Pull on your best designer duds, practice your air kisses and make like a Hollywood somebody: It’s Academy Award season. While a ticket to the actual 71st annual ceremony on Sunday may be as hard to book as a tress trim with Frederic Fekkai, there are several local Oscar-related fetes serving up a taste of the festivities.
– The Chicago Academy For The Arts will host its fifth annual Academy Awards party: Oscar Night America Chicago. Attendees at the bash – officially sanctioned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – will nibble on artichoke fritters over cocktails, then sit down to roast beef tenderloin and cranberry-and-goat-cheese-stuffed chicken breasts while viewing the awards show. Tickets for the event, at the Ambassador West, 1300 N. State Pkwy., are $150, with proceeds supporting the arts academy’s John Belushi Scholarship Fund. For reservations, call Allison at 312-421-0202.
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– Chef Wolfgang Puck is famous for his post-Oscar feeds, where famished glitterati fill up on his chinois vegetable spring rolls and smoked salmon pizzas. Spago Chicago, 520 N. Dearborn St., aims to replicate the glamor with its own Academy Awards party featuring the same fare – oodles of appetizers and roast chicken with wild-mushroom risotto – that Puck fed movie minions last year. Expect kleig lights, a silent auction, the awards telecast and a special sneak peek (via satellite) at Puck preparing for his annual Beverly Hills bash. The local feast – prepared by Francois Kwako-Dongo, Spago Chicago’s executive chef – benefits the Chicago International Film Festival. Tickets are $175. Call 312-332-FILM for information, and Spago, 312-527-3700, for reservations.
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