Styles & Scenes

Is lost Love found again?

Since it’s awards season, I’m gonna hand one out.

And the winner of the most improved celebrity award of 2006 is — drum roll, please — Courtney Love!

And yes, I know it's only January. But you gotta act fast handing out encouraging "improved" kudos in this town.

Love was a sight for sore eyes at HBO’s hotter-than-hot, star-packed pre-Golden Globes party at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. Looking seriously slimmer, the former “Hole” singer appeared to have jettisoned about 40-plus pounds of blubber, thanks to her court-ordered return to rehab.

Jeepers, where’d they send her? Canyon Ranch?

Love was also quieter at the HBO party, where she was introduced out on the patio by superpublicist Jason Weinberg to a shorn Natalie Portman. Hard to imagine those two having much in common, but hey, you never know.

This was certainly a marked improvement in manners since her last public appearance at Pamela Anderson’s Comedy Central Roast last summer, when Love got onstage and roared that she was clean and sober before flashing her flabby belly (and almost her breasts) to a horrified studio audience on the Sony Pictures lot.

Afterward, comedian Jimmy Kimmel remarked. “Courtney, you keep saying you’re not doing drugs. I hope that’s not true. Because if it is, then you’ve got real problems.”

Apparently, Love is cleaning up her beauty act too. She spent two hours before the party Saturday at the Biolage Get Glam/Do Good suite in the Raffles L’Ermitage hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., getting a Biolage Cera-Repair Pro4 deep conditioning hair treatment and a fluffy blowout.

Then she sat still for a free makeover from Armani cosmetics’ celebrity makeup guru Tim Quinn. All reports are that she was sweet and polite. Our Courtney? Wow.

The stylists worked their magic on Love and she looked absolutely gorgeous when she left, ready to hit the Globe party scene with friend Kimberly Stewart. Love was also in good company at L’Ermitage. She, like Teri Hatcher, Maggie Grace and Elisha Cuthbert all left with orange leather totes jammed with customized Biolage and Armani goodies worth more than $600.

Let's just hope Love doesn’t get off the road-to-recovery when she reads her mother Linda Carroll's just published tell-all memoir. “Her Mother’s Daughter: A Memoir of the Mother I Never Knew and of My Daughter, Courtney Love,” with salacious snippets about the “magic pills” Courtney’s dad made her swallow, how a preteen Courtney got drunk on homemade apple wine at a family Christmas party, set fires, stole porn mags from bookstores and ended up as a stripper living on the streets before marrying, then becoming, a tortured self-destructive punk star.

Hey, other than dad’s magic pills and the fires, sounds like a perfectly normal celebrity childhood to me.

Photo (left): Courtney Love gets a Globes party face at the L'Ermitage Get Glam/Do Good suite.
(J Sciulli / WireImage)

Photo (right): Love lived large and let loose last year at the Pamela Anderson Comedy Central Roast.
(Chris Walter / WireImage)

Chanel's double dressing disaster, continued

The fashion world is positively reeling, darling, over the Golden Globes' double dress debacle.

Can you imagine? Reese Witherspoon accepting her best actress Golden Globe in a Chanel dress worn by Kirsten Dunst to a Globe party in 2003?

Poor Reese. Instead of being featured as a Globe winner on the cover of People and Women’s Wear Daily, looking happy in her exquisite frock, her photo is butted against a shot of Dunst in the same dress, like one of those horrid “Who Wore It Best” tabloid-style spreads.

Dear Lord, the dress duplication was even reported on Access Hollywood! The horror, the horror....

Then came word that Globes presenter Natalie Portman was indeed wearing a Chanel dress that was worn by a then-skinny Debra Messing at a Glamour Women of the Year affair in 2001.

Calls to Messing’s publicist, Portman’s publicist, and Chanel’s New York office and to Portman's stylist Kate Young have still not been returned. Hmmm. But confirmation about Portman/Messing's mirror mode comes from a highly placed source in a fashion agency that works with Young, who also styles Hilary Swank.

