Nobody knows the Oscar Party

Bryan Cranston, Lou Gossett Jr., Harry Hamlin, Lou Diamond Phillips, Patrick Warburton, Dan Lauria, Samm Levine and Alex Trebek were sitting on a large oval table in the corner of the dining room of a Westside condo on a recent Wednesday night, playing poker seven cards open.

Your host, Norby Walters, barefoot and pants with a short-sleeved shirt cabin, the top buttons fastened to reveal a scar from heart surgery. Mr. Walters, 83, was playing but also worry about the time.

play (low stakes, which keeps the mood of conviviality) at 10:30, and tonight, he and his wife, Irene, Mr. Cranston is presented with a cake for his Best Actor nomination was cut in "Trumbo".

Around 10, the game stopped and everyone sang "Happy nomination to you." Mr. Cranston, embarrassed, began making an acceptance speech imitation. "You know, when I was a kid ..." Phillips repeated a joke, a little spicy, Harvey Korman used to tell in the game. Mr. Walters Mr. Cranston asked if he would like a glass of milk.

On Sunday, Mr. Walters will host another meeting: a party of the annual Oscar vision he called Night of 100 Stars.

Let's get this out of the way: Night of 100 Stars (estimates vary) is not such a hot ticket as the party of Graydon Carter to Vanity Fair (outside the Annenberg Wallis Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills) or Elton John with InStyle at the Pacific Design Center.

Mr. Walters case occupies the great hall international dance at the Beverly Hilton (after years in the Crystal Ballroom at the Beverly Hills Hotel), and the party publicist Edward Lozzi, is this year confirmed Vince Vaughn, Rumer Willis and Cloris Leachman.

It is true that the Night of 100 Stars lacks opportunities to promote products that have become overall purpose Oscar night. Head of subscriber and the main sponsor of the event is not an agent of Hollywood power but Peter Nygard, a Canadian retail magnate born in Finland and Playboy aging has lately been at war with a billionaire hedge fund on their neighboring mansions in Bahamas.

Mr. Nygard is one of the most extravagant figures strutting a red carpet Oscar tends also to present royalties (Jon Voight, Shirley Jones, Martin Landau), stalwart actor, the former sitcom parents (Alan Thicke), an gadfly civil rights lawyer (Gloria Allred), a man who went to the moon (Buzz Aldrin), and qualified eye candy - because a party without beautiful women is a failure, said Mr. Lozzi.

Mr. Walters not only announces his Oscar party, now in its 26th year as the longest running one in the city, but also the most accessible: civilians intruders willing to spend $ 1,000 for a seat at the table and both and $ 25,000 for a VIP table package. "Can not you enter the Vanity Fair party unless you're Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks or Tom Mix," he said pragmatically.

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