An hour after the voting boxes closed at the Academy at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, the bottles uncorked.
While the Costume Designers jumped right to the trophy part of Oscar week, handing out gold to “Birdman,” “Into the Woods,” and “Grand Budapest Hotel” at the Beverly Hilton, a trio of parties spreading east from there kicked off the first of the last awards week celebrations.
Also read: ‘Grand Budapest Hotel,’ ‘Birdman’ and ‘Into the Woods’ Win Costume Designers Guild Awards
Somewhere in between spinning “Girls on Film” and “Uptown Funk” for Naomi Watts, Laura Dern, and Adrien Brody (top photo, from left) and the blonde bombshell from the Super Bowl Carl’s Jr. ad (Charlotte McKinney, top photo at bottom right) at Spago and traveling to Milan with her client BVLGARI, NYC socialite DJ Marjore Gubelmann is giving a Ted talk in Panama City.
As black drapes covered Spago’s traditional white walls, DJ Mad Marj (as Gubelmann is known) covered some of the dance floor at BVLGARI And Save The Children’s STOP. THINK. GIVE. Pre-Oscar Event in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night.
Mad Marj was just one of the Manhattan characters that has descended on L.A. for Oscar week already.
Outside the roped off VIP area, nominee Laura Dern had someone running nose-tackle for her as she made her way across the crowded backroom. By contrast, Marcia Gay Harden roamed free, snapping her own iphone photos on the carpet out front on Canon, as Jeremy Piven ducked a civilian lens as he cut through a group hogging real estate for their photos.
Also read: Oscar Parties 2015: The Winning Invites Are… (Updating)
Millennium Entertainment chief Avi Lerner stuck to a round table in the center of the courtyard at the event launching a coffee table book that includes photos from actors, models, and luminaries to support the movement that has raised $35 million since the year “Slumdog Millionaire” won Best Picture.
Clunking down in every gift bag, the book itself is heavy lifting. It could be a timemly accessory for last minute awards week toning.
Meanwhile, the unspoken dress code was black leather jackets across the board at Vanity Fair and FIAT’s Young Hollywood celebration over at No Vacancy in Hollywood.
Apparently, 10 p.m. was just a suggested party shut-off time.
Co-host James Corden (who takes over for Craig Ferguson next month and played in the Oscar-nominated “Begin Again”) remained circled up on the patio with Sarah Hyland and White House insider/YouTube trailblazer Tyler Oakley, still clinching a red wine, near 11 o’clock.
Oakley has been repping #TeamTyler as much as he is #TeamInternet this week. He “took over” Monday’s “YouTube All Stars” panel at the VF Social Club one attendee told me.
In addition to known names like Oakley, Brooklyn Decker, Whitney Cummings, various “How to Get Away With Murder” cast, and Jenny Slate, the future faces who could be taking over the annual VF Hollywood Issue filled the courtyard as images projected from the misfiring photo-booth hit the towering walls above. (The suspect photo booth would prematurely snap photos on the count of “1” instead of “3”, challenging young Hollywood’s improvisational posing skills).
The crowd: tons of vaguely familiar thin pretty faces, who are equally thin on their IMDB’s, but with enough of steady dribble to portend a possible “Dornan” in the bunch.
Survivor’s Make-a-Wish Producer “Still on the Crew”
Les Moonves, Nina Tassler, Mark Burnett, Jeff Probst and their inner circle celebrated “15 Years and 30 Seasons” of the TV industry’s evolutionary chiropractor, “Survivor”, at the Paley Center in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night.
Last season on “Survivor,” 13-year-old fan Austin Russell, a Make a Wish grantee, successfully pitched a “Survivor” challenge, traveled to Nicaragua to oversee its production on location, and then downloaded America on the experience on the live finale telecast.
Also read: ‘Survivor’ Reveals Season 30 Castaways
Last night in Beverly Hills, Probst told TheWrap that Russell is still “on the crew.”
While all production vets know that staying on the call sheet is career lifeblood, the mixed blessing of being rank-and-file crew is that Russell’s ideas will get the same sharp vet as any other production pitch landing in lifetime challenge producer John Kirhoffer’s inbox.
Also read: CBS Boss Les Moonves Says Company Doesn’t ‘Need Any Partners’
Nonetheless, Probst might need the help.
The host also told TheWrap that he is still cracking the “theme” for the season shooting this summer, number 31.
But on Tuesday night on Beverly Drive, all the attention was on the season debuting next week. The landmark 30th season pits “White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar” contestants against each other in Nicaragua.
The night before the Paley Center exhibit opens to the general public, the brain trust of the original reality competition series invited a select group of producers, executives, and cast for a first look at an exhibit of classic photographs and “artifacts” from the show.
Moonves (right arm in a cast) was amongst the first to arrive, bee lining for a bearded (and trim) Burnett, who had not made it to the live finale of his “Celebrity Apprentice” the night before in New York on rival NBC.
Burnett is busy here in L.A. with producing partner/wife Roma Downey finishing “The Dovekeepers” a don’t-call-it-a-miniseries four hour scripted project about Masada coming to CBS during Easter Week.
Only a handful of handpicked alumni cast (almost exclusively two-time legendary players or winners) were culled from the hundreds who have appeared. As they would say in a finale, “Tonight, they wanted to see their names written down ….(on the guest list.)
“S30” branding on table-top challenge tables, immunity idols, and necklaces in the exhibit suggest “S30” will be the visual shorthand on-camera this season and trump the protracted “White Collar, Blue Collar, No Collar” verbiage for on-screen production design.
CBS photographer Monty Brinton, who might be the only person besides Probst to hit the beach for all 30 seasons, shot 80% of photographic mosaic now covering the Paley lobby, but Brinton got the night off on Tuesday to attend the party…as a guest.
“Survivor’s” 30th season , also dubbed “Worlds Apart”, gets a 90-minute premiere next Wednesday, February 25.
More Oscar week party coverage to come…