No party is complete without . . .

-- Elizabeth Snead

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Warming up in the minors

Hollywood’s seemingly ceaseless small awards shows are good practice for young Oscar hopefuls. 2. At the Hollywood Life Breakthrough Awards on Dec. 14, “Little Children’s” Patrick Wilson broke into song (“Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ ”) when he won. 3. “The Devil Wears Prada” co-star Emily Blunt admitted that playing a spiteful, bossy fashion snob “wasn’t a reach.” 4. Host Orlando Jones, mistakenly introduced as “Orlando Bloom,” started the show faking a British accent. 5. Brent Bolthouse raved about pal actor-turned-rocker Jared Leto’s performance in “Requiem for a Dream”: “He would have won an Oscar if there were junkies in the academy.” 6. Justin Long, right -- the Mac guy on those TV ads -- and pal Sam Rockwell try to figure out what his award is shaped like. Your guess is as good as theirs.

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An inconvenient no-show

7. “An Inconvenient Truth” star Al Gore’s (right) new best friend Lindsay Lohan was confirmed to attend the “Seeds of Tolerance” awards Dec. 14. Sadly, she was a no-show and poor Al had to settle for dispensing image advice (like showing up where and when you say you will, maybe?) to “Half Nelson” Indie Spirit nominee Ryan Gosling and his girlfriend, Rachel McAdams, with punked-out pink hair.

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Books are never far from the movies in L.A.

8. Because a Pulitzer is simply not enough, Jane Smiley picked up a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 18th annual PEN USA Literary Award Dinner hosted by Larry Gelbart at the Beverly Hilton on Dec. 12. “Office” nerd Rainn Wilson presented the Award of Honor to Bob Shaye, co-head of New Line Cinema. (Above from left, Wilson, Smiley, Gelbart and Shaye.) Coincidentally, Wilson stars in an upcoming New Line film, “The Last Mimzy.”

Snead writes the Styles & Scenes blog at TheEnvelope.com