Winds Whip Up Palm Springs FF

    Gale-force winds and chilly temps didn't dissuade hardy partiers during Palm Springs Film Fest's opening weekend. Last Friday evening House & Garden magazine sponsored a cocktail party at Frank Sinatra's onetime desert hacienda, complete with piano-shaped swimming pool and a cracked bathroom sink where Frank famously threw a champagne bottle at Ava Gardner. Guests including Variety's Peter Bart, New York Times film reporter and PS jury member Dave Kehr, fest honchos Darryl Macdonald and Earl Greenburg and House & Garden contributing editor and "tastemaker" Paul Fortune admired Frank's original stereo system as well as vintage copies of Daily Variety tastefully scattered on a coffee table.

Meanwhile, Saturday's awards gala -- like most kudos ceremonies -- weathered some longeurs, but a moment of drama ensued when an interloper was ejected from the men's room with trousers at half-mast.

Kate Winslet read a charming awards speech consisting of two letters to God -- one written when she was 12 and one contemporary. "Dear God, let me always wear corsets so that my boobs look big, and let me always want to be an actress," read the first. The latter missive confided, "Dear God, please let my co-stars have good breath, and please, let me always want to be an actress."

The after party at the hipper-than-thou Parker Palm Springs hotel was impeccably art-directed (as always), with tiny caramel apples and mini cotton candy cones for late night snackers. Honorees Brad Pitt, Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett beat a hasty retreat back to L.A., while director honoree Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and "Little Miss Sunshine" cutie Abigail Breslin and helmers Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton hit the after party. (P. Saperstein)