Community Corner

Hooray for Hollywood

Local teacher sees the stars at Oprah's Oscar bash.

Kelli Ronning spends most weekdays working with elementary age student musicians in the Broadneck area, but Ronning “got out of the box” and flew to Hollywood to spend time with the stars last month.

Ronning entered and won tickets to Oprah Winfrey’s popular post-Oscar show, held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, where the Oscar telecast took place. After learning of her win, she invited two close friends to travel with her and off they went.

When they first arrived, they did the popular tourist activities, including the tour of Hollywood homes where she saw the estates of stars like Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley.

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“I was really struck by Steven Spielberg’s home,” recalled Ronning. “It was on the top of a huge hill and you could see for miles in every direction.”

On Oscar night, Ronning and her friends lucked out and decided to eat at a restaurant that turned out to be right across the street from the Vanity Fair Oscar party.  As they watched the Oscars on a big screen during dinner, they also witnessed other stars arriving at the Vanity Fair event, like actress Joan Collins and director Ron Howard.

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On the post-Oscar morning, Ronning arrived at the Kodak Theatre in the wee hours of the morning, a good six hours before the Oprah taping. After the chaos of admitting the thousands of lucky ticket winners, the taping began and it was just as exciting as Ronning expected.

“We loved seeing the cast of The King’s Speech and then Anne Hathaway,” said Ronning. “The real show stopper was at the end when Katy Perry sang with the kids from New York and fireworks went off around the stage.” 

But that wasn’t the end of a spectacular trip. Ronning and her friends also received tickets to The Price is Right game show taping through their hotel package. They wore special T-shirts they designed (with Drew Carey’s face put into Justin Bieber’s hair) and traveled to the CBS studios in Burbank, CA.

“During the producer interview, I really went all out—being all excited and crazy,” said Ronning. “My friends just knew they would pick me to ‘come on down.’”

So, were they right? Readers will have to see when that particular show airs this Friday, March 25, at 11 a.m. on CBS.


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