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19 MARCH 2015
Kristien Morato, Flemish Reporter in Hollywood
J
ournalist Kristien Morato (née Gijbels, 26) grew up in the small town of Hamont, in Limburg, but followed her heart and moved to California. She is the youngest and first ever Belgian member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA).
moved as soon as I graduated. We got married on the beach on Coronado Island in San Diego, in front of our family and best friends. It was a small and romantic ceremony with some twenty people, but it was perfect. My mom and my two best friends flew over from Belgium.”
First things first, Kristien: the love story! We would love to hear more about the love of your life and how you met him. “I met my husband Jack in 2008. He is a police officer in the US Air Force and was stationed in Kleine Brogel. I was still in college at the time. My friends and I came back from a night out when we ran into Jack and his friends in the city center of Hasselt. We ended up chatting for almost an hour. It just happened, almost like it was meant to be. We exchanged numbers and started texting each other. We started dating a couple of months later. We have been together for seven years and married for almost five. We got engaged in 2009. I applied for a K1 visa (a fiancée visa) and
How did you end up becoming a Hollywood reporter? “My parents pushed me to go to SintHubertus College, a very strict school in Neerpelt, something I am still grateful for. When I was in my last year of Journalism at XIOS Hogeschool in Hasselt, my dad suddenly passed away. I was in bed for two weeks, didn’t want to go back to school until I realized that my dad would have loved to see me graduate. So I went back to school, in San Diego, where Jack was living at the time. That’s where I finished my last year. For my internship at Vitaya Magazine in Antwerp, I went back to Belgium. Once I moved back to the US, I started working for Het Laatste Nieuws and hln.
be. Hollywood is so much fun, and I really can’t imagine myself sitting behind a desk at the newspaper every day… I need to go out and do things.” And now you are the first Belgian and youngest HFPA member ever. Tell us more! “Last year I received a phone call from one of the HFPA members who told me he wanted me to become a member too because he thought I was a good journalist. To apply for membership, you need two sponsors who are members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and you need to prove that you are an entertainment reporter by showing at least four press clippings from the past year. In addition, you have to live in Southern California and be a member of MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) for at least two years. My sponsors, from France and Germany, really campaigned for me. I ended up getting the most votes ever and I joined the association back in May. It’s been an amazing journey, and
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KRISTEN MORATO continued on page 24
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This year you attended the Academy Awards for the fourth time in a row, but the 2015 edition was extra special because of your exclusive dress. How did all that happen? “Belgian fashion designer Nicky Vankets had offered to design my Oscar dress. Since I love his work so much, I gave him ‘carte blanche’. I still can’t get my head around the fact that he made the perfect dress without even meeting me in person once. I went to a local tailor to get sized, sent all the info to Nicky and two weeks after he finished it, my dress arrived in California. The dress was a big hit on the red carpet, people came up to me to ask me who designed it. I will never forget this wonderful experience, especially because I got to keep the dress!”
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I’m thankful to be a part of it. We get to interview so many people (around 300 interviews a year) and we get to travel the world. This year was my first year attending the Golden Globes, and it was magical. My husband and I got to walk the red carpet, a great experience. Literally everybody in Hollywood was there.”
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