Memo to Laura: more free booze!

After what many critics have dubbed the most boring Oscars in Hollywood history, here's a look at an old Independent Spirit Awards moment posted on TermiteArt.com. After watching this video, I'm with Matt Singer, who posted this video of Alley Sheedy going nutso accepting an award back in 1999. More free booze. Seriously. As soon as the televised Oscar show started, the gratis bubbly spicket turned off. Guests who left the Kodak Theatre during the three hour broadcast for a stroll to the bar or a trip to the bathroom, found only a cash bar. Who keeps cash in their tux? Keep the booze flowing freely and I guarantee a better show and a happier audience.

Photo Credits: J. Scuilli / WireImage

Them's fighting videos! Oscar.com and YouTube are tussling over clips posted on the site of Ellen DeGeneres'  monologue and Will Ferrell's musical act, which were the most viewed clips on the site. Why is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences POed? It's not about competition. It's a matter of pride. Oscar official Ric Robertson told Variety that the Academy is only trying "to help manage the value of our telecast and our brand." Yeah, right. Tell that to all the people who didn't watch Sunday night or the ones fell asleep during it.

Photo Credits: At least Ellen made it onto YouTube. Did anyone put up the dreadful Dreamgirls performance?
Eric Caulfield/WireImage

"Borat" star Ken Davitian may have been too busy hugging models to eat at the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition splash/bash on Feb 14. But anyone attending who did more than sip bubbly and air kiss has been advised by the L.A. County Public Health Department  to "seek treatment" against Hep A, the contagious liver damaging virus by Feb 28. Which is today! Gosh, thanks for the quick notice, guys. The department sent out a report yesterday which was swiftly circulated throughout the entertainment industry. Seems a food worker employed by Wolfgang Puck, who catered the event, was diagnosed with the virus. So I guess SI guests that included members of Gnarls Barkley, Aerosmith, Kenny Chesney and Kayne West may be getting their gamma globulin shots today. I'm not too worried about Beyonce or the other SI swimsuit models. Models and actresses rarely eat at parties I've attended. Far more alarming is that there is no word on what other Puck catered events the infected catering staffer worked at.  There were a lot of fancy pre-Oscar parties - big and small - held over the last two weeks. TMZ is reporting that George Lucas, John Landis and Steve Wozniak were at another Puck catered event, the Visual Effects Society's awards on Feb 11 at the Kodak Ballroom. Since Puck does so many starry soirees, could an Oscar nominee have been infected? Better safe than sorry. For information on where to get a gamma globulin shot, keep reading. But did I mention this alarming faecal report from  ABC.com? Does this mean, like something out of "Fast Food Nation," that there was "shit in the sushi?"   

Photo Credits: Ken Davitian helps himself to seconds at the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit party. Let's hope he was too distracted by the pretty models to eat.
J. Scuilli?WireImage

The Health Department issued a statement this evening to all those who attended  the "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit edition party at the Pacific Design Center on Feb 14 (and my journalist/husband Joel Stratte-McClure was one of them) that they may have been exposed to Hepatitis A. Anyone who consumed anything raw at the party (can you say sushi) may be infected and are advised to have a immune globulin shot by tomorrow. Gosh,  Beyonce and Leonardo DiCaprio's newest squeeze Israel-born Bar Refaeli must be so annoyed!
Seems a Wolfgang Puck employee was just diagnosed with acute Hep A.  Puck's employee worked from Feb 1 to Feb 20, and put possibly hundreds of Hollywood's hottest at risk. You would think there would be a health screening for celebrity food preparers/servers, wouldn't you? Let's just hope this person didn't work at Cut, where A-listers, movers and shakers regularly dine on overpriced steaks or serve food at the Academy Awards Governors Ball on Sunday night.
Oh, wait. The alert says that "Attendees at the Academy Awards Governors Ball, also catered by Puck, are not at risk of contracting hepatitis A," according to public health officials. Thank heavens! This was starting to feel like an episode of "24." Where's Jack Bauer when you need him?

