Manager Cynthia Pett-Dante, Brad Pitt, Ava DuVernay, JJ Abrams, and Allison Janney on the Oscar party scene on Thursday, Mar 1. (Getty Images)
The gamblers love Allison Janney’s chances at the Oscars on Sunday. She’s sitting at a heavily favored, and bizarre, “3/19” odds in London. Back here in Hollywood, she already appears to have a winner’s halo.
The “I, Tonya” star and her shine headlined two simultaneous parties at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood on Thursday night (March 1).
Allison Janney, Sam Rockwell, Richard Jenkins and Leslie Bibb celebrate with the Gersh agency (Photo by Lester Cohen/Getty Images for Gersh)
Downstairs in the library and courtyard, Cadillac threw its third annual pre-Oscars bash. Upstairs, the Gersh agency celebrated its nominees, including Janney and “Three Billboards” star Sam Rockwell, in the Penthouse.
After a long campaign season, it’s surprising that front-runner nominees would want to go out at all before the big show, especially for Janney who is a veteran of thirteen Emmy campaigns.
Then again, she’s a varsity celebrant. Check out this photo after her Globes win in January.
“It’s been one of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever been through in my life,” Janney said on the way in to the Cadillac party. “A lot of it has been preparing up to that moment, so that (Oscar Sunday) morning will be about being present.”
With or without any direct connection the Oscars, many industry faces also recognized that it’s all about being present.
Chace Crawford, Colin Egglesfield, Sarah Silverman and Jeff Ross at Cadillac’s Oscar Celebration at the Chateau Marmont on March 1. (Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Cadillac)
In the run up to Sunday’s show, The Party Report got a look at a Super Bowl-style commercial that Cadillac will air. It features iconic “future cars” from movies and TV, like the “Back to the Future” Delorean and the Jetson’s space ship. With that buzz and shuttling nominees around town all weekend, there was good cause to raise a glass.
While Joel McHale, Tiffany Haddish, and Aisha Tyler mixed with cocktails, crab cakes, and warm chocolate cookies on the unusually cold night, Janney darted upstairs to join her agency’s party in the penthouse.
Tiffany Haddish and Aisha Tyler. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images for Cadillac)
On top of the Chateau, fellow front-runner Rockwell, “Shape of Water” star Richard Jenkins, and Leslie Bibb toasted the season. Brad Pitt and his manager Cynthia Pett-Dante quietly slipped in to the event, a surprise on multiple levels. First, he’s a CAA client. Further, he actually took a photo.
This photobomber should be banned from the Chateau for life. Manager Cynthia Pett-Dante and Brad Pitt at Gersh’s party in the Chateau penthouse, where Don Julio 1942 was the drink of choice. (Photo by Lester Cohen/Getty Images for Gersh)
In less cloistered news, chatter on the party circuit has picked up about a possible Jay-Z party in the parking garage of the Chateau Marmont on Sunday night. With Vanity Fair’s party switching stewards due to party founder and host Graydon Carter’s retirement, there is an opening on Oscar night for a new “toughest ticket in town.” This would be it.
The Party Report has not been able to confirm Jay-Z’s plans as of this writing, but the gate to the Chateau garage was oddly pulled shut on Thursday night. Some even production types reported that a four-day load in was underway. Converting a parking garage in the private and hushed hotel is indeed “Big Pimpin’.”
Meanwhile, leading women from all corners of the entertainment industry united for a Time’s Up benefit with Vanity Fair and Lancôme a mile west down Sunset at Soho House (above).
At the same time, J.J. Abrams hosted the annual Oscar Wilde Awards on the roof of his Bad Robot production company in Santa Monica. Two weeks before St. Patrick’s day, this event celebrating the US-Ireland relationship drew heavily on friends of the Irish, including Paramount Chairman Jim Gianopulos, Disney Films Chairman Alan Horn, Warner Bros.’ Peter Roth, Warner Bros. Chairman & CEO Kevin Tsujihara, producers Suzanne Todd, Patrick Crowley, and Gigi Pritzker, Showtime Programming President Gary Levine, and CAA boss President Richard Lovett also all joined the festivities.
