Gravity Shift
If the ballroom of the Four Seasons were a ship, it would have capsized when Sandra Bullock walked in to the BAFTA Awards Tea around 3:45 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
She could barely get in, as a crowded space began to orbit around her as she approached the double doors. “Looks ominous,” she said.
Less ominous, Leonardo DiCaprio balancing it out in the back corner of the annual event that brought Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern (in a baseball cap), Chiwetel Ejiofor, Aaron Paul, Bradley Cooper, the real Philomena Lee, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Greengrass, and David O. Russell amongst others to snack on eccles cakes and split scones with devonshire cream while congratulating each other on a great year.
Bullock and James Frain.
At this point in the awards weekend, the other person who creates a social vortex based on the two insider events I’ve seen her at: Cate Blanchett. She was at BAFTA, too. (Above, with BAFTA’s Nigel Daly.)
Michael Fassbender and Steve McQueen.
Producer Julia Verdin and Tom Hanks.
A little over twenty-four hours before the Golden Globes begin at the Beverly Hilton (they air on NBC), “Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes was thinking ahead to both appearing on the Globes telecast himself while going head-to-head with his Sunday night series’ return on PBS. “I’m splitting my audience,” he said.
The Wolf of Burton Way
Vincent De Paul, DiCaprio and BAFTA board member Sandro Monetti at the tea.
There was a four-wheeled party crasher at BAFTA’s tea.
One black Escalade infiltrated the taxi rank at the Four Seasons. The angry taxi drivers from Beverly Hills Cab (the blue and white cars) were having none of it. After the Escalade driver refused to move, cabbies called parking enforcement, but attitudes changed when they found out who the car was waiting for – Leonardo DiCaprio.
DiCaprio was inside in a far corner of the ballroom, sipping white wine at the Jose Curevo sponsored tea. His “Wolf of Wall Street” director Martin Scorsese chose another tame beverage – water.
Director Duo: Martin Scorsese and “Captain Phillips” director Paul Greengrass toast prohibition style.
After the DiCaprio disclosure, the trespassing vehicle got a hero’s welcome in cabbieland. Before parking enforcement arrived, DiCaprio came bounding out a side door of the hotel on Burton Way, dodging all the fans, paps, and autograph seekers at the driveway on Doheny, and was on his way out.
This time, they got away.
Double Dose of Vogue
The first thing guests saw on a giant wall on the way in to Diane Von Furstenberg’s 40th anniversary party for her wrap dress on Friday night:
“Your clothes are absolutely smashing,” the late Vogue editor Diana Vreland wrote to Von Furstenberg in 1970.
The second thing guests saw: current face of the Vogue brand, Anna Wintour .
Diane Von Furstenberg and Anna Wintour on Friday night.
Wintour, Seth Meyers, and Andre Leon Talley held down the peak perch at the front of the room at the exhibit, DVF “Journey of a Dress” at the future home of the Motion Picture Academy Museum on Friday night. Bryan Lourd, who had his own CAA party to get to later in the night, was in the inner circle.
Wintour and von Fursternberg are co-stars on the Ovation network show “Fashion Fund,” but the other duo cutting through the room turning heads was TV host buddies Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen (who had finished hosting a live stream of the red carpet for DVF’s own website.)
Gwyneth Paltrow and DVF.
Mary-Kate Olsen, Shauna Robertson and Edward Norton, and Demi Moore (who rocked pants at the wrap dress event.)
Where’s Tobey Maguire? A panorama of the space with an inadvertent cameo by Tobey Maguire (sporting Nike Airs with his suit) who stood by as his wife did an interview on the floor.
The exhibit comprises an army of Stepford mannequins on risers in DVF flowing throughout the hangar-sized space, with DVF’s trademark patterns crawling from the floor up on to the walls. It could have been disorienting and cause dizziness, especially with roaming bottle slingers topping up any half-empty champagne glass.
The exhibit runs through April 1, sans Gwyneth and Demi stop-ins.
Spot DuJour
On Saturday, fans outside the Mondrian were not waiting for Lupita Nyong’o and the guests at DuJour magazine’s first Globes weekend party. They were camping out for Five Seconds of Summer, a boy band that opened for One Direction on a recent tour.
DuJour co-editor-in-chief Nicole Vecchiarelli, Lupita Nyong’o, and glossy godfather Jason Binn.
HFPA President Theo Kingma along with members Munawar Hosain and John Hiscock took a break from the ongoing rehearsals at the Beverly Hilton to make the sunny, spring-like event that felt more like Kentucky Derby Saturday in May, than Globes weekend.
DuJour broke in the space, the first event there since its remodel from Asia de Cuba. It’s killer and feels more like the Mondrian South Beach than West Hollywood, with lots of outdoor couches, high tables down the middle, and a VIP nook in the back where Michelle Dockery planted when she arrived.
