W Magazine fetes its picks for best performances before Golden Globes
The event: An impressive array of today’s most talented stars packed the penthouse suite at the Chateau Marmont on Thursday, when W Magazine celebrated the upcomiong Golden Globes and February’s movie issue featuring its ideas of the year’s best performances.
The crowd: Editor-in-chief Stefano Tonchi, editor-at-large Lynn Hirschberg and hotelier Andre Balazs co-hosted the invitation-only affair, welcoming actors Amy Adams (“Big Eyes”), Reese Witherspoon (“Wild”), Daniel Oyelowo (“Selma”), Miles Teller (“Whiplash”), Eddie Redmayne (“The Theory of Everything”), Christoph Waltz (“Big Eyes”), Robert Duvall (“The Judge”), Rosamond Pike (“Gone Girl”), Diane Kruger (“The Bridge”), Kate Walsh (“Bad Judge”), Jessica Chastain (“A Most Violent Year”), Sarah Hyland (“Modern Family”), Quvenzhane Wallis (“Annie”); artists Don Bachardy, Catherine Opie, Doug Aitken; models Naomi Campbell and Cara Delevingne; designers Peter Dundas, Laura Mulleavy and Max Azria; burlesque queen Dita Von Teese; and TV personality George Kotsiopoulos, among others.
The scene: Hirschberg called the shindig “a proper party.” No step-and-repeat. No demands on the celebrities. So as a deejay pumped in the sounds, guests fraternized with friends, sipped Dom Perignon and took in the panoramic view of Los Angeles by night.
The conversations: As he posed for photos with “Selma” co-star Carmen Ejogo, Oyelowo said he considered playing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “a heavy burden” but added that he’d spent seven years pursuing the role.
Standing beside a bar, Witherspoon said playing hiker Cheryl Strayed in “Wild” had been difficult, but she had great pride in the film’s success and in giving her daughter and other girls growing up a serious role model.
In another corner, Adams caught up with “Man of Steel” co-star Henry Cavill, while Chastain chatted with friends as they checked out photographer Tim Walker’s “best performance” portraits in the corridor.
Tonchi called Walker’s imaginative portrayals the opposite of last year’s realistic portfolio. “Tim Walker is all about fantasy, artifice and creative images,” Tonchi said of the vibrant images of actors in costumes, accessorized by flowers, hummingbirds, sunhats and other fun props. “Tim loves color and he did something that would bring to life the Los Angeles scene.”
The best performances: “I see hundreds of movies. I see everything and some things just pop for me,” Hirschberg said of selecting “the best.” “I do a mix, choosing some movies that I feel will win awards and others I just think people should see.”
She named Julianne Moore, Marion Cotillard, Miles Teller and Eddie Redmayne as being among her personal favorites. “I think people will remember Miles Teller in ‘Whiplash,’ and Miles Teller will be a big star,” Hirschberg said, and as for Redmayne, she said, “I think this is the year Eddie Redmayne went from being a person everyone loved to becoming a major personage.”
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