VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: Even odds favoring ‘Chicago’

Friday, March 21, 2003 | 5:18 a.m.

There might not be much pomp and circumstance at tonight's Academy Awards (at press time Friday, they were still scheduled to be held), but there will still be winners and losers.

And Bally's/Paris Las Vegas oddsmaker Johnny Avello thinks he knows who they are.

His Best Picture favorite is "Chicago" at 9-to-5.

Then "Gangs of New York" comes in at 5-to-2, followed by "The Hours" at 4-to-1, "The Painist" at 6-to-1 and "Lord of the Rings: Two Towers" at 12-to-1.

I say "The Pianist" was the better film, but Avello is right -- "Chicago" will win.

For Best Director, his early favorite was Marty Scorsese for "Gangs" -- but now Rob Marshall ("Chicago") is a 7-to-5 favorite.

"A couple of things happened," Avello told VegasBeat. "Mainly, Marshall won the award from the Director's Guild and the Screen Actors Guild. Usually, if you win those, you win the Oscar also."

Phooey on that. Because he lost for "Raging Bull" and "GoodFellas," Scorsese wins tonight.

Avello says the best chance for an upset is in the Supporting Actress category. "If you are looking for a longshot, look for Julianne Moore ("The Hours") over Catherine Zeta-Jones ("Chicago").

Moore is listed at 7-to-1; Zeta-Jones is 2-to-1.

The closest race, Avello says, is for Best Actor. He has "Gangs" star Daniel Day-Lewis an 8-to-5 favorite, a hair better than Jack Nicholson ("About Schmidt") who is listed at 9-to-5.

My pick is Adrien Brody, who is listed at 4-to-1 for his star turn in "The Pianist." Nicholson was simply playing himself. Day-Lewis was good, but Brody was very good. Plus, if Brody wins, I can say that one of my childhood friends won an Oscar.

In the other major categories, Avello's Best Actress favorite is Nicole Kidman ("The Hours") at 2-to-1, followed closely by Diane Lane ("Unfaithful") at 5-to-2 and Renee Zellweger ("Chicago") at 3-to-1.

Avello gives "Adaptation's" Chris Cooper a slight edge over Paul Newman in "Road to Perdition" for Supporting Actor.

Meanwhile, some tickets are still available for Las Vegas' only Academy-sanctioned Oscar party, a benefit for the Arthritis Foundation.

The event at Caesars Palace kicks off at 4 p.m., and features an auction, and gourmet grub prepared by some top Caesars chefs. Call 367-1626 for tickets and info.

Look for the Aladdin to announce soon that Crosby, Stills & Nash will play at the Theatre for the Performing Arts on May 31.

Ubiquitous Vegas scenester Michael Shulman has matchmaker skills, too.

In his capacity as a consultant for Vanity Fair magazine, he recommends local charities that he feels are a good fit for an advertiser they are promoting.

So it was Shulman that put Tod's, the fashion emporium inside the Forum Shops at Caesars, together with CineVegas for Vanity Fair's event on April 3.

Tod's is hosting a private sales event that evening, with cocktails, naturally, where a percentage of the proceeds will be donated to CineVegas, the film festival under the management of the Entertainment Development Corporation of Las Vegas.

Wolfgang Puck is one of those multitaskers. In addition to preparing to cater the Governor's Ball after the Academy Awards, he also held a pretty impressive private event.

Puck was in the kitchen at Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne's Beverly Hills mansion Wednesday night cooking for the Osbourne family and guests Elizabeth Taylor, Natalie Cole, Justin Timberlake, Sylvester Stallone and Marvin and Barbara Davis.

The event was a fund-raiser for the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

For the post-meal entertainment, Tony Bennett sang a few songs.

Despite some prodding from the other guests, Ozzy did not get up and join Bennett.

Too bad ... that's a duet we'd really like to see.