Elton John: saviour of Oscars party season

As Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter kicks himself for making the wrong call on the magazine’s traditional post-Oscars party - he cancelled it just days before the writers' strike was settled and the Oscars were on again - Hollywood is relying on Elton John to make the big night go with a bang. The pop star's star-studded 'viewing party', which raised $4.3m for Aids prevention education last year - is going ahead for the 16th year running. Victoria and David Beckham, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, Donatella Versace and Elizabeth Taylor are all on the guest list for February 24 and Elton John will play a concert set, backed by his full band.

For more traditional Oscar-goers, celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck will once again concoct the organic menu for this year's Governors Ball, the Academy’s official post-awards sit-down dinner for 1,500. It's Puck's 14th year in charge and he clearly didn’t let the writers' strike get in the way of planning a feast: main courses include Shanghai-style Maine lobster with steamed jasmine rice and coconut curry sauce.

The Vanity Fair party wasn't the only one to be cancelled. 'Oscars at Dani's' hosted by David (The Fugitive) Janssen's widow, is off. In past years her guests have included Jack Nicholson, Barbra Streisand and Steven Spielberg. William Morris agent Ed Limato also cancelled his Friday pre-Oscar party, breaking a 20-year tradition, and Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg's pre-Oscar lunch is also off the schedule.

One party that is happening – and where Hollywood gossips are training their antennae – is the Night Before bash, the press-free charity event that benefits the Motion Picture and Television Fund. According to the magazine Us Weekly, guests include Brad Pitt, his new partner Angelina Jolie - and his ex-wife Jennifer Aniston. It will be the first time Aniston and Jolie have met since Pitt left Aniston in 2005 and started a family with Jolie a short time later. Aniston is ready. "She told me avoiding Brad and Angelina is more painful than seeing them," a friend of Aniston's told Us.