Bashing

Can't wait to roll out the fondue, sample ballots and Champagne for your own at-home Oscar party? You'll be in fine company as the stars roll out to their own celebrations surrounding the big show. Here are a few of the weekend's biggies: Starting out ahead of the game is the Weinstein Co. , which returns to the Soho House with jeweler Chopard to toast its nominees on Saturday night. Keeping it informal and sentimental, Weinstein is known for taking the mike and serenading the journey of his filmmakers and stars to Oscar Sunday.

Lady Gaga has it out for her former aide, Jennifer O'Neill, who sued Mother Monster in 2011 for unpaid overtime she believes she's owed. "She's just -- she thinks she's just like the queen of the universe," Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, said in a six-hour deposition in the case obtained by the New York Post . "And, you know what, she didn't want to be a slave to one, because in my work and what I do, I'm the queen of the universe...

The Evite of group travel planning. Name: LastBash.com What it does: This group trip-planning platform lets you build and edit an itinerary with several users. What's hot: I love the dashboard. You can see who has accepted your invite and message the group. There's even a section on how to track and split expenses among the group. However, my favorite feature is the ability to poll group members about a topic. I was able to ask family members about whether they wanted to stay in a hotel, share one vacation rental or have their own separate vacation rental - a huge time saver.

Awards season officially kicks into fifth gear with Sunday's Golden Globes ceremony at the Beverly Hilton hotel. As nominees prepare to descend upon the carpet, studios rush to produce elaborate parties to celebrate them. It's not news to you that you probably aren't invited to these Champagne-soaked fetes (hey, your name isn't Ben Affleck, right?), but you're still curious about them. Here are some of this weekend's most highly anticipated soirees. FRIDAY W magazine's Best Performances: This party has become a glitzy Golden Globes tradition with W's editor in chief Stefano Tonchi, it's editor at large Lynn Hirschberg and André Balazs celebrating some of the most glamorous images shot of Hollywood in 2012 inside the penthouse of Balazs' Chateau Marmont hotel.

This post has been updated. See note below for details Elvis Presley would have turned 78 on Jan. 8, and even though he's been gone for 35 years, the birthday celebrations continue. Here in Los Angeles, a grand tradition returns Tuesday night at the Echo in Echo Park, where the annual Elvis Birthday Bash will play out, as usual, with “all fun, no impersonators,” promises longtime co-organizer Art Fein. This year's lineup includes rockabilly veterans Ray Campi, Jimmy Angel and Rip Masters, alt-rock singer-songwriter Syd Straw and next-generation roots rockers including singer Karling Abbeygate.

Hillary Rodham Clinton has won consistent praise during her four years as secretary of State, but it looks as if she'll be leaving her post with one big failure on her record. If she seeks the presidency in 2016, you can bet we will all be hearing the word “Benghazi” in every attack ad Republicans run against her. A report has just been released by the independent review board looking into the September terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, which cost the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

Even by the gruesome standards of AMC's zombie megahit "The Walking Dead," the death of Lori Grimes, the heavily pregnant wife of protagonist Rick Grimes, was unusually brutal : a crude prison-floor C-section followed by a bullet to the head dispatched by her young son, Carl. Yet many viewers greeted the development not with despair or horror but with a sadistic kind of glee, flocking to Twitter, Facebook and online comment threads to post heartwarming eulogies like this one: "Lori left The Walking Dead the same way she came in. With her pants off. " The incongruous reaction to Lori's demise in the Nov. 4 episode  fits in with a broader trend at AMC, where unpopular first wives have become a network hallmark in the same way incest plot lines and gratuitous female nudity have at HBO. In addition to Lori, there's Betty, the long-suffering spouse (and now ex)

Jake's on Market, a restaurant that served American-style grub in San Francisco for less than a year, closed over the weekend - but not before lashing out at unimpressed reviewers on Yelp. In a farewell note posted on its front door and on its website , Jake's owners Tim Travelstead and Brad Becker wrote that “reading reviews and ratings on Yelp … was both amusing and demoralizing.” ( Hat tip to Inside Scoop SF. ) On the crowd-sourced review site, Jake's had three stars out of five and more than 160 total reviews , many written in the last few days.

For those of you under the impression that there's currently a “ war on women ” underway in America, this weekend in a column for Fox News' website , writer Suzanne Venker set the record straight: Men are actually the ones under siege. In the piece, titled “The War on Men,” Venker said that men are less interested in marriage than they were 15 years ago because, thanks to the sexual revolution, “women aren't women anymore”; instead, they've become “angry” and “defensive.” Her argument may not have been that sound, but Venker's column certainly worked as click-bait, lighting up Twitter and drawing responses from numerous media outlets.

Angus T. Jones doesn't much like "Two and a Half Men," and he wishes viewers wouldn't watch the show. So said the 19-year-old TV star in Christian testimony shot principally in his production trailer and posted Monday by the Forerunner Christian Church on YouTube. "Jake from 'Two and a Half Men' means nothing. He is a nonexistent character ... ," Jones said, starting about halfway through the video above. "If you watch 'Two and a Half Men,' please stop watching 'Two and a Half Men.' I'm on 'Two and a Half Men,' and I don't want to be on it. "Please stop watching it; stop filling your head with filth.