Lady Gaga arrived at the Weinstein Co. annual night-before-the-Oscars dinner just as most guests were leaving, past 11 p.m. But she wasn’t too late to reinvigorate the party at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills.
After greeting host Harvey Weinstein, Gaga jumped into a 10-minute conversation with fellow songstress Lana Del Rey (who could be heard mouthing “that’s great” repeatedly) as photographers swarmed the pair of divas.
Neither performed on Saturday night, but there were plenty of other song and dance routines served over the filet mignon dinner, emceed by Weinstein and Weinstein Co. COO David Glasser. Weinstein introduced “Dancing With the Stars” choreographer Derek Hough, who performed two numbers from the company’s upcoming “Singin’ in the Rain” musical, which will open on Broadway in January.
Bryan Cranston, who is in the Oscar race this year for “Trumbo” and serves as a producer on another Weinstein-produced musical,“Finding Neverland,” spoke of how much he loved the tuner about Peter Pan creator J.M. Barrie when he saw it prior to its Broadway bow, adding that it made him weep. He turned the mic over to singer Zendaya who brought the house down by performing the show’s title tune.
Diane Warren belted out her Oscar-nominated song “Til it Happens to You” from the documentary “The Hunting Ground,” distributed by the Weinstein Co.’s Radius. This marks Warren’s eighth Academy Award nomination, with no wins, but Sunday should solve that. She’s considered the favorite in the best song category along with her co-writer, Lady Gaga.
Another Oscars recidivist in the house was prolific Italian composer Ennio Morricone, who is up for an Academy Award for the score of Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight.” Although the 87-year-old Morricone has received six Oscar noms over his long career, he’s yet to win. Weinstein predicted that streak was about to end. “If Ennio doesn’t win,” Harvey joked, “Quentin and I are going to be in the witness protection program in Naples.”
Other guests at the dinner included tennis champ Roger Federer (who took countless selfies with fans), John Legend and Christy Teigen, Todd Haynes, “Carol” producers Christine Vachon and Elizabeth Karlsen, Nick Jonas (who was chatting with Cranston), Matthew Morrison, Andie MacDowell and Christoph Waltz.
(Pictured: Lady Gaga embraces Lana Del Rey)
