The Pre-Emmy Party Circuit: BAFTA’s and Audi’s Annual Fetes

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Double Emmy nominee Fiona Shaw is wearing London-based Emilia Wickstead to the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards, she shared at BAFTA’s annual tea party, held poolside at The Beverly Hilton on Saturday.

“She is a superb designer,” said the Irish actress. “She has very kindly offered to make my dress for tomorrow…It’s green, an extraordinary green. It’s sort of forest green. And it has a strange resonance of memory and history. She’s constructed the arms in a way that folds the material in, so it’s got a hint of a puff sleeve, but, in fact, it’s an inverted puff. It’s so complicated but very comfortable to wear.”

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Shaw is up for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her work on “Killing Eve” and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for “Fleabag,” the two BBC hits created by writer, actress, producer and rising star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

“She was writing it while we were filming it,” shared Shaw of shooting “Fleabag,” streaming on Amazon Prime.“ She was writing the scene while she was in it, while we were acting it. I mean, she is a phenomenon.”

“It all begins and ends with Phoebe’s writing,” said Brett Gelman. The “Stranger Things” actor plays Fleabag’s (Waller-Bridge) detestable brother-in-law on the show, which received a total of 11 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Comedy Series. “The monologue at the end, she wrote that like five minutes on the way to set. She rewrote it.”

Waller-Bridge, notably absent from the Emmy party circuit, is nominated in writing and up for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for “Fleabag” (as well as nominated in writing for Outstanding Drama Series for “Killing Eve”).

“A lot of the time, she’s not happy with it, and so she rewrites it minutes before we do it,” Gelman continued. “I don’t know if it was necessary, because I think the scripts were brilliant from the moment I got them, but she would make them better, which is amazing.”

At the Emmys, the actor and comedian is looking forward to celebrating the show and his female costars. English actresses Sian Clifford, who plays his wife, and Oscar winner Olivia Colman, his stepmother-in-law, are also nominated in acting.

He’ll be wearing a maroon Hugo Boss suit, he said: “I’m very excited about it…It’s a little bit of a statement without trying too hard.”

Nearby was “Game of Thrones” actress Nathalie Emmanuel, who shared she would be wearing a Miu Miu gown — “with a train.” Last year, she wore a Stella McCartney creation with a train and swore she would forgo a dress with that detail this year.

“Everyone was stepping on it,” she said. She was convinced, however, to go for it again by stylist Cher Coulter. “She was like, ‘I think you should wear this,’ and I was like, ‘I think I should wear it, too.’”

The party, filled with crustless sandwiches and scones, brought out Michael Douglas, nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Netflix’s “The Kominsky Method,” and Catherine Zeta-Jones, as well as a slew of television’s currently most celebrated women; there was “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” actress Rachel Brosnahan, nominated again after winning last year for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series; “Killing Eve” stars Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh, both up for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (Oh won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series for the role earlier this year); Ava DuVernay, who’s nominated for writing and directing Netflix’s “When They See Us,” which received its first Emmy last weekend for casting at the Creative Arts ceremony. (Tory Burch and Glamour held a private luncheon at the Rodeo Drive flagship on Friday celebrating “women to watch,” which included DuVernay, Brosnahan and young actresses Kaitlyn Dever and Kathryn Newton.)

Later in the day, Showtime celebrated its nominees at the members-only San Vicente Bungalows in West Hollywood. Guests included “Escape at Dannemora” actors Patricia Arquette, nominated for two Emmys this year; Ben Stiller and Paul Dano; Andrew Scott of “Fleabag,” Sacha Baron Cohen; Stephen Colbert and Vanessa Bayer.

Meanwhile, in Hollywood, Comedy Central held its fete at the rooftop of the Dream Hollywood, where Trevor Noah of “The Daily Show,” nominated for Outstanding Variety Talk Series, was surprisingly absent. Also rounding out the pre-Emmy parties was Audi’s annual celebration, held at the Sunset Tower hotel earlier in the week. Notable attendees including Milo Ventimiglia of “This Is Us,” nominated in the lead actor in a drama category, “Charlie’s Angels” director Elizabeth Banks and Laura Dern of “Big Little Lies.”

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