On the third day of the new year, Hollywood shook off the rust from the two week holiday shutdown and emerged in the desert.
Palm Springs International Film Fest’s Awards Gala gave 10 pre-determined awards to serious awards season contenders at the Palm Springs Convention Center on Saturday night. Those winners, like Reese Witherspoon, J.K. Simmons, Rosamund Pike, “Selma’s” David Oyelowo, and the cast of “The Imitation Game” were already anointed before they headed east. No mystery there.
For the rest of the surprise guests (Brad Pitt, Shirley MacLaine), star surrogates, The Parker’s party scene here’s a ranker of the winners and losers .
Arriving by helicopter, Brad led the crowd of 2,400 as the babyface choral director antidote to J.K. Simmons’ “Whiplash” tyrant. His goal: teach the masses how to pronounce “Selma” lead David Oyelowo’s name. (Answer: “Oh-YELLOW-oh”).
Pitt used soccer chants, call-and-repeat, and Coldplay karaoke to get the crowd on board. He’s also a winner because he got on and off before dinner was even served, and was likely landing back in L.A. before Reese Witherspoon accepted the final award of the night.“You know you’ve broken through when Brad Pitt sings your name,” Oyelowo observed while picking up the Breakthrough Performance Award.
Winner: Robert Duvall
He got the first of two standing ovations on the night. (The other, Shirley MacLaine.)
Loser: Show Producers
Duvall’s long speech had to throw off the schedule. Curious what Robert Duvall read over the holiday break? A Lionel Messi biography.
In addition to Pitt for Oyelowo (and by proxy, his own ”Selma”), Robert Downey Jr. continued to stand up for Duvall (“The Judge”), Steve Carell presented to Julianne Moore (even though the Palm Springs Gala gave no shine to Carell nor “Foxcatcher”), Laura Dern remains tight with Reese Witherspoon (“Wild”), and Michael Keaton came east for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Director of the Year” award.
