Costume Design Excellence Honored
LA's Costume Designers Guild fêtes its standout television and film design stars.
April 09, 2012
Kate Beckinsale and Marcia Gay Harden
The Costume Designers Guild and Lacoste celebrated the 14th annual Costume Designers Guild Awards with a stunning gala at The Beverly Hilton, where winners were announced in seven categories of television and film costume-design excellence. The evening, which featured Jane Lynch as host, began with a cocktail hour where stylish guests sipped Disaronno Sour and Spiced Anejo daiquiri cocktails. Later, during a seated dinner in the ballroom, actors including Madeleine Stowe, Gabriel Mann, and Penelope Ann Miller presented awards to the triumphant talents, including Trish Summerville for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Susannah Buxton for Downton Abbey. Kate Beckinsale received the evening's Lacoste Spotlight Award for her incomparable style. Clint Eastwood, Chloe Moretz, and Rooney Mara were also on hand to congratulate two-time Emmy nominee Lou Eyrich, the costume designer for Glee, who was honored with the Career Achievement in Television Award.
MOCA 2012 FRESH Auction
Celebrate spring by refreshing your art collection at the MOCA 2012 FRESH Auction.
March 23, 2012
Celebrate spring by refreshing your art collection. The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (MOCA) 2012 Fresh Auction on March 24th (6-10pm) will feature more than 200 works from newcomers and noted artists, including David Hockney, John Baldessari, and Eamon O’Kane, plus live music and drinks to boot. The funds raised from the silent auction will go to support MOCA’s exhibition and acquisition funds. If you want to get first dibs on the amazing art, bid on paddle8.com beforehand. 250 South Grand Ave., Downtown LA, 213-626-6222
The 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards
Scoop on the big winners, best acceptance speeches, and most memorable moments at the annual awards show.
February 28, 2012
Seth Rogen hosts the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards
The most casual and relaxed of all of the Oscar week awards shows, this year’s Independent Film Spirit Awards commenced with a cocktail hour along the sands of Santa Monica. Afterward, guests filed into a giant tent for the ceremony, which honored the brightest talent of the indie film world.
A mix of the year’s nominees, indie film favorites, and Hollywood heavyweights, like Michelle Williams, Kate Beckinsale, Patricia Clarkson, Alexander Payne, Jonah Hill, and Harvey Weinstein mingled over dinner, Champagne, and signature Irish Rover Jameson whiskey cocktails. (Jameson sponsored the show and its FIND Your Audience Award, which gave $40,000 to filmmakers Benjamin Murray and Alysa Nahamias.)
Host Seth Rogen introduced the show with some stand-up before the awards got underway. The night’s big winners included Michelle Williams, for My Week With Marilyn, Christopher Plummer, for Beginners, Shailene Woodley, for The Descendants, and The Artist, which swept the best male lead, best director, best feature, and best cinematography categories.
In her acceptance speech for the best female lead award, Williams may have summed up the spirit of the show best. When speaking of her first time attending a decade earlier, she said, “I wore my own clothes back then, which were not very good, and I cut my own hair, which also was not very good… I still remember the feeling that, in this room, unlike others, that that was okay, possibly even preferred. And what I thought then and I still feel now is that it’s because this room was a room full of misfits, outcasts, loners, dreamers, mumblers, delinquents, dropouts—just like me.”
Celebrities Test Drive PlayStation’s New Handheld
Josh Duhamel was among the famous gamers who tested out Sony’s latest device.
February 21, 2012
Liam Hensworth and Chlöe Moretz testing the PlayStation Vita Portable Entertainment System
It was playtime for Josh Duhamel, Liam Hemsworth, Patrick Schwarzenegger, and Pete Wentz at Sony PlayStation’s launch party for the highly anticipated PS Vita Portable Entertainment System. On February 15, Hollywood’s Siren Studios transformed into an interactive playground where tech-savvy guests competed in high-end games and shared their gaming status on Twitter using the new handheld device, all to the tune of beats spun by Wentz and Jesse Marco. Packed with innovative advancements, the PS Vita includes a five-inch organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen, touchscreen, app-style interface, and front and rear cameras for catching all the action.
Photograph by Chris Weeks and Jason Merritt/Getty-Wireimage
An Emmy Week Kick-Off
Los Angeles Confidential and The Art of Elysium celebrated the Emmys with lots of friends.
