“Shall we talk about the men?   They looked wonderful.  I assure you that Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin didn’t have an easy time with hosting and the jokes they wanted to play with.  When I hosted the Emmys, the elders warned me with, ‘You can’t say that!’” Our chief of fashion police, Joan Rivers, is assessing the Super Bowl of Cinema, the 82nd Oscarcast which kicked in with more viewers (41.3 million) than last year’s (36.3 million).    Proving, once again, that a blockbuster film like Jim Cameron’s Avatar can be counted on to draw legions of fans, as Titanic did in 1998 when the Oscars attracted 55 million viewers.  Why Avatar was bypassed for Best Picture and Best Director will be discussed by film buffs until death do us part.

Every Oscar season, the curious wonder how the statuette got its name.  “He looks like my Uncle Oscar,” was the reaction from Margaret Herrick who in 193l was the librarian for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and our Hollywood cognoscenti believe this is the most dependable of the random stories.

“No wonder we have a full house tonight … it’s the magic of filmmaking, and the magic of a guy named Clint Eastwood,” announced Terry Semel, former Chair and CEO of Warner Bros. at the Los Angeles Museum of Art, where Clint was being honored.   Terry co-chairs LACMA’s board of trustees, and promises there will be more not-to-be-missed evenings about film that will become an integral part of the museum.   The LACMA film department, under the expert aegis of Ian Birnie, was about to be axed by museum director Michael Govan due to budgetary concerns, but protests (we were among the protesters) kept it on life support.  Ian created 91 events last year on a “peanuts” budget of $50,000.  Unbelievable!   Terry Semel jumped to the rescue, and recently organized a sold-out tribute for Martin Scorsese, with Steven Spielberg likely to be the next honoree.

Sarah Jessica Parker as creative director?  Well, yes.  Chosen to head the team of the Halston design empire, updating vintage pieces for contemporary lifestyles.    And Julia Roberts is now dubbed as the Lady of Lancome by WWD, a global ambassador for the L’Oreal brand, telling reporters in Paris, “I have to stand up straighter, and wash my face more.  Isn’t this every girl’s dream … to be 42, have three kids – two are twins -- and be a working mom.  Says a lot about Lancome and what it stands for.”

Queen of the Hop she was at the 16th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, and Betty White rewarded the crowd at the Shrine Auditorium with the best acceptance speech when she was honored with their Lifetime Achievement Award.  She should give lessons.

Honored with tumultuous standing ovations for her six-decade career, Queen Betty, who’s of German and Greek ancestry and graduated from Beverly Hills High, sighed that with so much attention she “may not be fit to live with these next few years.”  Funny and wickedly clever, describing herself as an “old broad,” she made no bones about being 88 years old.

Welcome to our New Year of Hollywood’s “les girls” that you should know.  Who are they?  Amy Adams stars with Matthew Goode in the romantic comedy Leap Year.   Anna Kendrick assists George Clooney in his employee-firing squad in Up in the Air.   Rachel McAdams appears as the adventuress Irene Adler in Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law.    Also welcoming 2010 are starlets  Lily Collins, Selena Gomez, Demi Novato, Vanessa Hudgens. 

Nominated for the Golden Globe and the Oscars, Amy Lou Adams was born in Vicenza, Italy, the town famed for architect Andrea Palladio’s palatial Italian Renaissance villas.  She was the fourth of seven children for Kathryn and Richard Adams.   An army brat, Amy and the family traveled wherever her serviceman dad was assigned.  He, too, had been bitten by the showbusiness bug, and moonlighted singing professionally in restaurants, while mom was a body builder.

Buzz is building about Jeff Bridges’ memorable performance as Bad Blake, the down-at-his-heels, honky tonk, boozer country singer in Crazy Heart.  Jeff says that he was inspired by the music of Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and Bob Dylan, and prepped for the role with six months of jam sessions.  Even insiders who didn’t cotton to the film applaud Jeff’s portrayal, and believe it’s time for Jeff to be honored with a Best Actor Oscar.   “His body of work stands tall,” is an enthusiastic assessment, many recalling that Jeff’s been acting since age 13, appearing with his dad Lloyd Bridges.   Jeff’s acclaimed roles date back to the 1971 classic The Last Picture Show, which garnered him an Oscar nomination, followed by others (Clint Eastwood’s 1974 Thunderbolt and Lightfoot; the 1986 Starman; and 2000’s The Contender).

Asked how he got into the character of Nine’s Guido Contini, the Italian director suffering a midlife crisis in creating his ninth movie, Italia, about “a myth, a woman, a dream,” Daniel Day-Lewis cheekily claimed, “Instead of drinking a dry martini, I switched to Negronis.”   (An Italian aperitif, the Negroni’s made with Campari, gin and sweet vermouth, named after Count Camillo Negroni of Florence during the early 1900s when the aristocrat wanted “something stronger in his cocktail,” hence the gin.) 

