There was Judi Dench sitting on a banquette with her husband, Michael Williams, daughter Finty and a brace of agents, in the fabled Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills Hotel.
I had followed her through a throng of 600 guests to a room where a table had been reserved for her. She plonked her beaded Lulu Guinness handbag next to her best supporting actress Oscar and sipped some champagne.
"You got robbed last year," someone told her as she folded a pile of paper napkins into little hats. "You are such a wonderful lady, I just love looking at you, " said a woman who walked by. It took all of Judi's skills as a supreme actress to keep a straight face.
"It's unreal, isn't it? We've got the Baftas and the Oliviers, but this is otherworldly," said a wide-eyed Williams, looking at row upon row of Taittinger Champagne at the bar and, on the other side of the room, Kevin Costner with a blonde perched on his knee.
He added: "I'm flying to London on Tuesday and I'll be back at the National in The Forest with Frances de la Tour." But he'll wing his way across the Atlantic once more for Judi's first night in David Hare's play Amy's View on Broadway.
Judi is now in New York, rehearsing with Richard Eyre. The box-office phones at the Barrymore Theatre haven't stopped ringing since Monday and Amy's View will probably open to an advance sale approaching £2 million.
"I can't think about any of that. I'm just going to do the play," she said. Quite right.
Thanks to Meggie for sending me this picture and the article.