It’s good to be in Los Angeles during Oscar season because you get to attend events like the one Hitfix went to last night: a star-studded party held for “Crazy Heart” with performances by the movie’s Oscar nominees Jeff Bridges, T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham.

Did we mention yet that Sir Elton John joined them on stage, as did co-star/Oscar winner Robert Duvall and Harry Dean Stanton? And that fellow “Crazy Heart” nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal and her brother Jake were grooving to the performances as were Jon Hamm, Jennifer Westfeldt, Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson and Peter Fonda?

Held at Vibrato, a restaurant/jazz club off famed Mulholland Drive and owned by Herb Alpert, the party, thrown by New West Records, which released the movie’s fantastic soundtrack, had no red carpet or paparazzi outside. Inside there were no VIP or roped off areas.

Burnett and Bingham are up for best original song for the “Crazy Heart” theme, “The Weary Kind.” You could practically imagine every Oscar voter in the room rushing home to mark his or her ballot for Team Crazy Heart after Bingham gave a weather-beaten performance of the song. Then Bridges, who is nominated for best actor for his performance of dissolute singer/songwriter Bad Blake, and Burnett took the stage, joined by Duvall, who sang “Red River Valley,” backed by Stanton on harmonica. Bridges and Burnett played the movie’s “Fallin’ & Flying,” which is a country hit just waiting to happen. Elton John hopped on stage to pound the ivories on “I Don’t Know,” also from the movie. Burnett is producing Elton's new album with his musical hero Leon Russell.

Back to Headlines