On The Carpet

n
the
Carpet
Peggy Siegal makes her annual pilgrimage to the Oscars
Peggy Siegal, Eddie and Hannah Redmayne
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Julianne Moore
APRIL 2015 • AVENUE MAGAZINE | 63
H
aving worked on Oscar campaigns for 35 years, I found
going to the 87th Academy Awards ceremony a serious
revelation of the American zeitgeist. On the other hand,
celebrating “Oscar Weekend” was just a hell of a lot of fun.
I am always asked, “What exactly do you do, how do you do it, and
who will win the Oscar?”
The studios usually start the Oscar race presenting contenders in
Cannes, where Foxcatcher’s Bennett Miller won Best Director. The
parade then migrates to Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York by
the end of September.
Boyhood, however, stunned audiences in January 2014 at Sundance,
where Whiplash won both the Grand Jury and Audience Awards.
Both independent films remained the critics’ darling through January
2015, when Entertainment Weekly gave Ellar Coltrane a triptych cover
complete with an Oscar declaring “Oscar Front-Runner!”
There was a flurry of films released at Christmas that suffered
from getting into the race too late, as outstanding as they were.
Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay and starring David Oyelowo, and
American Sniper were further burdened by the press with red and blue
political shackles.
Every year, the voters are inundated with screenings and
conversations about degrees of merit, as they develop a communal
wisdom. Only those who speak to voters can figure out what’s going
on. Sometimes voters reposition
winners, like in a chess game, and
can reduce even the experienced soothsayers to “Who’s on first base?”
The end of the 2015 race was a dead heat tie between IFC’s Boyhood,
directed by Richard Linklater, and Fox Searchlight’s Birdman, directed
by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, with a possible split of gold between picture
and director. An American Sniper/Bradley Cooper upset was Warner
Bros. wishful thinking because it became the American public’s most
popular film.
Few actors have the endurance and charm to campaign, even if
they are a “slam-dunk” winner the minute their performance is seen.
This year, three of the four winning actors—Julianne Moore, Patricia
Arquette and J.K. Simmons—fell into the “slam-dunk” category
and still worked their asses off campaigning to win. The Best Actor
category was a different horse race between Michael Keaton and
Eddie Redmayne to the end.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18
I went directly to Diane von Furstenberg’s sprawling glass and stone
house for her second annual lunch to honor this year’s female nominees,
“I am always asked,
“What exactly do you do,
how do you do it, and who
will win the Oscar?”
Emma
Stone
Ellar Coltrane and
Richard Linklater
Nicole Kidman
Patricia Arquette
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Laura
Dern
Keira Knightley and James Righton
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Lupita
Nyong’o
Scarlett Johansson
co-hosted by Hilary Swank and Anne Sweeney. Meryl Streep, Reese
Witherspoon, Rosamund Pike, Patricia Arquette, and Laura Dern,
along with Cheryl Boone Isaacs, President of the Academy, nibbled
on salads while listening to Diane’s inspirational speech quoted from
her book The Woman I Wanted to Be.
I then checked into a bright corner suite at Jeff Klein’s Sunset Tower
Hotel and fortified myself with a vitamin B-12 shot from the house
doctor. Emma Stone, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Lena Dunham
and Eddie Redmayne were arriving and would be found hanging out
at the terrace pool all weekend.
Hildy Gottlieb and Walter Hill hosted a party in their Spanish-style
mansion in Beverly Hills for ICM nominees. Google’s Eric Schmidt
wasn’t sure why he was there as CBS’ Les Moonves schmoozed him.
Michael Keaton, dapper in his signature three-piece gray shadow plaid
suit, was the biggest “get.”
Keaton went to the Sunset Tower Hotel for a late dinner, where
he bumped into fellow former Batman George Clooney with Amal
double-dating with Sacha Baron Cohen and a very pregnant Isla
Fisher. I arrived moments after the Clooneys had left and was beside
myself with grief for missing a chance to chat up George about his
NYC spring shoot, Money Monster.
With 96 hours to go before “the envelope please,” Fox Searchlight
had permeated the gossip around town that the technical intricacies
and showbiz razzle-dazzle of Birdman were more worthy of gold than
the test of time for Boyhood. A Birdman sweep had taken flight.
THURSDAY,
FEBRUARY 19
Larry Gagosian hosted a gallery
opening for John Currin.
