Mayor charms visiting Oscars reporter

Melena Ryzik, lead writer for the New York Times' Carpetbagger awards blog, hit town this week and attended the Hollywood Reporter Oscars party on Thursday night at the mayor's residence in Windsor Square. There were celebs there — Amy Adams, Mila Kunis, Hailee Steinfeld, Lisa Cholodenko, Aaron Sorkin, Sharon Stone, Cheryl Hines and Patricia Arquette among them — but for Ryzik "the star of the party was indisputably Mayor Villaraigosa, a socializer extraordinaire whose presence on one side of the tent or the other seemed to tilt its axis of attention." She gushes on:

Even as they were being asked for autographs themselves, his celebrity guests would gush about getting some face time with him. “We’re going to meet the Mayor,” Mr. [David O.] Russell, who was accompanied by his parents, crowed. “I want to get Wendy’s picture with him,” Ms. Cholodenko said, pulling her girlfriend into the crush surrounding him.

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Mr. Russell told us he and the mayor have a “checkered history” — “sparks are going to fly when we meet,” he promised — but he mayor waved it off.

“He’s a good guy and a great talent,” he said. “We have a mutual affection and respect. I said to him, anybody who’s ethnic and who grew up in America’s cities can relate to ‘The Fighter,’ because all of us grew up in neighborhoods very similar to those. And we’re here enjoying the opportunity that is America because we fought our way out of those neighborhoods.” (Mayor Villaraigosa has fought particularly hard; he paused during the party to request that an assistant fetch a special wine after taking a sip of it from a friend’s glass.)

What were his favorite movies this year? “I loved the ‘Black Swan,’ I loved ‘The Fighter’ I loved ‘the King’s Speech,’ I loved ‘Winter’s Bone,” he said. “I really did. It was a hard movie.”

The mayor has been known to turn up on the Oscars’ red carpet and make predictions, but said he wouldn’t be attending on Sunday.

“You know, I’m mellowing out this weekend,” he said. “I’ll be at the parties.”

Suzanne Goin and her Lucques provided the goodies. Here's the THR party report.

Photo of Villaraigosa and Russell by Eric Charbonneau/Le Studio at THR.com