Mike Leigh, Oscar and osso bucco

Vera Drake's daddy, Mike Leigh, keeps an Oscar diary for the Observer; after dropping a hint that Joe Roth's Revolution Studios may be in for much of his next budget, Leigh writes about a photo session with an unlikely shooter and bleak moments at a nasty supper: "We all hang about [the Chateau Marmont] waiting for Dennis Hopper, who eventually shows up to take my photo for a tsunami fund-raising book... It's suddenly very surreal. Lots of pauses and long brooding moments. He gazes bleakly across the grass at the hotel. He mutters: 'I once lived here for two-and-a-half years...' Then he takes a few tight close-ups, very slowly and ponderously. It actually feels quite good. I sense a warmth. We shake hands. Then he hugs me suddenly, and they all leave. Supper with Imelda [Staunton] and her gang. Matteo's Restaurant was recommended to me. Nancy Reagan's and Frank Sinatra's favourite, apparently, and in deference to our status, they've put us on the Frank Sinatra Good Luck Table. Service ludicrous. Food inedible. Had they served Ol' Blue Eyes my osso bucco, the chef would have wound up with a horse's head in his bed, if not up his arse."