Didn't snag an Academy Awards invite this year? Well, sometimes the viewing party is quite a bit more fun (and raucous, we might add). That was the case with InStyle's 17th annual viewing party, hosted this year at the Baltaire in Los Angeles.
First things first: there were plenty of viewing favors to be had including six flavors of popcorn and a killer candy station along with a delicious selection of Santa Margherita Wines's pinot grigio, Chianti, and prosecco rotation. Both were inspiration enough to get stars like Tamera Mowry-Housley (above), Candice Patton (below), Katharine McPhee, Joey King, and Cara Santana circulating throughout. But it turns out with red carpets abounding, even the stars can get nervous like us.
“I’m very shy, innately shy, that’s why I brought my publicist,” Patton said as she sat in a black draped dress with a glass of wine nearby. “She’s really good at grabbing people like, ‘Hi meet Candice.’ But me alone, I’m a girl that’s so shy.”
Mowry-Housley, who arrived with her husband Adam agreed saying, “I’m a very private person.” And while it’s admittedly hard to come out of her shell, she’s picked up the skill by flashing her pearly whites with a smile and saying, “Hey, I’m a fan and I love your work.”
The trick even scored a meet with Lady Gaga for one of her co-hosts of The Real. “I remember one time Adrienne [Bailon] and I were at a Golden Globes party, and she wanted to meet Lady Gaga. She was very shy, and I was the one who introduced them and it was the first time I met Lady Gaga as well,” Mowry-Housley recalled. Jesse Metcalfe and girlfriend Cara Santana made a stunning appearance at the party, too.
Although Jack Falahee confessed he's not immune to going “cheesy." Perhaps he'll throw in an ice-breaker like: “How much does a polar bear weigh?” Although, he didn't have to resort to random trivia to survive the night. He was surrounded by cast mates from How to Get Away with Murder like Kendrick Sampson, Matt McGorry, and Aja Naomi King, who confessed tonight was her night to fan-girl over Leonardo DiCaprio.
“I really hope he gets an Oscar,” she said. “He doesn’t need it. He does great work all the time, it’s not like he’s ever going to stop working, but I would love for him to get it.”
And she wasn’t alone. As the Academy Award Winner for Best Actor was announced (DiCaprio took home the golden statue), everyone stopped what they were doing including trying on their black velvet Toms shoes (created exclusively for InStyle's Oscar viewing party) or diving into their plates from the buffet style dinner to burst into a cheering frenzy. The excitement was especially true for Aimee Garcia, who remembered an early career moment with The Revenant lead.
“I screen tested for Romeo + Juliet back in the day," Garcia said, of the DiCaprio romance flick. "It was Natalie Portman, Reese Witherspoon, Christina Ricci, Claire Danes, and me. Not a lot of people know that.”