October 28, 2011
Kicking off the Emmys in style, Los Angeles Confidential and The Art of Elysium threw a beautiful bash cohosted by September issue cover stars Emmy Rossum and William H. Macy from the Showtime hit Shameless. The party, held on The London West Hollywood’s rooftop, also drew the duo’s costars, Justin Chatwin, Shanola Hampton, Steve Howey, Cameron Monaghan, Emma Kenney, and Jeremy Allen White, who all mingled and celebrated together throughout the evening. While Elijah Wood deejayed, VIPs including Krysten Ritter, Jerry Ferrara, David Arquette, and Joe Manganiello made their way around the scenic soirée, sipping Kim Crawford wines and Fiji water in the L’Oréal Professionnel and Fan di Fendi cabanas. Earlier in the evening, select guests primped for the party at LAC’s Beauty Suite in the hotel, which featured treatments and goodies by Bellacures, Style Bar Beverly Hills, Per-fékt, ZICO coconut water, Starbar, Fan di Fendi, and Je T’aime Champagne.
Back on the rooftop, stars including Alicia Witt and Jessica Lowndes gathered around the pool, where a colorful Rubik’s Cube-esque installation by James Georgopoulos floated. The Art of Elysium founder Jennifer Howell spoke to the gathered crowd about her organization, which encourages working actors, musicians, and artists to volunteer their time and talent to help children battling serious medical conditions. With the partygoers inspired, a live auction of two mirrored Georgopoulos paintings and a visit to the set of Shameless raised $10,000 for the LA nonprofit. Guests stayed late into the evening, many getting a second wind thanks to the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf bar.
Reality Check
A party full of reality TV stars weighs in on Charlie Sheen.
April 11, 2011
Joan Rivers
Given the number of reality starlets traipsing around Svedka Vodka’s Night of a Billion Reality Stars party last Thursday night, it was ironic that there was only one camera crew (the house crew) inside the bash. More than 30 familiar faces milled about Lexington Social House, which hosted revelers who were grinning from ear to ear as they rubbed elbows with their favorite personalities.
Joan Rivers was met with a forceful cheer after debuting the results of the vodka company’s partnership with Funny or Die for a series of comedic shorts, one of which features Rivers herself. The affair, a tongue-in-cheek take on reality TV, had everyone buzzing about one man who seems long overdue for his turn at the reality wheel: Charlie Sheen. LA Confidential asked guests what they would name a reality show set around Sheen.
Lacey Schwimmer (Dancing with the Stars): “I’d call it Winning. It’s simple, one word, and straight to the point. It’s the perfect choice. Or Charlie could also host Toddlers and Tiaras and it could be a family fun show.”
Joan Rivers (Fashion Police): “Blow. I’m flying home to New York to see Charlie Sheen over the weekend at Radio City Music Hall. I just want to see what this whack-a-doo can do on stage.”
Vienna Girardi (The Bachelor): “I’d name Charlie’s show Trainwreck.”
Madison Hildebrand (Million Dollar Listing): “Kill Me.”
Ali Fedotowsky (The Bachelorette): “I would simply call it ?”
Gretchen Rossi (The Real Housewives of Orange County): “Insanity!”
Destin Pfaff (The Millionaire Matchmaker): “The Super Fun Time Awesome Pal Hour.”
Alexis Bellino (The Real Housewives of Orange County): “Trainwreck. For sure.”
Jim Bellino (The Real Housewives of Orange County): “I’d go with …Really?”
Chris Knight (My Fair Brady): “Not Losing.”
Adrianne Curry (My Fair Brady): “I would pick something like Warlocks.”
Lisa Rinna (Dancing with the Stars): “If I could produce any show myself, I would do Porn Stars of America. And I have a few cast members in mind, but I’ll call my friend Charlie and see what he can spare. But I’d call his show The Warlock.”
Josh Flagg (Million Dollar Listing): “‘Cracked Up and Forty.’”
Picture Perfect
IWC Schaffhausen toasted its partnership with the Charles Darwin Foundation by presenting an exclusive exhibition of photographs by Michael Muller.
July 25, 2010
  Shaun White and Kennan |
 Jason Bateman andMichael Muller |
 Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart |
 Richard Ehrlich and Jenni Kayne |
Heart-Felt Praise
In celebration of its 10th anniversary, Sama Eyewear launched the limited-edition Heart of Gold frame—and gave the evening’s proceeds to Friendly House.
July 24, 2010
 AJ Lamas and Sheila Vance |
 Rosario Toscano and Greg Vaughan |
 Ross Vance and Peggy Albrecht |
 Linda Shimazaki and Loree Rodkin |
