Brits lure Hollywood with 'wow' factor fun

OVERSEAS stars are in frigid London for the BAFTA awards party.

HOLLYWOOD'S elite last night swapped the California sunshine for a near-freezing London at the 64th BAFTA awards, British film's biggest night of the year.

Stars from George Clooney to Brad Pitt and Penelope Cruz arrived on Europe's longest red carpet outside the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Other guests included Tilda Swinton, Gary Oldman and Michael Fassbender.

That Hollywood's top actors are prepared to descend on shivering Britain just two weeks before the Academy Awards is testament to how important the British Academy Film Awards, to give the ceremony its full title, are. Once seen as a parochial show screened only in Britain, they are now regarded as a strong indicator of who will go on to Oscar glory and are held in the same esteem as the Golden Globes.

The job of ensuring the ceremony goes with a bang -- and that the 2000 guests are kept happy and topped up with champagne -- falls to a formidable trio: BAFTA chief executive Amanda Berry, head of production Clare Brown and party planner Amanda Davis.

Berry, who is hailed for putting the BAFTAs on the map, says their success is down to the fact that, unlike the Oscars, they have the fun factor. "The genius Clare Brown has brought to the event is making it fun -- slick and stylish, but fun," she says. Brown, meanwhile, says her tactic is to ensure "every step of the stars' journey has a 'gosh' factor".

This year they laid on a menu that included slow-cooked shoulder of Cornish lamb, dessert with chocolate flown in from St Lucia and a champagne cocktail designed by Italian liqueur company Disaronno.

Guests dined in the ballroom at Grosvenor House transformed by Davis into a fantasy based on the five nominated best films: The Artist, The Descendants, Drive, The Help and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. At the party, guests were serenaded by rising singer Emeli Sande.

Eschewing the lavish gifting rooms of the type that spring up around the Oscars, the BAFTAs set up "style suites" at the Savoy hotel where starlets could have their hair done by Charles Worthington, makeup by Lancome and borrow beautiful jewellery. Brown goes on: "You hope they then go to the Royal Opera House and go 'wow' and they get to Grosvenor House, see Amanda Davis's work, and go 'wow' again. It's about creating surprises.

"The big American stars get quite fed up with the whole awards hype at this time of year but we heard Brad Pitt had a lot of fun the last time he was here and wanted to come again."

While much was made of last year's notable absence of big names -- put down to the fact everyone thought The King's Speech would sweep the board so there was no point turning up -- Berry insists: "We're in a wonderful situation now that there is a huge amount of respect for BAFTA so if people can be here, on the whole they tend to be. A number of years ago we couldn't say that."

Before Berry took over, the awards had little credibility and few overseas stars came. It took a simple but devastatingly effective decision to change its fortunes. Berry decided to separate it from the television BAFTAs, with which it used to be twinned, and in 2002 moved it from April to before the Oscars, bang in the middle of awards season, rather than at the weary end.

The show is now broadcast in every major territory in the world. Last year's ceremony viewing figures were up 20 per cent on the year before.

Of course what TV audiences don't see are the tears, tantrums and traumas that happen behind the scenes.

Brown, 60, laughs as she recalls the night Hollywood hellraiser Mickey Rourke won best actor in 2009.

After swearing his way through his acceptance speech he grabbed a magnum of champagne and started walking around swigging from the bottle.

"There are these rules at the ROH: no glass, no drink at the side of the stage. You could see the Opera House lady going, 'We're not allowed drinks backstage' and I was like, 'OK, you tell him!' Then he had a fag in the loo. At that point Prince William (BAFTA president) had decided he was nervous and needed to pee, and we're going, 'You can't go in the loo, Mickey Rourke's smoking' and Prince William went, 'Don't worry, I'm used to that, I work in the forces.' It was surreal."

Then there was the time Brown had the unenviable task of calling Clarence House and asking Prince William's aides to delay his arrival by five minutes because film directors James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow were stuck in traffic. "They said the royals don't wait," remembers Brown. It also fell to Brown to help Kate Winslet to clean her designer shoes the year the BAFTA red carpet turned into a foam bath.

Berry says: "What I loved about that was everybody's reaction was very British: they assumed it was a second-hand red carpet and good old BAFTA had had it cleaned and the foam was soap. But it was brand new and the torrential rain had caused the fire retardant to bubble up. My immediate reaction was: 'Those Jimmy Choos are fire-proofed for life'."

Meanwhile, party queen Davis has been responsible for reuniting winners with their trophies at evening's end.

Last night brought the return of host Stephen Fry. And Russell Crowe was due to make his comeback after a long absence.

The last time he attended in 2002 he had a highly publicised spat with the show's then TV producer, Malcolm Gerrie, after he cut a poem Crowe read for his acceptance speech. "It was high emotions," says Berry. "That poem meant a lot to Russell. He overreacted but he rang Malcolm at home, Malcolm's son picked up the phone and it was Russell Crowe on the line and he apologised. We're happy to welcome him back."

The Times