SOCIAL CLIMES / THE OSCARS : WOMEN IN FILM : Having a Ball Around the TV

The Scene: The Women in Film Academy Awards Viewing Party, where some 600 dined in front of giant screens at the Biltmore Bowl Ballroom.

Who Was There: Sean Young with husband Robert Lujan, Rita Moreno with daughter Fernanda Gordon, Diane Ladd. After midnight, as promised, Sir Anthony Hopkins stopped by, as did past Oscar winners Mercedes Ruehl, Kathy Bates and new statuette-clutcher Marisa Tomei.

Overproduction: The silent auction and the exchange of gossip and business cards would have given people quite enough to do during the telecast commercial breaks. Edited out could have been the lame Siskel and Ebert impersonators.

Attention-Getters: Sean Young in scarlet velvet, thrilled to have her tap shoes signed by Donald O’Connor because, as she enthused: “ ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ inspired me to get into this business.” O’Connor, recalling the time he and that talking mule starred with an unknown Clint Eastwood in “Francis in the Navy” (1955), said, “I told him he was too tall to make it as an actor.”

Overheard: “I guess this just isn’t the party to meet rich men.”