All images by David X Prutting for BFA/NYC

Over the past few years, W Magazine’s annual Audi and Dom Perignon-sponsored pre-Golden Globes celebration, at Chateau Marmont, has become the hottest invitation, during a week of parties, in a town that’s known for partying.  And yours truly was soaking in it, Madge!

Set in the sixth-floor penthouse of André Balazs’ legendary Chateau Marmont; this year, the team at W decided to expand and took-over the entire sixth floor.  This was wonderful, as the penthouse’s terrace became a bit congested at times.  And it was these times that became some of the evening’s most memorable.

For instance, while sitting in one of the rooms at the end of the hall, I was just catching my breath, and minding my own business, when four revelers came in, and joined me.  After a couple of minutes, one of the women decided that she knew me.  It was the lovely actress, Kelly Preston, and I told her that we’d met some years ago, in Las Vegas, at one of Keep Memory Alive’s Power of Love galas.  The funny thing is that Preston, along with pal Colleen Camp (owner of LA’s most epic Rolodex), and their two friends (one of whom was on a cleanse) were convinced that they’d just entered my hotel room, and I’d simply left the door open, for one and all to enter.  It took me some twenty minutes to convince them that it wasn’t actually my room; and when they ran into me, the following night, at the Town & Country party at billionaire Ron Burkle’s famed estate, Greenacres (aka the Harold Lloyd estate), they were still laughing about it!  A very cool couple of ladies.

Another of the stunning guests who was convinced she knew me (and did) was Angela Lindvall, who insisted, upon our introduction, that we’d met a long time ago.  Who am I to argue with such a beauty?  Turns out, she was right, and we’d been introduced by Amy Sacco, at Bungalow 8, back in the day.

I had a lovely chat with the hilarious and charming Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), under a heat lamp, with her equally funny husband, Dan Gregor (who’s a writer on her show).  As you probably know, by now, Bloom would go on to win the Globe for “Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy” on Sunday night.

Co-hosts, Stefano Tonchi (Editor, W Magazine), Lynn Hirschberg (Editor at Large, W Magazine), and Balazs, held court among the oversized portraits by Peter Lindbergh, over a roster of guests that included power-brokers Kevin Huvane and Hylda Queally (CAA), Carter Cohn (ICM), and Camp; models Chanel Iman, Lindvall, Suki Waterhouse, Caroline Vreeland, and Amber Valletta (whom I chatted-up about her chain-link dress by J.W. Anderson); and such Hollywood types as Quentin Tarantino, Jennifer Jason Leigh (who told me her hair-inspiration would always be less Farah Fawcett, and more Veronica Lake), Cate Blanchett, Alicia Vikander, Michelle Monaghan, Christoph Waltz, Aziz Ansari, Kristen Wiig, Rami Malek, Paul Dano, Kirsten Dunst, Tayler Lautner, Gerard Butler, Sofia Coppola, Gelila Assefa-Puck, Rooney Mara, Dree Hemingway, Brie Larson, Elizabeth Banks, Saoirse Ronan, and the stunning Maika Monroe (who let me photograph her, in a sultry pose, in one of the party’s back rooms).

But the highlight of my night was après (and isn’t it always?) when, over a late-supper on Chateau’s patio; I befriended producer Francesca Silvestri, whose film Tangerine (about transsexual sex-workers) is beyond buzzworthy, and was shot entirely on a trio of iPhone 5s smartphones!  Last week, Tangerine was screened for both Caitlyn Jenner and President Obama (separately), and is likely to clean-up at next month’s Film Independent Spirit Awards, where it’s received noms for Best Feature, Best Director (Sean Baker), Best Female Lead (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez), and Best Supporting Female (Mya Taylor).  Francesca and The Insider’s Louis Aguirre were my dates the next night, for the Town & Country affair, but more on that, soon!

W’s Annual Pre-Golden Globes Celebration
Chateau Marmont, Hollywood
Click HERE for info

Get into it!
#WxDP