The Golden Globes: The after-parties
Ricky Gervais’ humor might have polarized the crowd at Sunday night’s Golden Globes award ceremony, but as soon as the show wrapped, grudges seemed to have been checked at the velvet rope and the Beverly Hilton morphed into a party-hoppers’ paradise.
A-listers streamed out of the ballroom — Scarlett Johansson, Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman, Christian Bale (alongside the real-life Temple Grandin) — into the hotel lobby, which was awash in a flowy mess of peach, red, emerald and black formal wear. Then, like the break at the start of a billiards game, guests quickly dispersed into one of seven lavish after-parties, all but one held under the hotel’s roof.
HBO’s security-tight bash (guests had to pass through two check-in points before receiving wristbands encoded with hidden HBO logos) was packed and full of heavy-hitters. Per usual, the cable network had something for everyone — such as Andrew Garfield, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Kyle Richards, Joe Manganiello and Aziz Ansari. Also spotted partying poolside: Bill Maher, Hayden Panettiere, 50 Cent, Chris Noth, Zooey Deschanel, Mike O’Malley, Bill Paxton and Jon Hamm with partner Jennifer Westfeldt. Talk about a grab bag.
HBO reliably had victories to toast — including Claire Danes’ win for “Temple Grandin,” Al Pacino’s for “You Don’t Know Jack” and Steve Buscemi’s for “Boardwalk Empire.”
“I was really glad to see Claire win,” said Grandin by the bar. Then her eyes welled up. “But more so, I was really, really glad to see ‘King’s Speech’ win because I felt [ Colin Firth] did a great job of showing the problems us stutterers have. And the food here is good.”
New “Spider-Man” love interest Emma Stone turned up in her hit Calvin Klein gown, talking with the team from heavyweight Globe winner “The Social Network,” including Aaron Sorkin and Garfield.
Manganiello stayed with his “True Blood” pack, along with fiancée Audra Marie, roaming with the likes of Sam Trammell and Rutina Wesley, while Leighton Meester of “Country Strong” charmed at the inside bar.
Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones made an appearance, only briefly, before heading off to another bash.
Upstairs, in a clear tent atop the hotel’s garage was the NBC/Universal/Focus Features party. The location — the same as last year — offers sweeping views of Century City. The food was bountiful — with multiple sweets tables, carving stations and a full sushi bar — but the crowd was a bit thinner and tamer than at other, more raucous soirees.
Adrien Brody, who didn’t attend or even watch the award show Sunday night, might have been the most pumped up guest at the NBC-Universal affair. He came out to support not his acting cohorts, but party co-sponsor Chrysler, for whom he’d just directed a 60-second TV commercial. The spot, his directorial debut, played for the first time during the Globes show. “I’m a true car lover,” he said, yelling over a booming hip-hop mash-up. “My love of cars began as early as my love of acting. Both preceded my driver’s license!”
Also spotted at the NBC party: “The Kids Are All Right” director Lisa Cholodenko, plus Mark Ruffalo, Warren Beatty, Robert Pattinson, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, who vamped and blew kisses to an endless barrage of flashes and a TV camera trailing her.
On another rooftop, at the Sony party, Trent Reznor cradled his new trophy for film score for “The Social Network.” As he watched the revelers, he seemed genuinely happy — not necessarily the natural state for the sonic auteur behind the harrowing music of Nine Inch Nails.
“I feel spoiled by this whole thing. It was so smooth; really, there was hard work, but there really was never moments of desperation, creatively, where we were looking for ideas or approaches,” Reznor said of his first major scoring project for a feature film.
InStyle threw a truly fashion-forward party. Anne Hathaway made a stunning show in her amber Armani number, leaning back in a private booth so casually that you’d have thought she was in jeans. The upcoming Academy Awards host lounged amid the likes of “Inception” director Christopher Nolan, Malin Akerman, “Desperate Housewives” diva Vanessa Williams and Molly Sims.
Pregnant ladies Natalie Portman and Jane Krakowski crossed paths there too, both chatting with InStyle magazine editor Ariel Foxman before heading to their respective studio parties. “Black Swan” beauty Mila Kunis floated in and immediately hit the bar — for java — while deep in conversation with “The Town” star Jeremy Renner.
Also seen there: Tilda Swinton and W magazine editor Lynn Hirschberg, Lea Michele of “Glee” with costar Amber Riley and “True Grit” star Hailee Steinfeld.
The after-party of the night, however, was the Weinstein- Relativity Media event. Perhaps lured by the combined chutzpah of execs Harvey Weinstein and Ryan Kavanaugh, it seemed that few Golden Globe awards partiers could resist a stop at the Beverly Hilton’s Bar210, where the party was held. The massive effort counted two long rooms to party in, both decked out with generous club booths and stationary buffets and bars to keep A-listers satiated.
Kidman was an early arrival, chatting for a while in a high-profile part of the room before grabbing husband Keith Urban’s hand and pulling him along behind her out a back exit. Ryan Gosling first hung with friends outdoors, tie gone and collar unbuttoned, doing a few dance moves to a mix featuring the voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger and grooving to Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer.”
Firth graciously accepted congratulations for his lead actor-drama win while outside, “The King’s Speech” director Tom Hooper listened attentively to Julia Stiles telling him about her upcoming gig on Broadway in Neil LaBute’s “Fat Pig.”
Matt Damon greeted friends and fans, including Bruce Willis. Across the way was producer Brian Grazer and director Quentin Tarantino. Not far from them, Marc Anthony was the perfect escort for wife and presenter Jennifer Lopez. Douglas and Zeta-Jones chatted with Weinstein and Kavanaugh.
Also spotted: Ryan Seacrest and girlfriend Julianne Hough, Eva Longoria, Kevin Bacon and wife Kyra Sedgwick, Chris Hemsworth, Olivia Wilde, Nicky Hilton, Ryan Phillippe, Jon Voight and KISS frontman Gene Simmons.
Meanwhile, with jacket off and still a bit sweaty from the show, Gervais enjoyed backslaps at the HBO party, where he sat with “Broadway Empire” winner Buscemi. He said that he didn’t think twice about any of his gags Sunday night, but that he would go out of his way to soften the blows during follow-up chats with some of his celebrity targets.
“I hope everyone took it well,” he said. “This is the time where I go around to them and say, ‘You do know I love you, right?’ ”
Times staff writers Geoff Boucher, Amy Kaufman, Steven Zeitchik and Christie D’Zurilla contributed to this report.
