HAMMOND: While Wall Street Loses Money, The HFPA Gives It Away

The stock market may havecontinued its August dive today, but just asnervous investors were losing tons ofcash, The Hollywood Foreign Press Association was giving awaymillions. At their annual lunchat the Beverly Hills Hotel, the HFPA presented a record $1,579,500 in financial grants to 46 film schools and nonprofit organizations. Over the past 17 years, the org best known for awarding Golden Globes in January has awarded $13.5 million through their grants program, according to newly elected HFPA president Aida TaklaO'Reilly. All this philanthropic activity comes even as the sometimes controversialgroup of foreignentertainment journalists remains embroiled in ongoing legal battles with their longtime Globes production company, Dick Clark Productions, over rights to their annualhighly rated awards show on NBC (and an Emmy nominee this year)as well as anotherlegal dust-up with former publicist Michael Russell. Despite the legal woes and bad Wall Street news, the HFPA luncheon was an upbeat affair, drawing numerousentertainment execs like Fox's Peter Rice, FX's John Landgraf, Relativity's Ryan Kavanaugh and Fox Searchlight's Nancy Utley, among others. There was alsothe usualstarry turnout to help hand out the checks including Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Walhberg, Gerard Butler, Kevin Bacon, Yoshiki Hayashi, Jessica Chastain, Hugh Dancy, Lea Michele, Taylor Lautner, Elizabeth Moss, Elizabeth Olsen, Jim Sturgess, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Gabriel Macht, who all took turns introducing each other in the fast-paced, breezy presentation. Over the years, awards-season strategists havealsoseen the lunch asa great opportunity to get some of their potential awardscontenders in front of a captive audience of HFPA voters, and it was nodifferent this year as Butler, DiCaprio, Olsen and Chastain are all actors with upcoming releases expected to figure in year-end awards considerations. Last year at this lunch, for instance, I noticed Annette Bening and Nicole Kidman on the lineup, and both did end up with Globes (and Oscar) nods. The exposure certainly can't hurt as they say, especially in the overly crowded fall field of contenders. At the very least, the luncheon sort of serves as one of those "unofficial" precursors of the impending season. "I guess it's all starting all over again," one awards consultant still suffering battle scars from last year wearilytold me. Still, the person getting the most attention in the room was one whose main awards haul has been only at fan-voted events like the MTV Movie Awards, Teen Choice and People's Choice Awards, The Twilight Saga's Taylor Lautner.Glee's Lea Michele met him onstage like a drooling fan, "Oh my God, it's Taylor Lautner", she shrieked.Andpresenter Mark Wahlberg had words of warning about Lautnerfor fellow presenter DiCaprio. "Leo, I'm sitting at a table with a guy who'sbetter looking than you and in better shape than me. Boogie Nights and Titanic were a long time ago, pal. It's over," he said, pointing to the Twilight werewolf hunk who was on hand to accept a check for the Sundance Institute. DiCaprio, an HFPA favorite who has been nominated seven times, won once for The Aviator and nowstars in the upcoming Clint Eastwood dramaJ.Edgar, just announced for a Nov. 9 opening, was first up to accept the annual check on behalf of the Film Foundation, one of Martin Scorsese's passion projects. "For Steven (Spielberg), Marty, Clint and all directors, I accept this on behalf of the partnership between the Film Foundation and the HFPA, which has donated $3 million over the last 15 years for our preservation and film restoration projects," he said, noting that this year's check would go to the restoration of The Tales Of Hoffman, Death of a Salesman and Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion. He also noted that previous HFPA grants helped restore such classics as the 1933 King Kong, How Green Was My Valley, The River, Paths of Glory, The Red Shoes and many others.