By Roger Friedman
Last night– Wednesday–felt like the kick off for “Oscar Week.” But where oh where is the gang from the critically praised box office hit, ”The Social Network’?
They are AWOL while the other Best Picture nominees begin to celebrate their films. ”The Social Network” is not very social, it seems. There’s nothing scheduled for them, and no sign of anyone except the affable Armie Hammer. Producer Scott Rudin missed the Writers Guild Awards on February 5th because of pneumonia, and then kind of disappeared. There is a dinner this week for “True Grit” and the Coen Brothers, but no sign of Rudin, who produced both that film and “The Social Network.” I’m told that the reason for no “Network” event may be traced to internal disagreements between Rudin and Sony, which released that film. It’s odd, because Sony Pictures Classics is having its own annual nominees dinner as usual, this year to celebrate Jacki Weaver.
Rudin, by the way, says I protest too much: he’s in New York starting a movie and has three Broadway shows all opening and previewing. “Sony’s done everything for us,” he insists. So there!
Meanwhile, the other films are mostly all present: Last night, for example, Dior held a swanky dinner for Harvey Weinstein at the Chateau Marmont. Sharon Stone, Ridley Scott, Halle Berry, Olivier Martinez, Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Adrien Brody, Anne Hathaway, Chelsea Handler (with Chateau owner Andre Balazs), and lots of French people swarmed the Chateau lobby and gardens, all decked out very elegantly. “The King’s Speech” and “Blue Valentine” also get a party on Saturday night.
Over at Cecconi’s, the “Kids Are All Right” producer Celine Rattray and director Lisa Cholodenko entertained their crowd.
And there’s more: for the last few days there have been all kinds of stealth parties and lunches for David O. Russell, director of “The Fighter.” When James Franco arrives, there will be at least two parties connected to “127 Hours,” not to mention two other parties thrown by Fox Searchlight–one tonight, for their anniversary, with no press, and one on Sunday. That will also take care of “Black Swan” and Natalie Portman.
More parties: the “new” Hollywood Reporter is giving the exact same party the “old” Hollywood Reporter gave last year, even though they fired Eric Mika, the former publisher, who invented the idea of using Mayor Villiaragosa’s residence. Nothing will ever top last year’s party, which featured guests Mel Gibson and Oksana Grigorieva who looked like they’d been sleeping in their clothes and then suddenly remembered they had a party at attend. It was their last public appearance before the fighting began through lawyers. Even “Mad Dog” Beckman can’t top that!
