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On the ground here in Hollywood, living the dream…

Lot of talk about “Top Gun: Maverick,” the long awaited sequel to a movie from the 1980s.

Sources tell me that there is a scene between Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer “that will make you cry,” I was warned. Kilmer has survived throat cancer but cannot speak. Nevertheless, he was included in “Maverick” to replay his character from the original film, “Iceman” aka Lt. Tom Kazansky.

The whole has apparently seen the movie at least a year ago. They’ve since waited and waited for the release thanks to pandemic delays.

I asked about the Lady Gaga theme song that plays in the middle of the movie. In the original “Top Gun,” the big song was “Take My Breath Away,” a record you can’t get away from even now on oldies radio.

Said my spy, a little cryptically: “The song is good, but some of us felt it comes in the wrong place in the movie. By the time it plays, the point it’s supposed to make has already been made.”

Well, I’m up for a Lady Gaga song at any time in the movie, in any movie. So we’ll have to wait and see. “Maverick” will unfurl at the Cannes Film Festival in mid May and open two weeks later in June around the world.

Poor Vanity Fair.

The ailing celebrity magazine hosted two big advertiser parties this week in Hollywood. One was paid for by Lancome, the other by Bacardi.

The parties yielded few recognizable names. Just Kate Beckinsale, Alana Haim, and Diplo. Amanda Seyfried and Jenna Dewan attended one of them.

WireImage has over 1,000 pictures from the parties and no A listers. A lot of B listers, nice people, but nothing like real Stars.

Will it be any different tonight when Vanity Fair hosts a party after the Academy Awards? The magazine has erected a huge edifice on Santa Monica Boulevard and hopes to pull in a crowd like they did in the old days when Graydon Carter was editor.

But that ship has sailed. Most of the Oscar winners will stop by for a photo op and leave. The people who will stick around will be TV stars. The movie stars will go to Elton John, or to private dinners, or to manager Guy Oseary and Madonna’s party.

Some people will go to Jay Z and Beyonce’s party at Chateau Marmont. But Black Hollywood is protesting that party over recent allegations at the hotel. So that should be a lot of fun.

So stay tuned for the aftermath of Vanity Fair. One celebrity who won’t be there will be Lin Manuel Miranda, whose wife tested positive for COVID. The couple is skipping the Oscars altogether, and will be missed.

“The Batman” stood down last night.

On its opening night, “The Lost City” took in $9.5 million and trounced the Caped Crusader in his third week of release.

With previews, the Sandra Bullock-Channing Tatum romantic adventure raked in $11.5 million for an opening night. “The Batman” drew just $5.5 million on Friday bringing its total to a not shabby $317 million.

“The Lost City” is a marketing and casting triumph. As a film, it’s a B+ at best, comfort food at a time when audiences need it badly. Bullock and Tatum are charming, and the story resonates with the whole genre established 40 years ago by “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

But the marketing: the TV commercials of Sandy pulling leeches off the naked backside of Channing, and all the innuendo, etc delivered in junket interviews has worked just enough to get the public’s backsides into seats. And that’s all that matters!

“The Batman” will pick up another $10 million today and tomorrow. But it will have a long slog to $400 million. It’s still a massive success.

I was shocked when I heard Elaine May turned up at the Governor’s Awards, the Oscars version of Lifetime Achievement on Friday night.

She looked great on the New York Times’s Kyle Buchanan’s Twitter feed. She even cracked that she’d been promised “Zelensky” — the president of Ukraine — was going to give her the award. Instead she had to settle for Bill Murray.

My shock was because all day Friday I heard from people in the great director and writer’s camp that she was absolutely not going to the ceremony.

Even though Elaine had gone to Los Angeles, she had nixed the plan to actually attend the Governor’s Awards.

Within seconds of her arrival at the Hollywood and Highland center, I received an email: “Bill Murray persuaded her to go. I don’t know how it happened.” By all accounts, May was the last to arrive and the first to leave. She didn’t walk the red carpet, and didn’t remain long enough to be in a group picture with the other honorees.

Elaine was feted along with Samuel L. Jackson, Danny Glover, and Liv Ullman. The Governor’s Awards are usually held in November, but this year they were delayed because of the Omicron COVID spike.

So congrats to Elaine, and everyone is glad she changed her mind. The 90 year old was comedy partners with Mike Nichols  in the late 50s and early 60s, became a doctor on screenplays, then directed such hits as “The Heartbreak Kid” and “A New Leaf.” Her list of credits is endless. She also won a Tony Award just three years ago for “The Waverly Gallery.”

“They told me Zelenskyy would introduce me…” jokes Elaine May, accepting her honorary Oscar. pic.twitter.com/LFnkDd0efn

— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) March 26, 2022