mother of all red carpets. We ended up in front of thousands of cameras and | instructed Simon to take baby steps for an hour.
Meryl’s publicist Leslee Dart whispered to me. “She is dressed like an Oscar. What do we do if she loses?” Sacha Baron Cohen hilariously guilted the Academy into letting him wear his costume from “The Dictator” and after soiling Ryan Seacrest he went directly to dinner at Vanity Fair. Gwyeneth Paltrow won the style award in Tom Ford’s white column and Angelina Jolie so successfully invented a new one legged pose in a thigh high slit gown on the red carpet she repeated it for 39.3 million people onstage. Tickets were so tight that | gave my plus one to Penelope Ann Miller because she promoted “The Artist” every day for four months. Seated next to us were co-stars James Cromwell and Missi Pyle.
Billy Crystal made us laugh, Cirque de Soleil made us gasp and most of the wins were expected. Colin Firth crowned Meryl her third win on a record 17 nominations and Harvey beamed
The Academy was so confident "The Artist" would win; they invited Uggie, who waited in the wings and ran out as Tom Cruise announced the film.
Once the show was off the air, | followed my seatmates to the stage loaded with their programs, wraps and handbags and led the French to the press rooms.
The Governor's Ball was the next stop where the winners got their Oscars engraved. Everyone paid respects to the Academy’s Tom Sherak and Dawn Hudson. Stars headed to the Sunset Tower to Graydon’s glittering Vanity Fair Oscar bash and their militarized security with micro chipped cards. If your name was not on the list and you were carrying an Oscar, you could walk in. Billy and Janice Crystal were mobbed with well-wishers. Elton John made $5 million dollars at his 20th AmFar event which also auctioned off two tickets to Vanity Fair’s $230 thousand dollars. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were thrilled to talk to George Lucas. Gwyneth snuggled with Coldplay's Chris Martin and Jennifer Lopez brought boy-toy Casper Smart. Every major actor previously mentioned was standing in the room. In a sea of celebrity were Tina Fey, David Beckham, Glenn Close, Terry George, Demian Bichir, Claire Danes, Meryl's daughters Mamie Gummer with husband Ben Walker, Grace Gummer, Salma Hayek, Brit Marling, Natalie Portman, Sofia Coppola, Ryan Kavanaugh, Ingrid Sischy, Sandy Brant and Wendi Murdoch with Bingbing Li.
George Clooney threw his own € is arty at Craig's in West Hollywood for close friends Bryan Lourd, Grant Heslov, Stan Rosenfield, Brad and Angelina, Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, Cindy Crawford, Jimmy Kimmel, Ryan Seacrest and best adapted screenplay winner Alexander Payne. As much as George supported "The Descendants" he and Brad seemed to have cancelled each other out this year with two great performances.
“The French” and their closest 200 threw their own wild celebration at the Chateau, poured champagne down their throats and threw each other in the pool at 3:00am. Nobody spoke a word of English.
By 4:00am Harvey rounded his talent up for a live broadcast on "The Today Show" from The Four
Seasons lobby. In disheveled black tie five Oscar winners and Berenice Bejo, who were total unknowns a year ago made Oscar history with the first silent film to win since 1927. This had to be the most exciting
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