Life & Style Goes to the Oscar Parties : VANITY FAIR / STEVE TISCH : Casting a Really Wide Net

The Scene: The black-tie, if-we’re-not-heirs-to Swifty-than-who-is? viewing party and post-telecast reception at Morton’s hosted by Vanity Fair’s Graydon Carter and “Forrest Gump” producer Steve Tisch. Here was a wildly eclectic range of talent, socialites and power brokers. “We wanted it to reflect the magazine,” said Carter. “Washington, L.A., New York, Old Hollywood, New Hollywood, the whole thing.”

How Wide a Spectrum: Courtney Love and friend Amanda de Cadanet, each wearing slinky white satin dresses, were heel-squatting, peasant-style, as they smoked cigarettes. At a nearby table were two billionaires. This represents a significant range of human experience.

Seated for Dinner: Some of the exotic groupings among the 139 dining: Barry Diller with Kelly Lynch, Steve Martin, Ross Bleckner and Dee Dee Myers; Jackie Collins with Tony Curtis, Doug Cramer and Pat Kluge; Jay Leno with Dominick Dunne and Daphne Zuniga; Barbara Walters with Dolly Parton and Michael J. Fox.

After the Telecast: Among the 300 were Gabriel Byrne with Ellen Barkin, Annette Bening, Jessica Lange, Hugh Grant, Sigourney Weaver, Tim Allen, Matt Dillon, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, Nigel Hawthorne, Martin Landau and Anthony Hopkins with his mother.

Peak Moment: A broadly grinning Tisch arriving with the best picture statue. “He’s easy to please,” said Tisch’s mother, Joan. “All you have to do is give him an Oscar.”

Who Stood Out: In a room with super-models Vendela and Claudia Schiffer, who would have thought a thin, bejeweled Oprah Winfrey would turn the most heads?

Quoted: “In D.C., they pretend it’s about altruism and what’s good for America,” said Myers. “In Hollywood, no one pretends it’s about art. It’s about money.”