Styles & Scenes

BAFTA/LA makes Clint Eastwood's day

 
Clint Eastwood already has four Oscars and three Golden Globes.

Hope he’s got room for the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts/Los Angeles will make Eastwood's day by awarding him the 15th prestigious honor on November 2 at the Century Plaza Hotel.

“Clint Eastwood is an undisputed international icon and an enormous creative force, both behind and in front of the camera,” says BAFTA/LA chairman Peter Morris. “It is our distinct pleasure to honor him with our highest film award.”

Now we just have to wonder who will be there to laud him and present the award.

There’s his “Million Dollar Baby” co-stars Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman. Their presence is pretty much a lock. Hil always loves to sing Clint's praises. And rightly so, since  she won an Oscar for her "Baby" role.

But there’s also his “Space Cowboys” co-star Tommy Lee Jones, now an acclaimed director in his own right and who would kill to duplicate Clint's successful directing career.

How about Meryl Streep, his “The Bridges of Madison County” love-interest? A possibility.

The 76-year-old actor/director/producer is currently doing his infamous “Go ahead. Make My Day." voice for a Dirty Harry video game. Also talking for the game: Gene Hackman and Laurence Fishburne. So they could be in the BAFTA/LA presenting game as well.

It's pretty much a lock that someone from Eastwood’s new film “Flags of Our Fathers" (co-written by "Crash" Paul Haggis), due out in October/November, will be there.

"Fathers," already getting good Oscar buzz, is the true story of the six American soldiers seen in that famous photo planting the flag on Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi in WWII. The huge young cast includes Ryan Phillipe, Barry Pepper, Paul Walker and Ken Watanabe and promises to be another moving, gritty war film akin to “Saving Private Ryan.”

Can the BAFTA/LA Britannia award jump start Eastwood's 2007 Oscar Race engine? It not only can, it will.

Photo Credits: Clint Eastwood won the Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement award in 2006. Can he snag an Oscar in the 2007 Awards Season?  Do you feel lucky, punk?
WireImage/Jeffrey Mayer

Young Hollywood turns out for T-Mobile

Well, now we know.

Here's why Eva Longoria, from the award-winning show "Desperate Housewives," was in such a mad rush to get her hair done Tuesday evening at Jordan's Enchanted Cottage in West Hollywood.

She was headed straight to the T-Mobile Sidekick 3 party held later that night at the Hollywood Palladium.

The place was packed with the usual celeb suspects such as the Backstreet Boys, LA club empresario Brent Bolthouse, Donovan Leitch, Serena Williams, Jaime King, Rachel Bilson, "Crash" director Paul Haggis, Taryn Manning, Amanda Bynes, Haylie and Hilary Duff, Jessica Simpson, Mischa Barton with beau Cisco Adler, whew, and those still  battling ex-BFs Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton.   

And in case you were wondering, yes, all the attending celebs got a free Sidekick 3 for their time and trouble. 

Richie was spotted inside flailing her pipe cleaner arms while dancing with Mario Lopez. With her new long blonde hair extensions, she really does look like a Paris Hilton clone. But she's getting so darn emaciated that we're gonna start calling her Auschwitz Hilton.

Meanwhile, Paris has cleverly figured out a way to really stand out at parties. Bring brunette friends! She spent most of the night posing and partying with her new bookend brunette sidekicks, Caroline D'Amore and Kim Kardashian.

Photo Credits: Jessica Simpson and Eva Longoria put their perfectly coiffed heads together to figure out the new T-Mobile Sidekick 3. Good luck, girls.
WireImage/Gregg DeGuire

Photo Credits: Whoa, watch where you wave those buggy whips, little lady. You could poke someone's eye out! Nicole Richie shows off her moves with Mario Lopez at the T-Mobile Sidekick 3 bash.
WireImage/Chris Weeks
 

Follow those Oscar nominees!

Thursday was a busy, busy day for some Oscar nominees.