Photo Credit: Care for some Hep A? Compliments of the House of Puck
Lester Cohen/WireImage

"The Devil Wears Prada" nominee Meryl Streep did wear Prada to the Oscars. But not quite the way some style sneers expected. Most found Meryl's Oscar get-up - a black Prada coat cinched by a green scarf over a black satin skirt with an enormous ornate coral and silver necklace  -  a slap in the face to the fashion forces she so aptly mocked in the film.

Meryl doesn't give a hoot about haute couture. No, no. That's not a question. But that's what I like about her. I applaud her Global Hippie Chic ensemble. Okay, it's a little crunchy granola, might have looked better with Birkenstocks and may not make the Oscar fashion history books. But at least she was comfortable and - unlike Cameron Diaz or other fashion frivolous femmes I could name  -  she didn't have to change clothes to attend Graydon Carter's Vanity Fair after party.

Want to vent your spleen on gowns featured in the Oscar Red Carpet Rewind Gallery? Thought so. Just click here to review it and then post your thoughts, comments, critiques on this blog item. <>

Photo Credit: Here's Earth Mother Meryl with her lovely daughter. I'd rather see Meryl in something she's comfortable in than a silly sheer, frothy frock that doesn't suit her personality. She don't need no stinkin' stylists!
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.

Cover Credit: Meryl and Mary J. Blige kick back at the VF Bash. And who looks more comfortable? I rest my case.
Eric Charbonneau/WireImage

Who scored and who snored on the Oscar red carpet?  Take a look at some of the gorgeous dresses worn by Tinseltown's top actresses and some, not so much, in The Envelope's Red Carpet Rewind photo gallery. Click here. And if you agree/disagree or simply want to put your 10 cents in (inflation), post a comment on this blog item. I'll compile all the reader comments (profanity excluded) on Styles and Scenes on Wednesday. C'mon. Tell the world what you think of this season's Oscar-going gowns.
And for the record. I'm really glad Celine Dion's vintage James Galanos gown from Lily et Cie was securely fastened with double stick tape. It's a lovely color - goes great with her auburn hair - but I think I speak for many who don't want to witness a Celine Dion wardrobe malfunction.   

Forget that nonsense about Graydon Carter's Vanity Fair party being over. Last night's bash was bigger and  hotter than ever. And once again, it felt like a galactic collision of celebrity universes from the worlds of politics, books, music, art, photography, fashion, film and TV.

I dutifully arrived at the VF party for my appointed time slot of 11:30 and was told "NO notebook, NO tape recorder and DON'T make us come in there and find you" - before being allowed inside for half an hour to get party "color."

Entering the party felt like being sucked into a vortex of fabulousness and I was swiftly trapped in a salmon spawn of celebrities, all frantically wiggling their way through Morton's, struggling to find a few inches to stand in, sit on or just get outside to the smoking area (cough, cough) and into huge pink-lit tent in the back. Trust me, you rub way more than elbows with stars at a VF party. It's more like doing a provocative public bump-and-grind. And the music is very good, but very loud. You can't hear yourself speak, much less anyone else. So the tape recorder wouldn't have helped. I think celebrities' ears must be more attuned to congratulatory conversations, like dogs that can hear certain decibles that humans can't. All I know is what I saw...

The new relaxed living room look of this year's Governors Ball made it even harder to locate the darn stars. Historically, studios had assigned tables and seated service so you (you being either a journalist or an invited guest) could wander around and watch all the giddy winners and game-faced losers, who generally stayed put while well-wishers came to them. Not last night. Now the stars were doing the all wandering, locating and congratulating each other, hugging, back-slapping, cheek-kissing, hand-shaking. And these people are fast! If not for a glint of gold and a flash of strobe across the room, I might have missed seeing big winners like Jennifer Hudson, Martin Scorsese, Helen Mirren, Alan Arkin, and Forest Whitaker meandering around the Kodak Ballroom, decked out with sprawling sofas, patios and trellised gardens that made the room feel like a pristine Tuscan restaurant.

Here's some of what I saw: