Jamie Foxx, fresh from painful disc surgery, was the last and arguably best guest to arrive at Harvey Weinstein’s pre-Critics Choice Award party at the Chateau Marmont. The shindig, designed to celebrate The Weinstein Company’s many nominees for the Critics Choice and Golden Globe Awards, was the kind where famous faces kept pouring in and out of the Chateau.
Inside: Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, the cast and director of “The Artist,” and so on. Just at the door I ran into Hollywood vets like Joe Bologna and Renee Taylor. Then in the same breath came young Leven Rambin, who’s in the upcoming “Hunger Games,” past Oscar nominee Sally Kirkland, Andy Serkis of “Hobbit” and “Apes” fame, and a cascade of names like Bradley Cooper, Lindsay Lohan, Guy Pearce, Andie McDowell, Jane Lynch, Jennifer Coolidge, Kyle Machlachlan, Rose McGowan– well you get the idea. Elizabeth McGovern even brought in a group from “Downton Abbey.”
Jamie- sporting a scraggly goatee– told me all about his recent surgery on the C5 disc–yikes. He said, “My arm didn’t even move, it was dangling.” He demonstrated his pre-surgery condition. Luckily, doctors have repaired him. Foxx is shooting Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained.” He told me, “This movie will be historic. People will be talking about in 20 years.” We also reminisced about his first ever music appearance years ago to Clive Davis’s famous pre Grammy dinner. Foxx was so awesome that Davis signed him. Foxx became a music star soon after.
“That was my favorite thing to do,” he said, and added he’d return if Davis asked him. (Clive, that’s a hint.)
And believe it or not–the crowd started heading home around midnight. Most everyone will be at the Critics Choice Awards tonight, which you can see on VH-1 live–with Bob Dylan performing a tribute to Martin Scorsese.
