The hottest ticket in Hollywood this week wasn’t Tuesday’s Golden Globes — but Monday night’s College Football Playoff national championship game.
At lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel’s famed Polo Lounge on Monday, fans in red Georgia Bulldogs and purple TCU Horned Frogs gear — who descended on Los Angeles for the game at SoFi Stadium — vastly outnumbered the usual slew of agents and entertainment execs in chic black.
Either way, among the football jerseys, Jeffrey Katzenberg dined at a corner banquette with a pal, and “SNL” guru Lorne Michaels arrived in a faded baseball cap to the venue (whose dress code requires civilians to “refrain from wearing casual hats, ripped denim, crop tops, nightwear, swimwear and men’s sleeveless shirts.”)
Michaels was overheard telling pals that he scored a ticket to the college game.
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Also spotted lunching amid the sea of football fans were WME co-chairmen Richard Weitz and Christian Muirhead, producer John Davis and Apple TV+ boss Zack Van Amburg.
Capping off the surreal scene of college football boosters at the upscale LA haunt, the hotspot’s resident lunchtime piano player launched into the theme from “Succession” as a young woman dined nearby with a French bulldog by her side.
When another diner approached the table, the gremlin-like pooch sank its teeth into the man’s umbrella and wouldn’t let go.
Usually, the Globes would be the town’s main attraction, but the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is on shaky ground after the telecast was pulled last year amid accusations of a lack of diversity and unethical voting practices.
An exec was heard saying this week that his company is taking a cautious approach to the Globes, as some pros stay home even though their projects have nominations.
The show is trying to mount a comeback on NBC this year, including with the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award going to Eddie Murphy.