HBO always has a lot to celebrate at the Golden Globes bash-a-thon, which makes it one of the evening’s hottest parties in Hollywood. Shortly after the award show ended, Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons, HBO’s his-and-hers winners for the miniseries Elizabeth I, entered the room to a warm round of applause and popping flashbulbs. As Mirren stood near the entrance, drinking in all the fuss, she suddenly felt something cold against her back. She whipped around to find Irons, smiling mischievously and clutching an icy drink. “It’s sweet, isn’t it?” he said.Sweet, indeed. The cable network’s traditional patch of Golden Globes real estate at the Beverly Hilton is the huge outdoor pool area and adjacent restaurant, which recently reopened as Circa 55, a nod to the hotel’s opening in 1955. Inspired by the restaurant’s sleek midcentury decor, HBO vice president of special events Eileen Rivard and her longtime collaborator, producer and designer Billy Butchkavitz, turned the indoor-outdoor space into a kiwi-and-mandarin-orange-colored salute to modernism. The starting point for the design was the restaurant’s entrance gate: Its intertwined metal strands repeated in colorfully patterned custom carpeting, lampshades, and screens.
Playing off that pattern was a mod floral design projected in intense shades of purple and kiwi as a backdrop for the HBO logo that stretched across the 90- by-24-foot wall overlooking the pool. Reflecting the designer’s keen eye for detail, the floral pattern also turned up on cocktail napkins at the bars and buffets.
Butchkavitz transformed the pool’s perimeter into a sculpture garden, with large metal, glass, and stone objects evoking armless torsos and slim-necked vases, which topped thickets of rectangular pedestals at varying heights. He covered tables in custom-made shantung cloth in hues of mandarin and kiwi. Another harmonizing detail: mandarin glass ashtrays on the tables. In the pool floated a dense garden of clear plastic flowers, each of which had three tiny lights at the center. Poolside guests braved the 40-degree chill—considered arctic for Los Angeles—with the help of heat lamps and throws tossed across seating blocks covered in kiwi suede.
While DJ Samantha Ronson spun a retro mix in tune with the midcentury theme, waiters in mandarin-orange jackets circulated with champagne and mini chicken pot pies created by Circa 55 chef Sean Dent, formerly of Citrus. The buffets offered a selection of lobster, grilled scallops, roasted Alaskan halibut, wild mushroom ravioli, and roast tenderloin with merlot sauce. Organizers planned to shut down the party at 12:30, but the last trickle of revelers reluctantly left nearly an hour later.
—Irene Lacher
Posted 01.17.07
Photos: Gabor Ekecs
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Playing off that pattern was a mod floral design projected in intense shades of purple and kiwi as a backdrop for the HBO logo that stretched across the 90- by-24-foot wall overlooking the pool. Reflecting the designer’s keen eye for detail, the floral pattern also turned up on cocktail napkins at the bars and buffets.
Butchkavitz transformed the pool’s perimeter into a sculpture garden, with large metal, glass, and stone objects evoking armless torsos and slim-necked vases, which topped thickets of rectangular pedestals at varying heights. He covered tables in custom-made shantung cloth in hues of mandarin and kiwi. Another harmonizing detail: mandarin glass ashtrays on the tables. In the pool floated a dense garden of clear plastic flowers, each of which had three tiny lights at the center. Poolside guests braved the 40-degree chill—considered arctic for Los Angeles—with the help of heat lamps and throws tossed across seating blocks covered in kiwi suede.
While DJ Samantha Ronson spun a retro mix in tune with the midcentury theme, waiters in mandarin-orange jackets circulated with champagne and mini chicken pot pies created by Circa 55 chef Sean Dent, formerly of Citrus. The buffets offered a selection of lobster, grilled scallops, roasted Alaskan halibut, wild mushroom ravioli, and roast tenderloin with merlot sauce. Organizers planned to shut down the party at 12:30, but the last trickle of revelers reluctantly left nearly an hour later.
—Irene Lacher
Posted 01.17.07
Photos: Gabor Ekecs
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For its annual Golden Globes party, HBO took over its traditional patch of real estate at the Beverly Hilton’s huge outdoor pool area and adjacent restaurant.
Billy Butchkavitz transformed the pool’s perimeter into a sculpture garden, with large metal, glass, and stone objects evoking armless torsos and slim-necked vases.
A mod floral design projected in intense shades of purple and kiwi served as a backdrop for the HBO logo that stretched across the wall overlooking the pool.
A dense floating garden of clear plastic flowers filled the pool.
