Governors Ball: Even Leo takes selfies
What happened after Spotlight triumphed over the likes of The
Revenant and The Big Short to win best picture? The party circuit! USA TODAY’s Andrea Mandell shares major moments from inside the swanky Governors Ball, where more than 1,500 attendees sipped bubbly and snacked on spicy tuna tartare, baked potatoes with caviar, truffled mac & cheese and Wagyu short ribs.
9:35 P.M. The star-spotting inside the glitzy bash is intense. There’s Charlotte Rampling, drinking a glass of red wine with friends. In another corner, Common sips Champagne and then gets up to greet motion picture academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs.
9:45 Alicia Vikander is in the back of the ballroom at the engraver’s station, inspecting her nameplate before it’s affixed to her golden Oscar. “This is officially mine!” she says, grasping the statuette once her name is firmly in place. Where will she keep it? “I’m going to figure that out.”
10:04 Vice President Biden enters the bash from a side entrance (right by the seafood bar overflowing with lobster and shrimp, to be exact). A crowd follows him as he navigates the party.
10:21 Brie Larson throws an arm around her boyfriend, Alex Greenwald, as she watches her Oscar get engraved. On their way out, he sweetly carries the train of her Gucci dress. #keeper
10:29 In the middle of the party, Wolfgang Puck takes a selfie with The Revenant director Alejandro González Iñárritu (and his shiny Oscar). He’s not alone: Moments before, Steven Spielberg took a selfie with Leonardo DiCaprio. This crowd is all about DiCaprio, orbiting the smiling star like the sun. But this sun soon sets: DiCaprio is on his way out the door with pal Tobey Maguire.
10:31 Room star (and scene-stealer-at-large) Jacob Tremblay exits the party, hugging guests goodbye as he trails out holding Mom’s hand. Aw.
10:35 Even though Iñárritu went through these motions just last year (when won for directing Birdman), drink in hand, he’s still entranced watching the engravers attach his nameplate to his Oscar. “This brochure is how to clean it,” he says, sharing a pamphlet with his wife. Does he have a trophy room at this point? Iñárritu just laughs.
10:39 Andra Day follows up her stellar Grammys turn by hitting the Governors Ball stage to sing a cover of Marvin Gaye’s Let’s
Get It On.
10:42 The Spotlight crew collides with Bridge of Spies best-supporting-actor winner Mark Rylance (in his fedora) at the engraving station. “I’m so glad you won,” Rylance tells
Spotlight director Tom McCarthy. “It’s a wonderful film.”
11:15 The bash begins to quiet as nominees fan out to other parties across town. Until next year!