Partying It Up – Oscar style

The last few days before Oscar Sunday are filled with soirees and parties for nominees, non-nominees and anyone else who finds themselves lucky enough to be on the list for one of the events around this time. I myself managed to snag a spot at the Grey Goose pre-Oscar party, for Paramount Pictures studio and in honour of Martin Scorsese, whose film Hugo is up for the most nominations at this year’s ceremony – a total of 11.

I’ve seen Scorsese speak before at Cannes and also watched him introduce his Beatles documentary at the New York Film Festival but I’ve yet to come face to face with the famed director. Until last night, when I discovered he’s not that much taller than me. See how cool it is to be short? Scorsese mingled with the guests at the party, some of them stars of his movie, like Emily Mortimer, others, long-time collaborators, like Thelma Schoonmaker who edits his movies.

I spoke to the author of the book that Hugois based upon, Brian Selznick and he described the way he’s feeling ahead of Sunday as akin to being Kate Middleton’s father. “I feel like I gave birth years ago and then now I got this phone call to say I’m being inducted into the royal family.” We’ll see on Sunday just how far that lineage will go.

The Grey Goose parties have become somewhat of a tradition for me now while I’m in LA for Oscar week – there’s usually a great crowd, some new cocktail inspired by the films nominated for Best Picture (in this instance, my favourite was the Silent Martini, in homage to The Artist). But I also like catching up with the suave ambassadors of the brand – Dimi, Ludo and Guillaumo, who certainly know how to make a girl feel like she’s a starlet too.

Speaking of starlets, as I was leaving Soho House, I passed Michelle Williams going in with a group of people that included Brett Ratner, the director who was meant to be producing the Oscar ceremony but resigned from the job in light of his anti-gay slur. Michelle, one of the Best Actress nominees, was in a gorgeous animal-print coat, and I wished I had been able to take a shot of it. She looked elegant and chic – I’m sure Marilyn Monroe would have certainly approved.

I had a surreal moment when my friend texted me to say I should head on over to the Hollywood Domino party because Paul Haggis had just written my name down on the guest-list for the event at the Sunset Tower. So I headed on there afterwards, and found Jon Hamm playing a solid game of Domino, which he went on to win. I also finally got to shake the hand of the man by whose invitation I attended the event – a man who in 2006 became the first screenwriter to write two Best Film Oscar winners back-to-back: Million Dollar Baby and Crash.

Oh, I do love a good pre-Oscar party or two!