From “Inherent Vice” director Paul Thomas Anderson’s American Airlines diss to “Boyhood” star Patricia Arquette’s moving accepting speech for supporting actress, there were plenty of highlights from Saturday’s Independent Spirit Awards — but TheWrap knows what went down when the cameras weren’t rolling.
“Birdman” won big with Best Feature and Male Lead for Michael Keaton, Julianne Moore continued her best actress sweep for “Still Alice” and Dan Gilroy was triumphant as a writer and producer for “Nightcrawler.” Read our play-by-play of audience chatter, schmoozing, e-cigarette breaks and more of Hollywood players in their natural habitat.
1:00 p.m.: Sponsors temporarily close all the bars in the outside tents (Heineken, American Airlines) to get people inside the main tent for the show. “We reopen at 1:45 p.m. (15 minutes after the show starts) bartenders console.”
1:15.p.m.: Miles Teller is strolling around backstage with a Heineken bottle in hand. He tells two women (who later admit they haven’t seen “Whiplash”) that he has been playing since he was 15 and that editor told him 99 percent of what you see on screen is him.
1:27 p.m.: By the stage door, Andy Samberg grabs Craig Robinson. Robinson’s” Hot Tub Time Machine 2″ opened the night before. He hasn’t sent box office numbers yet but “today is a good day” he tells me.
2:10 p.m.: Former Spirit host Andy Samberg tells me that the SNL40 after party was “such an amazing assemblage of people that I was upset when Prince and Paul McCartney played because I wanted to talk to people.”
2:24 p.m.: During the clip package for best first screenplay, Kristen Wiig and Zach Galifianakis staged a fake fight in the dark over fumbling their lines during the intro. Zach continues the “fight” by saying “Kristen is single” coming out of the clip.
3:12 p.m.: With Jared Leto‘s long thank you list returning to the spirit awards, Dax Shepard can’t wait to hear Leto’s jokes. He turns around in his seat to read off the prompter. As Shepard’s wife Kristen Bell hosts, he has the front row table stage right, sitting with Natasha Lyonne.
3:20 p.m.: Kyle Maclachlan introduces his “work wife” (“Desperate Housewives’” Marcia Cross) to Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke.
3:44 p.m.: Hosts Kristen Bell and Fred Armisen’s segment from the American Airlines tent backstage was not a make-good for Paul Thomas Anderson’s negative comments. They had been rehearsing it earlier in the day.
3:38 p.m.: Marcia Cross throws arms up in the air and howls loudest when Edward Snowden documentary “Citizenfour” picks up a win. She said “I’m on the right side of history now.”
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3:51 p.m.: Before Best Director award (that Rick Linklater won and Ethan Hawke accepted), Alejandro Inarritu covertly took a drag of an E cigarette at his seat. After the Linklater win, Ellar Coltrane leaves the tent.
4:03 p.m.: It’s late in the show and Oprah is still in her seat next to Ava DuVernay.
4:15 p.m.: A reporter asks Julianne Moore what she’s most looking forward to when award season is over. “Eating,”she said.
4:25 p.m.: Right after finishing the show, Kristen Bell walks off stage to be with husband Dan Shepard.
For the record: A previous version of this post misidentified Paul Thomas Anderson’s film. TheWrap regrets the error.