The Brits in Hollywood always know how to have a good time, so when the ticket for the BAFTA-LA 2012 Britannia Awards arrived, it was time to get decked out and head for the Beverly Hilton Hotel to get in on all the laughs.
The party started on Wednesday, November 9, with cocktails and a silent auction as members of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Los Angeles gathered for the annual event, which honors five entertainers for their contributions to the arts. This year's honorees were all men, starting with SimCity videogame creator Will Wright, moving on to "South Park" and "The Book of Mormon" funnymen Matt Stone and Trey Parker, "Skyfall" hottie Daniel Craig, the wild and weird Quentin Tarantino and finally, two-time Academy Award winner Daniel Day-Lewis, who is currently starring in "Lincoln."
Alan Cumming hosted the raucous night, which being shown on the BBC America television network throughout November; he wore a bright-red suit and joked that it was "recycled from Ann Romney's election night dress." And he wasn't the only one to get political, as Daniel Day-Lewis came to the stage carrying an empty chair.
"I was up until 2am last night watching CNN and the election returns," he said with an impish grin, gesturing to the chair. "Now I'm gratified that the extremely busy president of the United States was able to come tonight and join me!"
And Day-Lewis, who accepted his Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film from Steven Spielberg, his "Lincoln" director, kept right on going, bemoaning the fact that his life in Britain is "too boring" for Rupert Murdoch and his minions to have tapped his phones.
"Where were Rupert's boys when I staggered out of that S&M bar with a saddle strapped to my back?" he chortled.
Even Harrison Ford, who's definitely not known for his comic personality in real life, got in a zinger as he presented Daniel Craig with his Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year.
"This award was created in 2006, and Rachel Weisz got it then," Ford said, giving a nod to the actress (and Craig's wife) who watched from her front-and-center seat. "Now, six years later, under Rachel's patient tutelage, Daniel is finally in a position to accept it himself!"
Plenty of friends turned out for the shindig, including Olivia Munn, Ioan Gruffudd and his wife Alice Evans, Jared Harris, Sally Field, Natasha Henstridge, Rufus Sewell, Franka Potente, Kerry Washington and a whole "Skyfall" James Bond contingent including director Sam Mendes and Bond girls Naomie Harris and Berenice Marlohe.
Once the celebration was over, many of the Brits and their American pals headed to Trader Vic's and kept the party going well into the wee hours, proving the truth in what Allen Cumming joked was the whole reason for the night's festivities: "To applaud the people in our industry - and to get totally wasted!"
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