His paintings reflected Oscar
Rosamund Pike
Weekend’s bacchanal. Luscious
nudes, depicting Old Master
portraits,
were
juxtaposed
with pin-ups and B-movies that delighted the artistic sensibilities of
Leonardo DiCaprio, Steve Martin, Elton John, Ed Ruscha and Fifty
Shades of Grey pop-porn director Sam Taylor-Johnson with young
husband Aaron. Also, perusing Gagosian as inspiration for a new
script was visionary Wes Anderson, whose The Grand Budapest Hotel
later won four Oscars.
Derek Blasberg escorted Dasha Zhukova and current Vogue cover
girl Karlie Kloss to tables adjoining Currin’s wife Rachel Feinstein,
John McEnroe, Jeff Bezos, Brett Ratner, Jean Pigozzi and collectors
Bill Bell and Nicolas Berggruen.
Larry and girlfriend Chrissie Erpf later hosted a caviar-pizza
party in his modernist Holmby Hills house. Whiplash writer/director
Damien Chazelle had been at CAA agent Maha Dakhil’s house for
a quiet dinner with Lena Dunham and Reese Witherspoon, knowing
he was expected at Larry’s. Lost, late, driving like a maniac, the
30-year-old Harvard graduate and boy wonder, finally showed up to
be flabbergasted as Robbie Robertson and Mick Jagger cornered him
and passionately explained how much his film meant to them. Gossip
headlines screamed the next day, “Rock ’n’ Roll Royalty Endorses
Whiplash.”
Barry Diller and
Diane von Furstenberg
Bradley Cooper
Jennifer Lopez
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Gwyneth Paltrow
Sienna Miller
“Robbie Robertson and Mick Jagger cornered
Damien Chazelle and passionately explained
how much his film meant to them. Gossip
headlines screamed the next day, ‘Rock ’n’ Roll
Royalty Endorses Whiplash.’”
making his show the night’s sizzling starter course.
In the front row sat Anna Wintour, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ford’s
husband Richard Buckley, golden girl Julianne Moore and Reese
Witherspoon.
Across from Anna was Josh Duhamel and Fergie, Amy Adams,
Scarlett Johansson, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, John Legend, Jennifer Lopez,
Rita Ora, Neil Patrick Harris, Armie Hammer, Naomi Campbell,
Miley Cyrus and her beau, Patrick Schwarzenegger.
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20
As Bob and Harvey Weinstein
and Netflix’s CCO Ted Sarandos
was honored at the Publicists
Awards lunch at the Beverly Hilton, I slipped away to documentarian
Rory Kennedy’s lunch celebrating her nominated Last Days in
Vietnam. Her cousin Maria Shriver and hotelier André Balazs
cohosted at Chateau Marmont. Since Citzenfour was the sure bet,
competitive Kennedy, 11th child of RFK, encouraged Minnie Driver,
Laura Bickford, Peter Fonda, Cheryl Hines and Nicky Hilton, to
drink up the three vintages of Dom Pérignon.
I moved on from documentaries to dresses, war movies to wardrobes,
and Vietnam to velvet to Tom Ford’s fashion show, with more stars in
attendance than the Oscars, Tonys and Grammys combined.
Why, you might ask, was Tom Ford staging a command performance
during Oscar Weekend, instead of participating in London Fashion
Week? He drew a lousy slot and was assigned to show his fall collection
at 9:00 a.m. in London on the Monday after the Oscars. Media
savvy Tom knew every inch of press coverage would be lavished on
Hollywood’s red carpet looks.
So, the oh-so-adored Tom cleverly seized this golden moment of
unclaimed party time, 7:00 p.m. on Friday, which just happened to be
the hour before Kevin Huvane’s CAA hottest agency party in town—
Michael Keaton and Alejandro
Gonzalez Inarritu
Also applauding was Jared Leto, James Corden, Anjelica Huston,
and Brad Grey. Sixty movie stars stormed backstage after the show.
CAA client Tom Ford could be asked to produce the Oscars next year.
PR mavens Cindi Berger and Marian Koltai hosted a few tables in
the back of Craig’s on Melrose for those students of society, like myself,
who needed a hot meal with reporters to digest the day and predict the
future, before slipping into the CAA party.
