The Academy Awards are one of my favorite things. I’ve driven past the museum but never had time to stop, so I was delighted to find out it shared a bus stop with LACMA on a day when I could make time for both.
The museum’s current exhibit is called “Barbie to Anna Karenina: The Cinematic Worlds of Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer.” Sarah Greenwood is a production designer, and Katie Spencer is a set decorator, and they’ve earned seven Academy Award nominations for their work on Pride & Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007), Sherlock Holmes (2010), Anna Karenina (2012), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Darkest Hour (2017), and Barbie (2023). The exhibit focused on Barbie, Beauty and the Beast, and Anna Karenina, and included a model of Barbieland.
Ken, dressed like Ryan Gosling in the movie, in a model of his house.
Speaking of Ryan Gosling, the museum had the Gucci suit he wore to perform “I’m Just Ken” at the 2024 Academy Awards. The museum also has actual envelopes and Oscar statues, including Ke Huy Quan’s envelope for best supporting actor for Everything Everywhere All At Once, Clark Gable’s best actor award for It Happened One Night, Lee Unkrich’s best animated feature award for Toy Story 3, and James Cameron’s best picture award for Titanic.
Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast.
Bruce, the shark from Jaws, hangs outside the exhibits over the escalators.
And the gift shop sold a candle collaboration between Mise En Scent and Focus Features for Pride & Prejudice. (I bought the candle.)
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