Oscar just walked by

On Tuesday I finally got to see God of Carnage. The Tony winner for Best Play by Yasmina Reza has the original cast back in for a limited run and was my - ok I'll pay full price - ticket of the season. The play was wonderful, but the show I discovered was after.

I'm standing outside the theatre waiting for a friend. I'm poeple watching and reading my Playbill enjoying the energy that happens in Times Square when the shows let out, all is perfectly normal. I notice there is a large crowd at the stage door of the theatre next door. I didn't think much of it. New York regulars don't notice crowds very often, because there are always crowds. I see Hope Davis, one of the stars of the play I had just seen scoot out of her stage door into a waiting tinted window SUV. How cool, I thought and wow is she thin.

I continue to look around, minding my own business when all of the sudden flashes, screams and roars (an I do mean roars) come from the crowd next door. "Hugh" "Hugh" - "Daniel" "James". Oh my goodness it sounded like I was in the bleachers at the Oscars. Two women go running past me on their cell phone telling someone that they had just seen Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig in "A Lot of Rain". I fought the urge to yell after her "the play is called A Steady Rain", but I know the name of the play was secondary to having seen Wolverine and James Bond in person.

I paused. While I have heard very good things about the play and their performances it was this expression of pop culture that bugged me. Epically when, as these women were running by calling everyone they know Marcia Gay Harden came out of the stage door. She has a Tony, an Oscar and has appeared against and stolen scenes from some of the best that Hollywood has to offer and no one was screaming. She was walking out of the theatre after doing her job probably off to meet friends for dinner. I almost went up and asked for her autograph because I didn't want her to think that she was not just as good, no better then the guys next door, but I didn't. I didn't because I got sad.

I didn't like that there weren't as many people screaming to get her notice, she deserved it, but this was reality. Mutants and British SIS members get all the fans. Talent walks out quietly and disappears into the crowded street unnoticed.