Kevin Tsujihara, Sandy Tsujihara, Warner Bros. Television Group CCO Peter Roth, and J.J. Abrams. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for US-Ireland Alliance )
Also on hand at the routinely casual affair was Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, whose “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” scenes were largely filmed on the Emerald Isle. Abrams joked that honoree Hamill “will always be best known for his role as Kent Murray on ‘General Hospital.'” In accepting, Hamill noted the connection between the “Star Wars” franchise and Ireland.
In addition to filming “Star Wars” in Ireland, he noted that “The Force Awakens” will mean billions for the Irish economy, “not to mention encouraging countless ‘Star Wars’ nerds to make it a go-to destination.”
J.J. Abrams, Kathy Griffin, and Mark Hamill arrive at the Oscar Wilde Awards. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for US-Ireland Alliance )
As of Friday afternoon however, almost nothing is a go-to destination. It’s 54 degrees and pouring raining in Los Angeles, and the weather will likely thrash Friday night’s slate of Oscar gatherings, and anyone who didn’t book a tent weeks ago is finished. (Women In Film planned ahead for their tented bash at Crustacean and began loading in late Thursday night.)
The Brits are slated to gather in the Consul General’s backyard which should be a mud slog, but this is standard operating procedure for them.
The host sent a note to guests earlier: “As with any British event, we are fully prepared for any potential inclement weather!”
More to come…
Oscars 2018: Our Predictions in All 24 Categories (Photos)
We know who’ll win the acting awards, but several other categories — notably including Best Picture — are completely up in the air as Oscar night approaches. Here are our best guesses (and for a more complete explanation, read my fuller analysis):
BEST PICTURE Nominees: "Call Me by Your Name" "Darkest Hour" "Dunkirk" "Get Out" "Lady Bird" "Phantom Thread" "The Post" "The Shape of Water" "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"
"The Shape of Water" has the most nominations, 13. It won the Producers Guild and Directors Guild awards. It's a valentine to the art of cinema.
Predicted winner: "The Shape of Water"
Fox Searchlight
BEST DIRECTOR Nominees: Paul Thomas Anderson, "Phantom Thread Guillermo del Toro, "The Shape of Water" Greta Gerwig, "Lady Bird" Christopher Nolan, "Dunkirk" Jordan Peele, "Get Out"
If Best Picture is so split between "Shape of Water," "Dunkirk," "Lady Bird" and "Get Out," shouldn't this race be a nail-biter between del Toro, Nolan, Gerwig and Peele? Nope. Just as it has in every recent year, the heat has coalesced around a single director, in this case del Toro. This seems to be one of the nine categories that are pretty much a lock.
Predicted winner: Guillermo del Toro
Photographed by Irvin Rivera
BEST ACTOR Nominees: Timothée Chalamet, "Call Me by Your Name" Daniel Day-Lewis, "Phantom Thread" Daniel Kaluuya, "Get Out" Gary Oldman, "Darkest Hour" Denzel Washington, "Roman J. Israel, Esq."
This is another of those locks. (In fact, all four acting categories are.) While Chalamet and Kaluuya are two of the year's big discovery, this award was Oldman's as soon as Focus began screening his all-but-unrecognizable performance as Winston Churchill. This is an Oscar standing ovation just waiting to happen.
Predicted Winner: Gary Oldman
"Darkest Hour" / Jack English/ Focus Features
BEST ACTRESS Nominees: Sally Hawkins, "The Shape of Water" Frances McDormand, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" Margot Robbie, "I, Tonya" Saoirse Ronan, "Lady Bird" Meryl Streep, "The Post"
It initially seemed to be one of the year's most competitive categories, with McDormand, Ronan and Hawkins landing massive acclaim, Robbie sneaking into the field with a bold performance and Meryl being Meryl. But then McDormand, an absolute force of nature in "Three Billboards," startin g winning all the awards. And she's not going to stop now.
Predicted winner: Frances McDormand
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BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Nominees: Willem Dafoe, "The Florida Project" Woody Harrelson, "Three Billb oards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" Richard Jenkins, "The Shape of Water" Christopher Plummer, "All the Money in the World" Sam Rockwell, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"
Sam Rockwell, playing a dimwitted and thuggish racist who is one of the only people in "Three Billboards" to slightly change, won SAG and the Golden Globes and the Critics' Choice Award and BAFTA, which has made him a prohibitive favorite.
