Oscar Week Socialite Gossip with Celebrities and Art Dealers

his 70" Birthday in Palm Beach—and headed straight to Charles Finch's photo exhibition, "The Art of Behind the Scenes," to see rare candid on-set photos of Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Grace Kelly and Ava Gardner. Oscar balloting had closed an hour earlier, and IndieWire's Oscar blogger Anne Thompson announced that a female friend had voted for all the diverse and minority nominees. This first hint of things to come didn’t register as a bell ringer for best picture. Spotted: Jean Pigozzi, Brett Ratner and Paul Haggis. Back at The Sunset Tower Bar, diminutive maitre d' Dmitri Dimitrov slid up to me, cupped his hands in prayer and whispered, "Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper are in the corner booth with Warner Bros. Sue Kroll." They were talking about their remake of "A Star is Born" going into production within the month. At the next table was Ryan Murphy, creator of the multi-award winning FX mini-series "The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” eating with his muse Sarah Paulson, who won countless awards for portraying Marcia Clark. | joked that the Oscar nominated documentary "O.J.: Made in America" from ESPN would win because voters thought both films are the same. Wednesday, February 22nd | met Adam Lindemann and museum director Michael Govan at LACMA’s The Inner Eye: Vision and Transcendence in African Art. Michael and | discussed the struggle to diversify the Academy. He told me that at LACMA he’d hired women, African American and Latino curators years before. Vanity Fair Editor-in-Chief Graydon Carter and Barneys hosted a private dinner for "La La Land" at the Chateau Marmont. Graydon always tries to entertain the winning film. Drinks around the pool were followed by a seated dinner for fifty in a bungalow. Emma Stone brought her mother. Handsome hotelier Andre Balazs darts around. Ryan Gosling stayed home with his girlfriend Eva Mendes and their two baby girls. Emma talked about her next film "Battle of the Sexes." She plays Billie Jean King opposite Steve Carell, an excellent tennis player in real life, as Bobby Riggs. Damien Chazelle came late from a dinner for the nominated directors. The Academy hosts a series of secret dinners during Oscar week for key nominees to keep them away from sponsors who profit from their celebrity. They also want to protect their own sponsor, ABC-TV, with exclusivity and audience surprise. Thursday, February 23rd Larry Gagosian's annual Oscar-week art opening is always a hot ticket. Serious collectors blended in unnoticed among the mere lookers and pretty gallerists quietly pointing out one glorious Joe Bradley painting after another. Each costs a cool million and between 6:00pm and 8:00pm they are all sold. Buyers and Larry's close friends then migrate down the block to Mr. Chow. Elton John and David Furnish, Jonah Hill, Dakota Johnson, Sharon Stone, NBCUniversal's Ron Meyer, Gus Van Sant, Emily Ratajkowski, Dasha Zhukova, artists Alex Israel, Harmony Korine and Dan Colen, rocker Robbie Robertson and Page Six’s lan Mohr dig HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019866