Before “The King’s Speech” walked off with top awards at Sunday night’s SAGs, Entertainment Weekly brought both film and TV honorees together for one of the last times this season at a bash with L’Oreal Paris on Saturday night.
True to character, Creed Bratton ( “The Office”) unaffectedly dined at a modest two-top table in the hallway as a parade of stars passed within inches of his plate each exhaling after navigating the long carpet in the driveway. Around the corner, Chevy Chase (ultra casual in a baseball hat and camouflage cargo pants) was catching a bite at the table next to Mark Ruffalo, who admitted to being nervous around Chase. Later in the night, Ruffalo introduced himself by calling out “Hey, Mr. Chase.”
(Above, a potluck of TV at EW: Joel McHale, Rachael Harris (“Party Down”), Nolan Gould, and Brian Baumgartner. Photo by Michael Buckner.)
Jenna Ushkowitz told TheWrap that “Glee” just finished shooting their “Super Bowl” episode last week. “Boardwalk Empire” guys Vincent Piazza and Paul Sparks characterized the SAGs as the last hurrah before the cast begins shooting season two back in New York on Tuesday. Jack McBrayer and his occasional co-star on “30 Rock” Jon Hamm were buddied up for most of the night inside and headed out together afterwards. Tom Hooper (with DGA award in hand) led the late DGA influx from the Hollywood and Highland show, a crop that included the vanquished-but-happy Darren Aronofsky and Julia Stiles (who had downgraded to flats by that point in the night). Still later, the EW party spilled over to the bar “The Den” across the street on Sunset, which saw a heavy NBC contingent.
After the show on Sunday, People Magazine and the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s triple-security check after-party on site was hot until about 10 P.M. Then all the big names and winners – Colin Firth, Alec Baldwin, Julianna Margulies – headed to West West Hollywood for Dewar’s and Harvey Weinstein’s party at the Sunset Tower hotel. (Above, Margulies with category competitor Kyra Sedgwick. Hamm’s Sunday night running mate was “Glee’s” Chord Overstreet. Photos by Charley Gallay.) Over at Nobu on La Cienega, UTA had their own soiree.
After a tough week with the Charlie Sheen-induced production shutdown, “Two and a Half Men” Executive Producer Oren Koules had one more surprise waiting for him on Friday night. Upon returning from dinner, 120 friends were hidden in the foyer of his Hancock park house for a long-ago scheduled surprise 50th birthday party. Despite ultra secret planning, the “boss” always knows: Koules shouted out “Hello” before he even peeked his head through the door.
The same week that Chelsea Handler got her NBC pilot picked up, another Chelsea got her own show…and a new band.
The recently re-monikered Chelsea Kane (formerly “Staub”, a favorite on Disney’s “Jonas L.A.”) took her first step “away from the mouse” by premiering her own scripted musical series “The Homes” with a tastemakers’ dinner at the Four Seasons on Thursday night. The web series will be exclusive to Lockerz.com, a social commerce site that rewards users with shopping discounts and freebies for sharing the site’s own content. Liberty Media and venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins are backing the site.
Earlier in the day, Lockerz bought popular photo sharing company “Plixi” (formerly “Tweetphoto”) to amplify sharing of series like “The Homes” amongst their target 13-30 year old demographic. On venturing beyond Disney, the 22 year-old Kane told TheWrap: “It’s bittersweet, like graduating high school.” By the time tiramisu dessert was on the table at Culina, Kane’s over 500,000 twitter followers had spawned new fan groups for the series that had hit the web for the first time during the salad course.
