Bafta’s LA bash with Dame Judi was cracking night out

I often miss wee things about the UK.

Like a proper cup of tea in a chipped mug, a roll and slice, or even that type of rain that feels quite light but somehow also soaks you to the skin. Even something as simple as a scotch egg reminds me of home.

So it was with great pleasure I tucked into a fancy scotch egg here in Los Angeles last week at a very British celebration last week.

Bafta Los Angeles’s Britannia Awards were held at the very glitzy Beverly Hilton. Some of UK’s finest were honoured, like Dame Judi Dench, Emma Watson and, er, Robert Downey Jr. Well he was so convincing on the big screen as Sherlock Holmes that makes him an honorary Brit.

We were served a fancy scotch egg as a starter, although I’m not sure how fancy a boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat and breadcrumbs can get.

I had a lovely time chatting with Emma Watson. Although she’ll be forever in our hearts and minds as Hermione in the Harry Potter movies we have a running gag where I always refer to her now actually being 71, and that Dame Emma has certain ring to it. Emma was very excited to be there alongside a real Dame and certainly one of our finest acting talents of all time Dame Judi Dench. Which is actually quite hard to say quickly after several lemonades!

I asked Judi about her early career. Amazingly, she very nearly didn’t make it as an actress. A movie producer said she didn’t quite fit in films. He said: “Your face isn’t quite properly arranged!”

One person who thought she had movie presence was heavyweight producer Harvey Weinstein, one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. He saw Judi’s Queen Victoria drama Mrs Brown back in 1997 and insisted it was given a cinema release. So she decided to make her gratitude a little more permanent.

“Harvey Weinstein, whose tattoo I still have on my bum, said it would be a proper theatrical film, and it was,” she said.

I’m sure she was joking about the tattoo but it’s not a bad idea. I’m thinking of doing the same with the The Sunday Post editor’s face!

I mentioned last week that Rob Brydon was hosting the Bafta-LA awards. Rob’s a really funny guy he was great this time. Last year he had the audience in stitches with the joke: “I know what you’re thinking. Hasn’t Hugh Grant let himself go?” Hugh got an acting award at this show a couple of years ago, and gave a hilarious speech.

He thought Bafta-LA was actually “Baftala” and that he’d been nominated for an award by one of Madonna’s new religions…