On 12.8.12 I attended a truly sublime Silver Linings Playbook party at the Chateau Marmont. A glorious, almost giddy atmosphere. Many big or legendary names all over the place. Festive in the very best sense of that term. You know one reason why it worked so well? There were no goons protecting the stars from the riff-raff. The attitude was like “whatever, man…we’re all riff-raff.” I regret to say that attitude was absent during last night’s pre-Golden Globes Paramount party at the Chateau, although it was a generally pleasant event. There were goons blocking access to the inner gazebo space where Leonardo DiCaprio and Paramount honcho Brad Grey and Nebraska‘s Alexander Payne and June Squibb and Will Forte were sitting. Goons are unwelcome. Goons kill the vibe. But it wasn’t too bad. All party conversations last about two to three minutes, if that. Last night I made it through about 20 or 25 three-minute conversations, and then my spirit collapsed. But I gave it the old college try.

I blew off yesterday afternoon’s Spirit Award thing at the BOA Steakhouse (had to write), and I wasn’t invited to the BAFTA Tea Party or the thing at the Soho House either. Big deal.

(l.) Wolf of Wall Street producer-star Leonardo DiCaprio at BAFTA Tea Pqrty, which I wasn’t invited to (and I don’t care). I did, however, drop by Paramount’s pre-Globes Chateau Marmont party, which Leo attended for maybe 45 minutes; (r.) Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul wearing the dorkiest-looking junior-prom tuxedo I’ve ever seen worn to any North American event. In my book this lends weight to a theory I have that Paul is (a) possibly a bit of an asshole or at least (b) has certain aesthetic convictions that I probably don’t want to know about. I haven’t seen a tuxedo look this awful since Ryan Gosling’s Drive tux in Cannes two and a half years ago.