The Dior beauty folks hosted a late-night, candlelit dinner party graced by Naomi Watts, Kate Bosworth, Lindsay Lohan, Diane Kruger, Emmy Rossum and Joy Bryant on the Chateau Marmont patio in Hollywood, Calif.

Best actress Oscar nominee Keira Knightley — staying in the Chateau — even popped down briefly with some pals. But the “Pride & Prejudice” beauty was a bit hard to recognize because she was suddenly sporting very long, thick hair. Hmmm. Extensions? Seems very likely.

Couldn't tell if she was also wearing the new brand new H. Stern right-hand diamond ring that she picked out and took home from the Diamond Aquifer Retreat at Soho House the day before. But probably. Wouldn't you?

O-nominated "Brokeback Mountain" couple Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams noticed a few flashes from their Marmont penthouse suite high above the party and called downstairs to get the camera scoop. They were later seen picking up a car down in the garage, sans their baby daughter, Matilda.

Earlier, Oscar nominee Amy Adams — star of “Junebug” — was beaming at the Independent Spirit nominees reception at Casa del Mar in Santa Monica. Adams has a darn good reason to look so happy: she's also nominated for a Spirit best supporting actress award. Spirit nominees “Brokeback Mountain” Oscar fave Ang Lee and his producer James Schamus and their “Capote” Oscar rival, director Bennett Miller were also at Thursday's reception.

The Spirits, being held on Saturday in Santa Monica, mirror the Oscars more closely than ever, causing some folks to wonder: What’s the point? Host Sarah Silverman, that’s what. The show promises to be shorter, less scripted and oh, let’s just say it, waaay more fun than Sunday’s Oscars.

If you want to catch some possible Oscar warm-up acceptance speeches from Terrance Howard, Felicity Huffman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ledger and Williams, George Clooney and/or Paul Haggis, tune in to the live awards broadcast on the IFC Channel at 5 p.m. Saturday.

Also on Thursday, “North Country” Oscar-nominated best actress Charlize Theron wore a slinky black Dior dress to host Vanity Fair’s Amped for Africa benefit at Republic restaurant. By the way, it's official. The actress will be wearing a Dior couture gown to the Oscars. "She doesn't have to wear Dior just because she has a beauty contract with us," revealed a Dior beauty rep. "She just fell in love with the gown."

Miller, his “Capote” Oscar-nommed pal Philip Seymour Hoffman and “Crash” best supporting actor, Oscar-nommer Matt Dillon hit Jason Binn's Los Angeles Confidential pre-Oscar party Thursday night at the Sky Bar in West Hollywood.

And a shockingly sexy Armani-clad Jodie Foster — you are correct, she’s not nominated for anything, just making sure you’re paying attention — attended the U.S.-Ireland Alliance honors for acclaimed directors Jim Sheridan, Neil Jordan and David Holmes at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles.

Seen out of town: The Constant Gardener” Oscar nominee Rachel Weisz was still at home in New York but she turned up at Bloomingdale’s to help launch a new women’s fragrance for Burberry.

Photo Credits:
(Top right) Naomi Watts at the late night Dior private dinner at Chateau Marmont.
(Donato Sardella / WireImage)
(Top left) Oscar nominee Keira Knightly models her new long hair and H. Stern right-hand diamond ring from the Soho House Diamond Aquifer Retreat.
(Lester Cohen / WireImage)
(Bottom) Oscar nominee Charlize Theron hosts Vanity Fair's Amped for Africa event.
(Lester Cohen / WireImage)

Give Haggis a Hyatt Regency bathrobe

“Crash” writer-director Paul Haggis looked natty in a dress suit as he walked through the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel and Spa lobby to attend Saturday’s Directors Guild of America Awards.

As he got on the escalator, he glanced at the large crowd of casually-attired lobby lookie-loos, desperately hoping to see some famous faces like Reese Witherspoon, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, Clint Eastwood, George Clooney or Jake Gyllenhaal arriving for the DGA show.

He — and everyone else — couldn’t help noticing one barefoot couple wearing the hotel's thick white terry cloth bathrobes for their star-spotting adventure.

