I AM currently in Los Angeles to cover the biggest celebration in the movie calendar – the Oscars.

Of course I hopped, skipped and jumped on a plane with glee at the chance to exchange perpetual rain for blue skies and sunshine, but the differences between Salisbury Plain and the Hollywood Hills aren’t as great as one might think.

Both places are focussed on structural selfimprovement, for example.

Our Market Place has just been botoxed free of all unsightly blemishes, Elizabeth Gardens has had a facelift, and the Maltings is planning on having 'work done'.

And it isn’t just Salisbury that boasts an incredibly rich history – some of the buildings here in LA are more than fifty years old.

The biggest connection between the two, though, is their Oscar links.

Former Bishops boy Ralph Fiennes has been twicenominated – for Schindler's List and The English Patient, while Wilsfordcum- lake's most famous resident, Sting, was nominated for best song with Until… from the film Kate and Leopold.

Additionally, many Oscar-winning films have been shot partly in and around Salisbury, including Saving Private Ryan, Sense and Sensibility, The Young Victoria, and The Madness of King George.

However, when it comes to the flip side of actually being able to watch some spectacular Oscarnominated films, I have a gripe. Recently, a couple of the best new releases were overlooked at the Odeon in favour of flashy effectsreliant fare.

I was most disappointed that Dallas Buyer's Club didn’t come to Salisbury. As I worked though the list of Best Picture nominees before I left, I was told we were getting the new Robocop ‘re-boot’ instead.

I have not seen the new Robocop, so in the spirit of fairness I have looked at reviews for both.

While Dallas Buyer's Club racks up four and five star reviews and is described as ‘powerfully moving’ and filled with ‘careerdefining’ performances, Robocop generates a raft of one-star reviews and is declared ‘boring’ and with ‘a serious case of rust’.

So it seems Salisbury Odeon went with style over substance – how very LA.