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27-03-00 news
Forget the Academy Awards...
The real show was the post-Oscar party circuit ... from the traditional Governor's Ball to Elton John's big party to Vanity Fair's shining shindig ... where being seen was almost as important as who won.

But no place Sunday was it more true than the DreamWorks SKG party at Spago, the trendy Beverly Hills restaurant where its five golden wins for "American Beauty" were celebrated.

Here, hundreds of fans pushed against metal barricades for a glimpse of the famous and the sort of familiar. It's the place Kevin Spacey hoisted his best actor Oscar over his head, while Steven Spielberg ran down the red carpet shouting "Great! Great! Great!"

"How could you not want to be a part of this night?" said actor Scott Bakula, who played Spacey's gay neighbor in the Oscar-winning movie.

Anybody and everybody associated with the night's big winners were on hand.

Paula Abdul, who choreographed the cheerleading and fantasy sequences in "American Beauty," said she was thrilled to be a part of the movie. "They were small scenes, but they were pivotal points," she said.

Then there were those who just wanted to support friends.

Dame Judy Dench, who won last year's best supporting actress Oscar for rival Miramax's "Shakespeare In Love," came to see friend Sam Mendes, winner of the best director Oscar.

"I was surprised to how generous everybody was to the British," she said, referring to Mendes and Michael Caine's best supporting actor Oscar win. "I was very shocked by that because we're not like that. That kind of generosity is wonderful to us."

Even San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown was there, running the gauntlet of press ... television, radio and newspaper reporters.

``I'm here because I was invited by my friends Warren and Annette (Bening),'' he said. ``It's their night and I came to celebrate with them.''

After a quick wave to waiting fans, most ducked into the restaurant, which put up a canopy on the street to accommodate the thousands who attended.

"I wonder what's going on in there," said Judy Feldman, 27 of Los Angeles.

While she and a group of friends could only imagine, guests inside were treated to champagne and shrimp platters and, of course, roses ... a staple in Spacey's fantasy sequences in the movie.

"American Beauty" co-star Allison Janey, who left the awards without an Oscar, still made off with her own reward ... a bouquet of flowers.

"I'm stealing the roses from inside," she said. "They have so many inside."

But security guard Randy Carlson, 23, was more concerned with the safety of Oscar than the roses. "I've never seen an Oscar up close before. There are so many of them here," he said, standing feet from Mendes' statue. "I bet they hold onto those all night."