Predicted winner: Sam Rockwell
Fox Searchlight
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Nominees: Mary J. Blige, "Mudbound" Allison Janney, "I, Tonya" Lesley Manvill e, "Phantom Thread" Laurie Metcalf, "Lady Bird" Octavia Spencer, "The Shape of Water"
Voters for all the precursor awards embraced the fun Allison Janney had playing Tonya Harding's monstrous mother, and Oscar voters seem all but certain to do the same.
Predicted winner: Allison Janney
Neon
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Nominees: "Call Me by Your Name" "The Disaster Artist" "Logan" "Molly's Game" "Mudbound"
While voters occasionally decide that the best screenplay is the one with the most words, which would be good news for Aaron Sorkin and "Molly's Game," nothing seems positioned to challenge James Ivory's adaptation of the Andre Aciman novel.
Predicted Winner: "Call Me by Your Name"
Sony Pictures Classics
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Nominees: "The Big Sick" "Get Out" "Lady Bird" "The Shape of Water" "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"
This is likely a very close race between "Three Billboards" and "Get Out" -- and while Jordan Peele wrote the year's most zeitgeisty movie and could easily win, "Three Billboards" is a showier piece of writing.
"Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" / Fox Searchlight
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY Nominees: "Blade Runner 2049" "Darkest Hour" "Dunkirk" "Mudbound" "The Shape of Water"
"Blade Runner" DP Roger Deakins, a pretty unanimous choice as the greatest living cinematographer, has been nominated 13 previous times but has never won, and his astounding work on the Denis Villeneuve epic ought to finally do the trick.
Predicted winner: "Blade Runner 2049"
"Blade Runner 2049" / Warner Bros.
BEST FILM EDITING Nominees: "Baby Driver" "Dunkirk" "I, Tonya" "The Shape of Water" "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"
"Baby Driver" is such a virtuoso piece of fast-paced editing that it could well prove an exception to the usual rule that you need to be a Best Picture nominee to win in this category. But "Dunkirk," which simultaneously cuts between three different war stories taking place at different locations and different times, is an advertisement for its editing.
Predicted winner: "Dunkirk"
Warner Bros
BEST COSTUME DESIGN Nominees: "Beauty and the Beast" "Darkest Hour" "Phantom Thread" "The Shape of Water" "Victoria & Abdul"
It was a shock when the Costume Designers Guild gave its period-costumes award not to "Phantom Thread," the movie about a clothes designer, but to "The Shape of Water," most of whose characters sport lab coats or cleaning-lady smocks. But look for Oscar voters to recognize the movie in which the man makes the clothes and the clothes make the man ... and the women.
Predicted winner: "Phantom Thread"
"Phantom Thread" / Focus Features
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN Nominees: "Beauty and the Beast" "Blade Runner 2049" "Darkest Hour" "Dunkirk" "The Shape of Water"
This should be a showdown between the amazing futurescapes of "Blade Runner" and the richly detailed environments of "The Shape of Water" -- and the fact that voters like the latter movie better than the former one could tip the scales.
Predicted winner: "The Shape of Water"
Fox Searchlight
BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING Nominees: "Darkest Hour" "Victoria & Abdul" "Wonder"
Here's another lock, because only one of these films features makeup that is instrumental in an Oscar-winning performance. Before Gary Oldman could act like Winston Churchill, he had to look like Winston Churchill, and that was the considerable accomplishment of the "Darkest Hour" makeup team.
Predicted winner: "Darkest Hour"
Focus Features
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE Nominees: "Dunkirk" "Phantom Thread" "The Shape of Water" "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"
Voters love a piece of music that instantly captures the mood of a film they admire, and Alexandre Desplat provides that in his music for "The Shape of Water."
Predicted winner: "The Shape of Water"
Fox Searchlight
BEST ORIGINAL SONG Nominees: "Mighty River" from "Mudbound" "Mystery of Love" from "Call Me by Your Name" "Remember Me" from "Coco" "Stand Up for Something" from "Marshall" "This Is Me" from "The Greatest Showman"
"Remember Me" is from a bigger movie but "This Is Me" is becoming a phenomenon at just the right time, which will probably give "City of Stars" writers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul their second consecutive song Oscar.
