This story first appeared in the Jan. 16 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
My husband, Black Swan producer Mike Medavoy, was going to Spain to scout locations for The Promise with Terry George directing, and Sly Stallone was getting ready to head to Philly to start on Rocky reboot Creed, so we decided to stay in town for the holidays and host a small dinner at Hotel Bel-Air. It started in the kitchen with Wolfgang Puck, a close friend for more than 30 years, cooking and feeding us right-off-the-stove appetizers like foie gras pizza with champagne and Negronis. In the kitchen were Al Pacino; Laura Dern, who came from a screening of Wild; Starz CEO Chris Albrecht with wife Montana Coady; Sly and Jennifer Stallone (their own holiday party had Arnold Schwarzenegger with new girlfriend Heather Milligan); Netflix COO Ted Sarandos, who just landed from London, and wife Nicole Avant, who is producing a documentary about her father, music exec Clarence Avant, with Legendary Pictures; and other close friends. We then moved to the bar for dinner — with piano playing, a fire going, lots of old-fashioned Hollywood warmth and Wolfgang’s white truffle risotto.
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Anjelica Huston had a beautiful party at Jena and TV mogul Michael King‘s home for her book Watch Me, with Joni Mitchell, artist Ed Moses, Michelle Phillips, music producer David Foster and Rosanna Arquette and husband Todd Morgan all toasting our talented friend. Then the best New Year’s Eve party was at the Malibu home of Neuro Drinks’ Diana Jenkins. She produced a night to remember, with snow sledding and warm greetings from the soon-to-be Oscar host, Gone Girl‘s Neil Patrick Harris, his husband, David Burtka, and their delicious twins. Neil brought down the house with his Jim Morrison rendition. Everyone sang. It was magical. David Furnish, newly wed to Elton John, hung with attorney Miriam Rothbart, and Taylor Lautner snuggled with a mystery brunette. The surprise of the night was rising pop star Asher Monroe, who got everyone dancing, including the most famous woman in China, Yue-Sai Kan, and Lance Bass (who sang “Sandy” from Grease) and his husband, Michael Turchin.
