my dress to get through seven hours of waiting around.

Glamorous? Far from it. Good fun? Absolutely.