Green Acres, we are there
Giorgio Armani hasn’t attended the Oscars since 1992. So he celebrated his arrival on pre-Oscar weekend by throwing a celebrity-splattered soiree on Ron Burkle’s sumptuous Green Acres estate Feb. 25. The front row of his couture fashion show was filled with Oscar nominees and Hollywood notables, including Al (I’m not running, don’t ask me) Gore, Gore Vidal and Mike Medavoy. Prankster 1. George Clooney kept whispering to Clive Owen, who passed on the jokes to Cate Blanchett, who later caught up with Martin Scorsese. 2. Beyonce perched prettily next to Leonardo DiCaprio, who didn’t mind getting sandwiched between her and 3. Penelope Cruz, who chatted up P. Diddy. 4. Spike Lee and Quincy Jones bonded, and 5. Sidney Poitier and Clint Eastwood constituted the Old Guard. Stars including Natalie Portman, John Travolta and Mark Wahlberg modeled their best Armani, making it hard to pay attention to those scrawny unknown runway mannequins.
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ELIZABETH SNEAD
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At the Women of Peace event
6. Attending the Women of Peace, Women in Conflict lunch Feb. 21 were Glamour editor Cindi Leive, left, producer Paula Wagner, actress Katie Holmes, activist-playwright Eve Ensler and Margaret Jayah from Sierra Leone. Also there were Sally Field, Salma Hayek, Marisa Tomei and Jane Fonda, who performed a new “Vagina Monologue.”
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Holy Waters effect is eerie
Butterflies were definitely not free at the Feb. 22 opening of Damien Hirst’s exhibit “Superstition” at Larry Gagosian’s Beverly Hills gallery, followed by a dinner at Mr. Chow that included 7. John Waters, Milla Jovich, designer Zac Posen, Kirsten Dunst, Ed Ruscha, Lauren Hutton, John Baldessari, David Hockney, Naomi Campbell and Terrence Howard, designer Tory Burch and Lance Armstrong, Steve Martin, Endeavor’s Ari Emmanuel, and rocker Dave Stewart. Even 8. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger joined Gagosian, center, and Hirst in ogling the oil paintings, featuring thousands of real (dead) butterflies that looked like large stained-glass windows.
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What a day for independents!
The Film Independent’s Spirit Awards presenters indulged in a little celebrity looting in the official gift lounge during the Feb. 24 event held in a tent on Santa Monica beach. 9. Robert Downey Jr. (who “did rehab before it was cool,” said host Sarah Silverman) was psyched about his new Invicta watch. After singing for her supper onstage, 10. Minnie Driver modeled her new Ugg boots, while Sharon Stone worked Netflix’s carnival claw to get a stuffed Garfield for her son, and eternal indie spirit Dennis Hopper tried out his new Palm Treo Smartphone. Can you hear him now?
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And no party is complete without . . .
Acrobats! 12. Pilobolus, the world-famous troupe of dancer-athletes, was the hottest act on the Academy Awards’ red carpet. But the members were just getting warmed up for their on-stage contortions. Performing behind a scrim at a private pre-Spirit and Oscar party Feb. 23 in Beverly Hills, the lithe dancers magically turned themselves into shadow shapes and creatures.
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Snead writes the Styles & Scenes blog at TheEnvelope.com.