Predicted winner: "The Greatest Showman"
20th Century Fox
BEST SOUND EDITING Nominees: "Baby Driver" "Blade Runner 2049" "Dunkirk" "The Shape of Water" "Star Wars: The Last Jedi"
Two previous Christopher Nolan movies, "The Dark Knight" and "Inception," have won in this category, and his "Dunkirk" should have the scale and drama to give him a third.
Predicted winner: "Dunkirk"
"Dunkirk" / Warner Bros.
BEST SOUND MIXING Nominees: "Baby Driver" "Blade Runner 2049" "Dunkirk" "The Shape of Water" "Star Wars: The Last Jedi"
Over the last 12 years, the same film has won in both Oscar sound categories eight times -- so when in doubt, it's best to predict a sound-category sweep. This year also lacks the kind of big musical nominee that often wins in the category, which will help "Dunkirk" in its quest to win another.
Predicted winner: "Dunkirk"
"Dunkirk" / Warner Bros.
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS Nominees: "Blade Runner 2049" "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" "Kong: Skull Island" "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" "War for the Planet of the Apes"
The team for the "Apes" franchise has yet to win an Oscar for their visual effects work on the series, but we're guessing that voters will finally come to their senses and realize what an accomplishment the simian saga has been.
Predicted winner: "War for the Planet of the Apes"
"War for the Planet of the Apes" / 20th Century Fox
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE Nominees: "The Boss Baby" "The Breadwinner" "Coco" "Ferdinand" "Loving Vincent"
Has "Coco" lost anything it's been nominated for this year? If so, I wasn't paying attention.
Predicted winner: "Coco"
"Coco" / Disney/Pixar
BEST FOREIGN-LANGUA GE FILM Nominees: "A Fantastic Woman," Chile "The Insult," Lebanon "Loveless," Russia "On Body and Soul," Hungary "The Square," Sweden
In a very close race, we think the Euro-centric nature of the Academy's international membership may give the slightest of edges to "The Insult."
Predicted winner: "The Insult"
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Nominees: "Abacus: Small Enough to Jail" "Faces Places" "Icarus" "Last Men in Aleppo" "Strong Island"
With none of the four issue-oriented films really standing out, it's possible that the serious vote will split four ways and allow the beloved French icon Agnès Varda to become the oldest Oscar winner ever for her and co-director JR's wry and delightful travelogue "Faces Places."
Predicted winner: "Faces Places"
"Faces Places"
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT Nominees: "Edith+Eddie" "Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405" "Heroin(e)" "Knife Skills" "Traffic Stop"
The two strongest contenders are "Heroin(e)," a wrenching but also inspiring look at the opioid crisis in West Virginia though the eyes of three women (a fire chief, a judge and a crusading volunteer) on the front lines, and "Edith+Eddie," a character study of the country's oldest biracial newlyweds that leaves viewers utterly infuriated at government indifference toward the elderly. Typically, the film that wins in this category is the film that leaves viewers with some hope, which could give "Heroin(e)" a tiny edge.
Predicted winner: "Heroin(e)"
Netflix
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM Nominees: "Dear Basketball" "Garden Party" "Lou" "Negative Space" "Revolting Rhymes"
At the Oscar nominees luncheon, there was no bigger star in the room than Kobe Bryant, and nobody who posed for more selfies. And animator/director Glen Keane is a Disney vet almost as beloved in animation as Kobe is in basketball.
Predicted winner: "Dear Basketball"
"Dear Basketball"
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM Nominees: "DeKalb Elementary" "The Eleven O'Clock" "My Nephew Emmett" "The Silent Child" "Watu Wote/All of Us"
Three of the nominees -- "DeKalb Elementary," "My Nephew Emmett" and "Watu Wote" -- are exceptional, fact-based student films that could not be timelier: "DeKalb" deals with a shooter at an elementary school, "Emmett" with a horrifying episode that helped trigger the civil rights movement, "Watu Wote" with Christian/Muslim tensions.
Predicted winner: "DeKalb Elementary"
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The acting categories are all sewn up, but Best Picture could yield an upset
We know who’ll win the acting awards, but several other categories — notably including Best Picture — are completely up in the air as Oscar night approaches. Here are our best guesses (and for a more complete explanation, read my fuller analysis):
Fox Searchlight
