The first person I run into backstage at the Screen Actors Guild Awards is Shailene Woodley (The Descendants). I know folks didn't like her dress (L'Wren Scott) or hair (a low pony) but at the time I thought it all looked cute and refreshing (both definitely looked better up close than on camera). She nodded, I nodded, and we both got to work. Backstage at the Shrine is definitely not a swanky affair, but there is a fun kind of chaos that goes on during the show. The set of twin boys from Boardwalk Empire kept punching each other, Alex Baldwin couldn't help himself from talking politics and Ted Danson reminisced with Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy). "We're still here! Look at us!" Danson said to him with a laugh. Octavia Spencer had someone patting her hair down a bit and Steve Buscemi revealed what he tells people who holler mean things to him on the street because he shot Jimmy (on Boardwalk Empire): "I just apologize. I say I know, I'm sorry." I like that for the cast prizes everyone gets a heavy trophy (what is the base made out of, lead?) and that Octavia Spencer had a killer dress on and told skinny minnies, "if more women ate, they'd be a lot happier."

I wandered into the tented People magazine/Entertainment Industry Foundation after-party next door and it was swinging. Dick Van Dyke entertained folks at the bar, Ed O'Neill filled his plate at the buffet, and the smoking lounge was the spot to be. I followed Owen Wilson back there and spied Kathy Bates ashing daintily into a glass tray and Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Tilda Swinton, and Jonah Hill on a couch along the wall. Some chick got on Hill's lap and was giving him a smooch when I left to get a breath of fresh air. Cough, cough. The party really, really got hoppin'—the low lights and Marlboros in glass bowls helped it along. L'Oreal had make-up artists doing touch-ups in back and I grabbed a Starbucks before hitting Jefferson Ave. When I passed Guy Pearce waiting for his ride, he was pooh-poohing having to do bad television press. Now it's off to the Oscars! Clooney or Dujardin? The Help or The Artist? It's anyone's ballgame.