Maybe they were talking a breather between the jacuzzi and the mani-pedi?

“That’s a good look,” a surprised Haggis told a fellow escalator rider. “I could have gotten away with wearing that tonight. After all, the event’s not televised.”

The award-winning writer and first-time feature film director didn't win the top honors."Brokeback Mountain" director Ang Lee did. But one attendee noted, "This really is the one awards where you really are happy just to be nominated."

Still, bet a cuddly white terry robe might cheer him up.

Photo: Give this man a fluffy white bathrobe, stat! Paul Haggis shows off his nominee platter backstage at the Directors Guild of America Awards
(Steve Granitz / WireImage)

"Crash" has a political party

Movies and politics make great bedfellows.

Especially in this 2006 awards season when several films in the Oscar race address hot political topics such as the Iraq war, the African AIDS crisis, oil, terrorism, homophobia, freedom of speech and transgender issues.

No surprise then to see politial activist-author Arianna Huffington at the Showtime/Lionsgate party to celebrate the respective Globe nominations of "Weeds" and "Crash" Saturday night.

Huffington arrived with producer Lawrence Bender, who is producing the historical political thriller, "Manhunt," which will star Harrison Ford. The film will be based on James L. Swanson’s new book (due out in February) about President Lincoln’s murderer — actor John Wilkes Booth — and the real story of the lost 12 days when the entire country was searching for the escaped killer.

Huffington, whose website www.ariannaonline.com is reportedly making beaucoup bucks, was also seen chatting with kausfilesblogger Mickey Kaus, who has a new blog — bloggingheadstv — that features streaming video of Kaus and “Nonzero” author Robert Wright, discussing and disagreeing about sex, greed, power, politics, and, naturally, movies about sex, greed, power and politics, of which there are more than you can shake a stick at this season.

What does Huffington think about “Crash"'s Oscar chances?

“With everything that’s happening right now after Katrina, the topic of racial inequality in this country is more important than ever. A film that hopes to win an Oscar should have some level of appeal on a cultural level as well as on an artistic level.”

Also sounding very political was “Crash” star Matt Dillon, there with costars Chris 'Ludracris' Bridges and Jennifer Esposito. After chatting with former Fox honcho Bill Mechanic (also an executive Board of Governors member for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) and Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. head Philip Berk, Dillon once again talked about how great it is to be rewarded for making “Crash,” and how great the ensemble cast was and how great the writer-director is and how it was hard for them to get a film made about such a controversial topic.

Sounds like Matt's really getting the hang of the awards campaign trail.

Matt Dillon's really big year

Even if Matt Dillon doesn't pick up a Golden Globe award on Jan. 16 for his supporting role in “Crash,” this is still his big year.

Long considered one of the ultimate Hollywood outsiders, Dillon won an award for his "Crash" supporting role from the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Assn. and received a tribute award for his career at the recent Gotham Awards. Next, Dillon will be honored for his body of work at the upcoming Ray-Ban Visionary Award (hosted by Hollywood Life magazine) on Jan. 22 during the 2006 Sundance Independent Film Festival.

The actor is definitely keeping darn good company. Last year, the honor went to Kevin Bacon at the ceremony held in the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City, Utah. Previous winners include New Line Studios exec Mark Ordesky and HBO exec Colin Callendar.

But Dillon's still a humble guy. Speaking from the set of his new film, "You, Me and Dupree,” he put awards in perspective.

“This is all pretty new to me. I won an Indie Spirit award a few years ago [for 'Drugstore Cowboy'] but I wasn't in the country at the time. But it's all very exciting. Listen, I've never met an actor who does this for awards and most of the time, we don't even do it for the money. So it's really nice to be acknowledged for your work.”

And he's especially proud of "Crash," which is up for a best screenplay Globe.

“This was a phenomenal cast with excellent filmmakers, Paul Haggis and Bob Moresco, what can you say? They're amazing and really took some chances and risks with this project.”

Photo: Matt Dillon has every reason to smile this year, seen here at the Gotham Awards.
(Jim Spellman / WireImage)