There was little mention of it in official coverage, but the impact of the cold front that passed over LA during Oscar weekend cannot be exaggerated.
From Oscar Thursday to Sunday, half-hourly weather reports brought news of a wardrobe-threatening storm that knocked the Hollywood crowd for six.
“I may as well be in Shepherd’s Bush,” complained one British casting director, dressed in skimpy Zac Posen at Soho House West Hollywood’s pre-Oscar roof-garden party on the Thursday, attended by Javier Bardem, Leo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence.
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The expat hot spot kept the retractable roof closed, but it was still psychologically tricky.
On Sunday, when the Oscar host James Franco left town instead of showing up at his own afterparty at the Supper Club (he sent Mitz, his grandma), nobody was surprised.
Least of all our friend Katie, who had come down with a chill and been advised by her pedicurist to “get a facial”.
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When is a reasonable time to get out of bed on a weekday?
There was a just-audible sigh of relief around Wilton’s Music Hall, in east London, when the handbag superstar Anya Hindmarch, hosting an evening for Style readers, admitted to staying sometimes under the duvet until gone 9am.
“I find it impossible to get up,” said Anya, whose business is said to be worth £20m. “I can’t do it until the kids jump on me. And then I get my husband to drive me to work. We’re never in before 9.30am. Do you think that’s okay? All I can say is, I have some of my best design ideas in my sleep.” As do we all.
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Public libraries are having a moment. The British, London, Bodleian and Shepton Mallet libraries are just four attracting more than the usual quotient of celebrities and beautiful people.
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“Natascha McElhone is in here almost every day,” said one regular of the London. “And last Wednesday, a stunning flame-haired woman with beautiful shoes and an amazing bag spent eight hours in the reading room.”
It’s bluestockings out, glamazons in — or is it the other way around?
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High fashion to the rescue. At a party following a gala screening of the hot new film Norwegian Wood, at the Pan-Asian Film Festival, we found its lead actress, Rinko Kikuchi, standing shyly in the corner.
Rinko, a muse of Karl Lagerfeld, was wearing a Chanel tweed coat and a pair of sugary 5in-high gold heels.
“Why do you always wear Chanel?” we asked. “I feel so scared,” she whispered. “When I wear Chanel, it makes me stand up and trust myself.”
We didn’t want to think about how she’d manage in Primark.