If and when invited to the CAA party, the 10 commandments are:
#1 Thou shall never tell you got invited (oops), #2 Thou shall never
tell where it is, #3 Thou shall never ask for an earlier arrival time, #4
Thou shall never complain about the shuttle if you were not important
enough to get a limo pass, #5 Thou shall never overdress, #6 Thou shall
never bring an extra person, #7 Thou shall never “work” the room aka
“fawn over the famous,” #8 Thou shall never talk on your phone or take
a selfie, #9 Thou shall never be boring but never gossip, and #10 Thou
shall never expect to be invited back. If you can deal with the greatest
dealmakers in town, you are good to go and will see everyone you just
saw at Tom Ford’s fashion show.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21
Saturday was Oscar Weekend’s
busiest day. Here are brief
highlights.
10:00 a.m. Foreign Language
Film Symposium moderated
by professorial Academy Board
Member Mark Johnson. Another
Oscar winner was Ida, about a
Polish nun.
11:30 a.m. Maria Shriver’s annual Gold Meets Golden event hosted
by Nicole Kidman at the Equinox Sports Club supporting the 2015
Special Olympics. As I spoke to Katie Holmes about her upcoming
film Woman in Gold, a teenage special needs athlete named Lucy
Meyer charmingly invited us to her swim competition as she handed
us her card. This profoundly moving moment reduced Katie and me
to tears.
12:30 p.m. Barry Diller and Diane Von Furstenberg’s power
lunch for gold standard king of Oscar Weekend, Graydon Carter, at
their Coldwater Canyon house. Diane’s children Tatiana, Alex and
Alexandra von Furstenberg and granddaughter Talita welcomed
Prince Pavlos and Princess Marie Chantal of Greece, Rupert
Murdoch, Paul Allen, Robert Kraft, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Gayle King,
Ron Howard, Anna Wintour, Christian Louboutin, Zac Posen, Lynn
Wyatt, and 600 other stylish, slim, and successful social swimmers.
Whiplash producer Jason Blum and I dashed off to the Spirit Awards
in Santa Monica in his sliver vintage Rolls-Royce, inherited from his
grandfather.
3:00 p.m. The Film Independent Spirit Awards aka the “dress
rehearsal” to the Oscars was in the midst of celebrating their supercool 30th anniversary. All nominated films were produced for $20
million or less, which is why the Oscars and the Spirit Awards are
now synonymous. Sony Pictures Classics’ Michael Barker and
Tom Bernard, with 18 Oscar
nominations this year, invited me
to sit with them. Birdman’s Spirit
win forecasted its Oscar win. I
emailed Birdman producer John
Lesher, “You just won the Oscar.”
He emailed back, “Are you sure?”
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Graydon and
Anna Carter
Dree Hemingway
Anna Wintour
Poppy Delevingne
Suki Waterhouse
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Tom Ford
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22 –
OSCAR NIGHT
Breakfast was with Eddie and
Hannah Redmayne on the
terrace of the Sunset Tower Hotel.
Eddie was cool as a cucumber, I
was nauseous. As we devoured
omelets, my most encouraging
line to him was, “Eddie, if they
don’t call your name tonight, you
will always have The Danish Girl
next year.” In a week, iconic and heroic Helen Keller will know who The
Danish Girl is.” Eddie whispered, “Who is Helen Keller?” Hannah fell
off her chair. I then proceeded to reenact the scene from the Broadway
play The Miracle Worker, where Anne Bancroft was pumping water
onto Patty Duke’s hand as she miraculously uttered, “Water.” Eddie
replied, “I’m going upstairs.”
Oscar date Lisa Taback and I arrived at 3:30 p.m. I planted myself
next to Lara Spencer’s GMA stage, securing a clean shot of myself
with every A-list nominee. This audacious move is nothing short
of brilliant. My chutzpah enables me to read countless emails from
friends the minute I sit down in the Dolby Theatre: “OMG, we just saw
you on TV.”
Noteworthy was the juxtaposition of two tributes during the
broadcast that exemplified the schism in American culture. John
Legend and Common sang “Glory,” a cry for racial equality. Then Lady
Gaga came out belting “the hills are alive with the sound of music.” The
tragedy of Selma and the schmaltz of The Sound of Music both entered
“If and when invited to the CAA party,
the 10 commandments are: #1 Thou shall
never tell you got invited (oops) . . .”
Meryl Streep
Reese
Witherspoon
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Jessica Chastain
Dakota Johnson and
Melanie Griffith
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6:00 p.m. Focus Features’ Peter Schlessel hosted a cocktail party in
honor of The Theory of Everything at the Chateau for Universal’s Ron
Meyer and Donna Langley, producers Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan,
director James Marsh, Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne. Eddie
had just landed from London, where he is filming Tom Hooper’s The
Danish Girl.
7:30 p.m. Charles Finch and Chanel hosted their seventh pre-Oscar
dinner at Madeo, complete with a mariachi band. This gathering of
the international chic has evolved into the coveted ticket for a proper
sit-down meal. Everyone actually knows and likes each other. This
evening is a throwback to Swifty Lazar’s original Oscar viewing party
for social swans that Vanity Fair took over years ago.
Here, Julianne Moore joined pregnant Keira Knightley whose The
Imitation Game was also an Oscar favorite, Kristen Stewart, Rosie
Huntington-Whiteley, Jessica Chastain and Gian Luca Passi de
Preposulo, January Jones, Dree Hemingway, Poppy Delevingne,
Stavros Niarchos and Suki Waterhouse (Bradley Cooper’s girlfriend,
who was solo as Bradley gave his last Broadway performance of The
Elephant Man.)
Sophie Hunter and
Benedict Cumberbatch
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Felicity Jones
our hearts and minds in the same
year, 50 years ago.
As I arrived on the Vanity
Fair party red carpet, there was
virtually no interest for my picture
except from a handful of New
York paparazzi we hire regularly. I
David Oyelowo
found Graydon and Anna Carter
but before I could gush, Anna
told me I was a big hit with her friend Lord March after organizing
his photo exhibition in New York. Anna and I agreed to visit him
at Goodwood, March’s ancestral British estate that makes Downton
Abbey look like McDonald’s. Graydon was surrounded by his cronies
Mitch Glazer, Richard Plepler, Bob Colacello and Jonathan Becker,
and had been playing host since 5 p.m. Loyal Vanity Fair staffers Jane
Sarkin, Matt Ullian and Beth Kseniak were never far behind.
Movie stars spilled into the Annenberg tent, wolfing down In-NOut burgers and taking selfies with every Oscar (gold or Lego yellow)
they could get their hands on. People had sat next to each other for the
past three hours in the Dolby Theatre were now frantically hugging
and kissing each other, whether they won or not.
Earlier in the evening, Graydon had a viewing dinner in the woodpaneled circular dining room with eight 65" flat screens. Guests chatted
through the show finding each other more interesting. High-powered
guests included Jane Fonda, Natalie Portman, Don Rickles, Conan
O’Brien, Star Trek director J.J. Abrams, designer Francisco Costa,
and high society doyennes Betsy Bloomingdale and Denise Hale.
Every single nominee, presenter and A-lister was at this party.
Notable New Yorkers included Jason Weinberg, Patricia Clarkson,
Chloë Grace Moretz, Emily Mortimer, Edward Norton, Mark
Ruffalo, Marisa Tomei, Naomi Watts, Alexander Gilkes, Leonard
Lauder, Stephen and son Teddy Schwarzman, Fran Lebowitz, Zoë
Kravitz, Matt Lauer, Jimmy Buffett, Idina Menzel, Questlove, IFC’s
Jonathan Sehring, Marjorie Gubelmann and Larry Gagosian.
Bryan Lourd and Bruce Bozzi threw a super private after-party
at Bruce’s Palm Restaurant Beverly Hills. Meryl Streep and Don
Ansel Elgort
“My chutzpah enables me to read
countless emails from friends the
minute I sit down in the Dolby
Theatre. “OMG, we just saw you
on TV.”
Gummer, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Neil Patrick Harris and
David Burtka, Cate Blanchett, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, and
Scarlett Johansson and Romain Dauriac were all jammed into one
cozy leather booth, and sipped stiff drinks as Bozzi instagrammed.
Lastly, Jason Blum and Ethan Hawke had another super private
after-after-party at the Warwick on Sunset Blvd. The gang at the Palm
Restaurant slipped in for bacon and eggs, as no one wanted the night
to end.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23
I flew to the Dominican Republic to vacation for a week with Graydon’s
friends Emilia and Pepe Fanjul at Casa de Campo. Bob Colacello,
Jonathan Becker, Deborah Norville and I regaled King Juan Carlos
of Spain, Lord and Lady Astor, Lord and Lady Charles Churchill,
Dixon Boardman and Paul Wilmot with embellished tales of our
showbiz shenanigans. Stocked with an endless supply of DVDs, every
guest happily retired to their bungalows late at night to watch this
year’s greatest films. ✦
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