After the Globes show, Young told New York Times fashion writer Cathy Horyn why Natalie went with a black Chanel rather than one of the two Rochas (say "row-cha") dresses (blue and pale green) made just for her by Olivier Theyskens.

HBO is the host with the most

What makes a great party? High hopes and high spirits.

HBO had that and more at their star-strewn pre-Golden Globe bash Saturday at that terminally hip and historic Hollywood hotel, the Chateau Marmont. They also had 17 Globe nominations, more than any other network.

“We actually have some shows competing against each other,” marveled HBO honcho Colin Callender. “It’s like having your kids up for the same award.”

But he was still looking forward to the competition. "It’s the most fun of all the award shows. You can drink and eat and even go to the bathroom.” Yeah, but don’t stay too long. Remember Christine Lahti’s name was called when she loitered in the Beverly Hilton's ballroom bathroom.

HBO stars and execs were scattered throughout the living room-style lobby. Assorted famous folks mixed with cast members of HBO’s hit shows: Ian McShane, Kevin Connolly, Ben Kingsley Jeremy Piven, Bill Paxton, Rachel Zoe, Frederic Fekkai, Aann Magnusson, Cillian Murphy, Powers Booth, Jeff Daniels, Kiera Knightley, Edie Falco,  Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon, Rosario Dawson, Ludacris, Bill Maher, Matt Dillon, Troy Garity, Donald Sutherland, Cynthia Nixon, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Mira Sorvino, Taylor Hackford, even the Zappa family!.

The only MIA's were Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, who opted to skip the Saturday bash and won't be at the Monday night show.

Notoriously press-shy “Walk the Line” star Joaquin Phoenix, wearing a black jacket and orange hoodie, took one look at the crowded lobby and immediately headed outside. Later he was spotted chatting under the heat lamps with hottie Kirsten Dunst, who was standing near a still-shorn Natalie Portman.

When a wandering HBO party photog asked for a quick shot, Phoenix waved him away. “No man, I’d rather not. No seriously, I’d rather not!”

“Courtney Love is over by the bar,” whispered Nadine Johnson, the Chateau’s New York-based PR pusher. After a search, the shockingly sane and svelte Love was spotted outside, along with every other smoker at the party.

Harvey Weinstein came late with a very pretty, slender brunette and introduced her as “my girlfriend” to photographer Patrick DeMarchelier. “The Wedding Crashers” actress Rebecca De Mornay arrived with New Line Cinema head Bob Shaye. Globes presenter Catherine Deneuve turned up with MAC cosmetic magnate John Dempsey who was being tailed by Chloë Sevigny.

Later that evening, “Entourage” star Adrian Grenier asked for an Advil from a helpful gal who dug an old pill from the bottom of her purse. But Grenier is no dummy. He checked it out carefully before swallowing to be sure the small white pill was a headache antidote and not something that would turn the HBO bash into an "Are We Not Men?" scene from the classic horror film, "The Island of Dr. Moreau."

The party went on so loud and so late that they really should have handed out Advil as a party favor.

Photo: No pictures, please, for Joaquin Phoenix, who even looks camera-shy at GQ's Men of the Year awards.
(Lester Cohn / WireImage)

Care for some tea before the Globes?

OK, so no George Clooney, Heath Ledger, Keira Knightley or even Judi Dench.

But the Los Angeles chapter of the British Academy of Film and Television's 12th annual Tea Party was still jolly good fun. As well as tea, crumpets and clotted cream, there was plenty of bubbly and stronger spirits. Even a BAFTA/LA member dressed up like the Mad Hatter (for no apparent reason) whom many mistook for Willy Wonka.

Look, there’s a reason why BAFTA is sometimes (fondly, of course) referred to by its members as the “British Association of Food Tasting and Alcohol.”

Globe nominees David Cronenberg, Maria Bello, Bob Hoskins, Ziyi Zhang, Paul Haggis, Bennett Miller, Q’orianka Kilcher, Matt Dillon and Terrence Howard, many also on the "shortlist" for the British Academy Film Awards, were busy sippin’ and smilin’ at the Sunday late afternoon affair in the Park Hyatt in Westwood.