Michelle Dockery and Joy Bryant at the Mondrian.
Up on the pool platform, out-of-town girls in bikinis were really going for it, trying to catch some “F U tans” for back home, even under the tent that covers the pool area in winter.
Bubbly Brunch
Emily Mortimer, the busy Lupita Nyong’o, Film Independent Chair of the Board Mary Sweeney, Film Independent President Josh Welsh, and Alessandro Nivola at the Independent Filmmaker and Spirit Awards nominee brunch at Boa on Saturday morning.
Welsh and Angela Bassett remind everyone that the Spirit Awards are the other best party of Awards season besides Globes. Mark your calendars: March 1.
W’s Best Performances
Count on a fashion magazine to have the most eye-catching scenery of the pre-Globes festivities.
Brit Marling, Jared Leto and Dita Von Teese at W’s Cadillac-hosted party atop the Chateau Marmont.
W’s Stefano Tonchi and Lynn Hirschberg, along with the guy who owns the Chateau, Andres Balazs, hosted a party so dense that almost the entire guest list could end up in a gallery.
Idris Elba and Bradley Cooper in the penthouse.
While short rib and kale sat lonely in a side room buffet, the top of this year’s class like Cate Blanchett and Amy Adams squeezed in to the penthouse’s narrow hallway. Adams noticed one of her own photos from W amongst those lining the wall in the entry way.
Photographer Juergen Teller, who shot the Best Performances Issue, and Adams.
Marisa Tomei and Stefano Tonchi
Beyond awards season, it was a mix of socialite Gettys, producers like Lawrence Bender and Steve Tisch (above), and behind the scenes power-brokers like Ken Sunshine and Kevin Huvane ( below, with Kate Hudson ).
Ashley Madekwe handles the unofficial press outside.
Some of the cars coming and going from the Chateau on Thursday were headed to Audi’s Golden Globes party at Cecconi’s. They made the best move, shifting from the saddest school night (Sunday) to Thursday. “Every single person on their tip sheet came,” one media colleague working the carpet told me. Inside, it was packed with off-screen buddies Michelle Dockery and Elisabeth Moss, Karina Smirnoff, and regulars like Jesse Metcalfe and Matthew Morrison.
Christoph Waltz, Naomi Watts, and Liev Schreiber at Audi.
Seen Around Town
Michael Fassbender: “12 Years a Slave” star Michael Fassbender may have made a new year’s resolution to be more social.
Fassbender, who never partakes in awards campaigning or professional social events, hit both the Australian Academy event on Friday night and the BAFTA tea on Saturday, even doing the nosebleed sections of the red carpet.
“It’s nice,” Fassbender told TheWrap of the energized social scene on Globes weekend. “It’s fun to see people around who have inspired me, and old friends I haven’t seen in awhile. It’s wonderful.”
“12 Years’” director Steve McQueen: He was making it his second afternoon event in a row at the Four Seasons on Saturday and addressed keeping it cool while being asked the same questions and entertaining well wishers every day during a long award season.
“(Staying cool) is normal for me. Apparently people think it’s not,” McQueen told me. He should know – he picked up his Hollywood Film Award back in October from the always cool, calm, and collected Kanye West.
“Wolf of Wall Street” Producer Joey McFarland: McFarland, who reportedly put $100 million dollars in to the film through his Red Granite Productions, wasn’t even in town to pick up the free lunch at Friday’s AFI Awards Luncheon. It was honored as one of the 10 best films of the year. He was in London, getting a front row seat as the movie premiered in Leicester Square on Thursday night.
Scorsese did make it in time to the Four Seasons for Friday’s lunch, but he arrived late. “I’m here,” he said as he popped up on the press line.
The entire cast of “Inside Llewyn Davis”: CBS Films, CBS and Showtime had only a couple weeks’ notice to slam together their joint Golden Globes party, and boy did they pull it off — with a densely attended Soho House soiree on Saturday night that brought out nearly all the stars from the Coen brothers film (including Joel, Golden Globe best actor nominee Oscar Isaac, Garret Hedlund and music producer T-Bone Burnett); Showtime’s “Homeland” and the CBS hit “The Big Bang Theory.”
Chris Martin: After Gwyneth Paltrow left DVF, she hit the hot CAA party at Soho House. Paltrow and Martin spent time with fellow musician Jared Leto, after manager Jason Weinberg made the introduction. Fellow Brit musician Harry Styles (of One Direction) might have been a bit out of position or enjoying a sanctuary of space for once, hanging solo at times during the night.
Parting Shot
At the W party at the Chateau, with a Dom Perignon flow that would have made Stratton Oakmont proud, production designers should take note of the above photo and vibe for the whole weekend: This is what awards season looks like in the movies.