Oscars Flashback: Marcia Gay Harden Thought She Was Being Chased by Jewel Thieves After 2001 Ceremony

Mar. 15, 2025

Marcia Gay Harden at the 2001 Oscars.Photo:SGranitz/WireImage

SGranitz/WireImage

Ahead of the 2025 Oscars,PEOPLEis looking back at past ceremonies and sharing behind-the-scenes stories from Hollywood’s most prestigious event.

WhenMarcia Gay Hardenattended the 2001 Academy Awards as a Best Supporting Actress forPollock, she accessorized her red Randolph Duke gown withHarry Winston diamonds.

Lots of Harry Winston diamonds. So many, in fact, that she and her mother and sister — who were also wearing borrowed jewels — needed a bodyguard to stay with them for the evening, per the jeweler.

“I was told, ‘You can wear $500,000 worth of jewels with no bodyguard. If you go over that, you’ll need a bodyguard on the night,’” Harden recalled inDave Karger’s 2024 book50 Oscar Nights. “And we were like, ‘We don’t want a bodyguard on the night. $500,000? That’s a lot of jewels. No worries.’”

“Then they got wind of the dress and they were like, ‘Okay, you can have $1,000,000 worth of jewels with no bodyguard.’ I was like, ‘What, are you kidding me?’  Then they opened up the necklace. I said, ‘Okay, how would that necklace look with these earrings? And of course I need a ring. And maybe one little bracelet,’” she continued.

Marcia Gay Harden after winning Best Supporting Actress at the 2001 Oscars.David LEFRANC/Gamma-Rapho via Getty

David LEFRANC/Gamma-Rapho via Getty

After her mother and sister also borrowed some jewels, Harden says the three were all wearing a collective $3.5 million worth of Harry Winston items. And so, they had a bodyguard for the evening.

At the ceremony, Harden, who played painter Lee Krasner in the film about artist Jackson Pollock, bestedJudi Dench(Chocolat),Kate Hudson(Almost Famous),Frances McDormand(Almost Famous) andJulie Walters(Billy Elliot) to take home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

Marcia Gay Harden and Ed Harris in ‘Pollock.'.Brant-Allen/Kobal/Shutterstock

Brant-Allen/Kobal/Shutterstock

Afterwards, she celebrated with family. “At the end of the Governors Ball, we have a limo full of people, and we’re dropping everybody at different places. At some point, my publicist is looking out of the car and says, ‘I think we’re being followed,’” Harden said.

“We go to the next place and sure enough, we’re being followed. So now it’s my husband, my mother, me, my sister, and her husband. Now we get on the highway and the bodyguard’s on the phone. And he’s like, ‘They could be jewel thieves who are trying to pull us over.’ It wasn’t quite a high-speed chase, but it felt like one.”

“My mother at one point — this is not a lie — says, ‘I just want to fling the jewels out the window. I want to live!’”

Marcia Gay Harden in 2024.Daniel Boczarski/Getty

Daniel Boczarski/Getty

The police later told Harden her suspicions were confirmed, she said: “It wasn’t jewel thieves — it was paparazzi. And they thought you wereRussell Crowe.”

source: people.com