Billionaire producer and philanthropist David Geffen is a Hollywood superpower everyone should know.   He sat in the honored spot to the left of Michelle Obama during the state dinner that First Lady and President Barack Obama hosted at the White House for India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and wife Gusharan Kaur.   Loyal David had orchestrated a major fundraiser for Obama’s presidential campaign, having mustered $1.3 million at that event, boldly critiquing Mr. Obama’s rival, Hillary Clinton, as “polarizing” to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd during the presidential race.  

Jackie’s back, and the cash registers are ringing.   Who else, but Jackie Collins with her 27th novel, Poor Little Bitch Girl, and its cast of Hollywood’s hump-two-three-four players relentlessly screwing around.  Call her the Empress of the Horn Dog Kingdom, Jackie knows her way around the stretch limos, beds, bathrooms and bordellos of the Who’s Who sex addicts in Lotusland and Manhattan.   Jackie claims she listens to those constant salacious currents in the winds, and to girlfriends and roués about town who bare all, in more ways than one.   When interviewed by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Jackie discovered that the bitch word was banned from their conversation.

The Dazzle Meter crashes during the Grammy Awards weekend with Clive Davis’ Saturday night pre-Grammy party, and this week the crash was spot-on.   Clive, of late, is Sony’s musicmeister, having guided in the past the careers of Alicia Keys, Whitney Houston, Harry Connick Jr., among others, and early on signing Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Carlos Santana, Billy Joel, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Pink Floyd.   A genius in nurturing undiscovered talent, Clive’s is a golden ear.

Los Angeles couples and singles break up and make up from the pressures and expectations in the not-to-be-missed Valentine’s Day with its all-star ensemble cast.  Directed by Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman), the romantic comedy was written and storied by Katherine Fugate, a former child star and grandniece of Barbara Eden.  The film opens  during the Valentine’s Day weekend.

In alphabetical order, the actors include Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Hector Elizondo, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifah.

Holidays, and our Hollywood Who’s Who jet far and away with private planes or burn up the road with Porsches and Ferraris for their favorite getaways.  Partying in Aspen were Kate Hudson, LeAnn Rimes, Eddie Cibrian, Zac Efron, Seal and Heidi Klum.  The ski slopes of Vail welcomed AEG’s Bernadette and Tim Leiwecke.  Miami’s night life attracted Lady Gaga, Jamie Foxx, New Moon’s Kellan Lutz.  Sunning and surfing in Hawaii were producers Brad Krevoy and Steve Stabler with their families, and Owen Wilson with friends. 

“If we make any money from this film, maybe we’ll think about a sequel.”  That was Avatar creator Jim Cameron talking, surrounded by a circle of chattering admirers after Fox’s posh premiere of his phenomenal film.  The scenesters wanted to know what the word avatar means, with Jim informing that it’s the reincarnation of a deity into flesh and blood.   As we noted in our Courier column last week, Avatar delivers a shock-and-awe breakthrough in technology that’s destined to influence movies for years to come.

Clint Eastwood’s Invictus, which translates as “undefeated,” stars Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, captain of the South African Springboks.  We’re pleased to report it’s a friendly family affair, with original music by son Kyle Eastwood, and son Scott Eastwood cast as one of the Springboks, the rugby team of Afrikaner players who won the 1995 World Cup Final. This became the turning point in healing the wounds of South Africa’s apartheid crisis.   Chosen from 500 rugby players who auditioned, Scott, 23, plays Joel Stransky, who was responsible for all of the points scored by the team.   “He got knocked around a lot,” muses Clint.

Pretty Young Things paraded and posed with hands on hips in their borrowed finery for the paparazzi along the red carpet during the Museum of Contemporary Art’s 30th anniversary fannybumper in downtown Los Angeles.  You don’t believe for a minute, do you, that these beauties wear their own gowns to these red carpet rodeos?  Thank you, Signore Armani and Signora Versace, Signore Dolce and Signore Gabbana, and so many other brand-name designers for this generosity.  Nor are our luxury jewelers left behind.

The gala premiered the exhibition of 300 works from 200 artists in the museum’s collection of 6,000, raising $4 million.  Drinking from the cup of culture  were Eva Mendes, Gwen Stefani in torture-chamber footwear, Carey Mulligan, Marisa Tomei, Jessica Alba, Kate Beckinsale, Zoe Saldana soon to be seen in James Cameron’s long-awaited Avatar, Neil Patrick Harris with David Burtka, Christina Ricci, stylist Rachel Zoe, Rose McGowan, Kate Bosworth, Chloe Sevigny, Elizabeth Hendrickson.   Where was our go-everywhere Sharon Stone?