Howard was low-key, enjoying all the attention and talking about the new low-budget movie he’s writing and giving the first look to Harvey Weinstein. And Bello looked beautiful in a black sundress, posing for pics with her “History of Violence” director, Cronenberg.

“Crash” director Haggis got excited talking to The Envelope’s astute Oscar prognosticator Tom O’Neil about the importance of a Directors Guild award to an Oscar campaign. O’Neal’s theory is that Haggis fulfills every TV director’s fantasy and there’s a boat-load of them in the DGA. If Haggis wins that one, he’s almost assured an Oscar. If he’s nominated for an Oscar, of course. Small detail.

“Munich” producer Kathleen Kennedy was hanging with screenwriter Tony Kushner, who said he wasn’t really nervous about the next day’s Globes. After Broadway openings, being up for an award is more fun than scary. And Kennedy mentioned that Steven Spielberg will be going to Israel soon for a special screening for the murdered Olympic athletes’ families.

Ironically, standing very nearby was Michael York, who starred in “Sword of Gideon,” the 1986 HBO version of George Jonas’s book “Vengeance,” which “Munich” was also based on. ”Loosely,” insists Kennedy.

York didn’t chat with Kushner or Kennedy but he has seen “Munich.” “Perhaps I’m prejudiced but to be honest, I thought our film was more realistic," he admitted. "We actually shot in Israel, you know.” Spielberg used Malta as the stand-in.

Hoskins was one of the last to arrive, racing straight from the airport after a London flight. But even with jet lag, he was still good-natured, joking about his nude scene, “I’ve been asked more questions about my todger in the past few weeks than my entire life.” A what? I had to look it up. Todger is British slang for the male sex organ, which Bob bravely bared in “Mrs. Henderson Presents.”

“Capote” director Miller, who seriously looks like he’s just out of film school, insists, “I’m 39.” And he’s not the slightest bit tired of the grueling awards season sked.

Photo: Maria Bello and David Cronenberg stop for a cuppa at the BAFTA/LA 12th annual tea party.
(Gregg DeGuire / WireImage)

And the presenters are....

The stars are starting to align for the Golden Globes.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Harrison Ford, Jamie Foxx, Natalie Portman, and Emma Thompson will present awards at the 63rd annual Golden Globes, taking place on Jan. 16 at the Beverly Hilton.

No official word on which star will present which award. But according to Barry Adelman, executive producer of the Golden Globe awards show, it's customary for last year's winners to present in their winning category. "It's not a hard and fast rule but we usually ask last year's winners to come back and present awards for best actress and best actor."

That could mean that Leo, who won a best actor in a dramatic movie for "The Aviator," will present in that category. It could also mean that Foxx, who won for "Ray," will present for his winning category, best actor in a musical or comedy movie. And since Portman won best supporting actress for "Closer" last year, well, you figure it out.

As yet, there is no word on who will perform the coveted task of presenting the prestigious Cecil B. DeMille Award. This year the honor goes to Anthony Hopkins, given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. for the actor's "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field."

The lifetime achievement award requires a careful and painstaking selection process. "We try to be good matchmakers," says Adelman. We go through a research process to find someone who is either a personal or professional friend." Or both.

Adelman recalls past successful pairings: When Dustin Hoffman won his DeMille at the 1997 ceremony, Tom Cruise, his costar in "Rainman," presented it to him. Warren Beatty, one of Jack Nicholson's longtime close personal friends and a professional colleague, presented his pal with his DeMille in 1999.

Hmm. We can't help but wonder if Thompson, who costarred with Hopkins in two memorable and award-winning Merchant-Ivory productions, "Howard's End," and "Remains of the Day," may be the lucky lady who hands the distinguished British actor his overdue DeMille.

Then again, the DeMille presenter could also be....

Photo Credit: Leonardo DiCaprio warms up for Golden Globe presenter duty at the Earth to America! eco-fundraiser in Las Vegas in November 2005.
(Michael Caulfield / WireImage)