With Hurricane Oscar finally leaving Los Angeles, it's time for a brief dispatch from the center of the storm. The weekend kicked into high gear on Saturday night with the Audi-sponsored Miramax party for its nominees -- best pic No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Gone Baby Gone -- at the new Soho House on the Sunset Strip. As a few hundred guests, including Russell Simmons, Julian Schnabel, Stephen Gaghan, and literary ghost Cormac McCarthy, sprawled on pillows bearing stills from the nominated films, Javier Bardem led Penelope Cruz around the room, occasionally stepping out on the balcony overlooking West Hollywood to smoke and steal kisses like teenagers. For Disney CEO Bob Iger -- whose Pixar and Miramax divisions helped reel in the company's 31 nominations -- the party was a well-deserved victory lap, and I asked him if he thought the Academy acclaim might help silence those occasionally pesky critics of the Mouse House. "Yes," he said with a smile, "And that's always a good thing."

Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz (Photo: Getty)

Well after midnight I decamped for a party at ex-Microsoft poobah Paul Allen's house tucked way up in Beverly Hills. The fortress-like manse (which I'll expand on -- along with more Oscarama -- in our May issue) looked kind of like a James Bond villain's lair... reimagined by Lindsay Lohan. Which is appropriate given her furtive appearance around 3 a.m. with media mogul spawn Courtenay Semel. True to form, our 55-year-old billionaire host took the stage with his guitar and back-up band -- not to mention Courtney Love for a couple songs -- to entertain the likes of Josh Hartnett, Jennifer Aniston, and P. Diddy into the wee hours.

Marion Cotillard (Photo: Getty)

Yesterday's festivities began even earlier, at In Style's viewing party at STK. It was like the junior prom of the weekend: Huge jars of candy, prizes for the best Oscar poolers, a crowd that included Leighton Meester, Benjamin McKenzie, and Karolina Kurkova, and an eruption of cheers when Diablo Cody won best original screenplay for Juno. Before long it was time for Elton John's AIDS Foundation benefit at the Pacific Design Center, the Antony Todd-curated gala that supplanted Vanity Fair this year as the most slippery ticket in town. While I don't have the attention span to relay everyone I saw, here's a colorful cross section: Marion Cotillard, clinging endearingly to her best actress statue, Sean Penn and Petra Nemcová, Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, Sharon Stone, Rupert Murdoch, Heidi Klum, Larry King, and Prince, who were all treated to roof-raising performances by Sir Elton (holla "Tiny Dancer"!), Mary J. Blige, and Jake Shears. Afterward, pretty much everyone who knew how to use text messaging decamped for Prince's house in Beverly Hills, and as of 4 a.m. this morning, His Purpleness was still cooking breakfast in his kitchen for the hundreds of pie-eyed revelers who refused to acknowledge Monday. -- HUDSON MORGAN

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