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Everybody knows everybody, and it doesn’t matter if you have a hit film or T.V. show this season. Oprah Winfrey kisses David Geffen, casually chats with former Disney C.E.O, Michael Eisner and current Sony Chief Sir Howard Stringer and Rob Weisenthal. Brett Ratner arrives with his houseguest Jean Pigozzi, who is allowed to take photographs. Graydon greets people with chic wife Anna by his side. Ingrid Sischy and Sandy Brant, Rupert Murdoch, Ron Meyer, Francesco Clemente with his twin boys and Tom Ford chat each other up. People to watch include pregnant Victoria and David Beckham with Lynn Wyatt, Fran Lebowitz, Larry Gagosian and Shala Monroque, Ben Silverman, Debbie and Allen wen: ‘i Wendi Murdoch, Kathy Freston and Arianna Huffington Georgina Chapman Grubman, Sotheby’s Tobias Meyer and Mark Fletcher and Stephen Gaghan and Mini Mortimer wearing her over- sized cat glasses. Bruce Cohen has invited me to the Oscar broadcast rehearsal. Inside the Kodak Theater’s massive audi- torium, I find a seat next to his proud parents. I watch Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem come out in white dinner jackets and flub their lines as they pretend to present Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Screenplay. Josh will later tell me that their acting methods are completely opposite: he’s a quick study and is very creative and comfortable ad-libbing; Javier, whose mother tongue is Spanish, likes to have every syllable printed out to study with a dialect coach. Life-size photos on cardboard plaques are taped to each nominee’s chair. I memorize their location so when I return Sunday I can quickly kiss them all. Back at the Beverly Hills hotel I slip into my black bor | Brian Grazer and Jeff Bezos | ee tulle Dennis Basso cocktail dress with a plunging “Diez vs Tom Kline and put ther’s jewels. Ji iaz 7 vale neckline and put on my mother’s jewels. Jim r Coleman takes me to the “Night Before Party” in the i a! hotel. This is Jeffrey Katzenberg’s 9th annual A-lister event benefiting The Motion Picture & Television Fund where they raise $6.5 million dollars in 1 night. I walk into Valentino, who gives me an approving once-over. I tell him and Giancarlo Giammetti that Woody Allen’s new film, Midnight in Paris, is opening the Cannes Film Festival and they must bring the yacht. Elton John and David Furnish join our conversation so of course we ask for intimate details about baby Zachary. I segue over to Amy Adams, who, like them, mentions she hates leaving her baby in the hotel room. Next stop is Kate Capshaw in a black bowler hat chatting with Steven Spielberg’s god-daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow. I have known Steven for years (in 1982 I was a publicist on E.T.). I now tell him I’m going to the Lincoln Center opening of War Horse with Kathy Kennedy and Frank Marshall and cannot wait to see his movie version. I meet sweet Jennifer Aniston, her new haircut and her perfect little body. Her date tells me her secret is a half-hour on the treadmill everyday—such an understatement. I tell Jesse Eisenberg I was on his plane home from the Baftas last week, but he was hiding under his hoodie. He says innocently, “You should have said ‘hello’ I always cover my head because I think my curls make me look like a girl” The charity gives us a coupon booklet redeemable at various booths. Rich people run around like lunatics, collect- ing gifts for their housekeepers. Among the shoppers are Steven and Heather Mnuchin, Viacom’s Deborah and Philippe Dauman, Tamara Mellon, Christine Taylor and Ben Stiller, Cate Blanchet, Susan and Robert Downey Jr. and Debra and Hugh Jackman. Next stop is The Weinstein Company’s party at the Soho House sponsored by MontBlanc. Long gone are the funky Miramax Saturday night soirees where nominees spoofed their own films in homemade costumes and ad-libbed hilarious skits. No more grown men dressed as Anna Paquin playing the piano in hopes of winning a Max Award. As I come in, a 400-pound gorilla refuses to let me on the elevator. Once on, I see Jennifer Lopez in the corner and remind her we met on Len Blavatnik’s yacht in Cannes. She graciously pretends to remember me. Her manager, Benny Medina, is kicking me. I slip into Colin Firth’s booth to have a téte-a-téte with him and his wife Livia Giuggioli. Jokingly, I suggest he say “I’m speechless” when he wins. Colin patiently assures me many | people, far more clever than I, thought of this. He then says that others are waging bets on whether he might subconsciously stutter. I grill him about his wardrobe, assuming he will be wearing a new Tom Ford tuxedo. He tells me both he and Ford will be in older Ford models. I tell him I made rich-but- thrifty Charles Ferguson, director of Inside Job, spend $6,000 dollars for a new Tom Ford tux. In the back room, Jennifer Lopez is now seated with Weinstein’s wife, Georgina Chapman. Helena Bonham Carter, her live-in-lover Tim Burton and her mother Elena circulate. Star power includes Adrien Brody, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Cameron Diaz, Camilla Belle, Chace Adrien Brody Vera Farmiga Andrew Garfield Claire Danessand Hugh Dancy Hailee Steinfeld — a) Oliver Stone and Tara Stone HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_012702