Sideshow | An Oscar sequel for Scorsese

Nobody had more reason to party after Sunday night's endless Oscar kudofest than

Martin Scorsese

, winner of Hollywood's little golden god for best director, after five prior losses.

And party on Marty did, moving through the crowd at Vanity Fair's after-bash with an I finally did it grin stuck to his face. The Vanity Fair affair at Morton's was the place to be after the Kodak Theatre emptied out.

Jennifer Hudson, best supporting actress winner for Dreamgirls, was there, holding her statuette aloft.

Forest Whitaker, best actor winner for The King of Scotland, held court for a crowd worthy of royalty.

Leonardo DiCaprio scarfed down veggie egg rolls, Mexican actors Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna chatted, and luminous Spanish actress Penelope Cruz, a best actress nominee, milled about.

British actor Sacha Baron Cohen, who gave Borat the night off and wore a tuxedo, was spotted with fellow Brit Orlando Bloom. Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham, in a slender white gown, chatted up Jennifer Lopez and J.Lo's husband, Marc Anthony.

Former veep Al Gore, possibly Hollywood's favorite pol, was on hand to celebrate his documentary win for An Inconvenient Truth, talking with actor Hugh Jackman and others.

Earlier in the evening, at Elton John's 15th annual Oscar viewing party to benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Sheryl Crow, Gloria Estefan, and Eve sat in silver-sheathed chairs and ate risotto, filet mignon and chocolate pudding from plates resting on mirrored tabletops.

Designer Zac Posen sat with Dita Von Teese, who sat with British rock royals Ozzy, Sharon, Jack and Kelly Osbourne at the next table.

The party raised $4.2 million for John's foundation.

After dinner, British singer James Blunt joined John with a rowdy set of tunes, including John's hit "Tiny Dancer."

Outside, drinking a beer, American Idol judge Simon Cowell waxed poetic on former Idol finalist Hudson.

"I feel like her foster parent," he said, beaming about the woman he once berated on Idol.

- Associated Press

Helen Mirren

, who won the best actress Oscar for her portrayal of

Queen Elizabeth II

in

The Queen

, may be invited to tea with the queen, Buckingham Palace announced yesterday.

"It is speculation, but we are looking at a number of options," said a palace spokeswoman.

News of Mirren's win dominated newspaper front pages and TV newscasts in England.

Mirren, 61, saluted the queen in her acceptance speech for maintaining "her dignity, her sense of duty, and her hairstyle" for more than 50 years.

- Associated Press

The filmmaker lives in Canada and her animated short film is titled "The Danish Poet," but

Torill Kove's

Oscar victory warmed the long winter in Norway.

Kove, 48, lives in Montreal and the National Film Board of Canada backed the project, but she said the story "could not have been more Norwegian."

It tells of a young poet who travels to Norway to find inspiration by meeting Norwegian writer and Nobel Prize winner Sigrid Undset.

"I am Norwegian, and there is not a trace of doubt in my soul that this film is 100 percent Norwegian," Kove said. Her animated short film "My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts" was nominated for an Oscar in 1999.

"The Danish Poet" is narrated by Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann, who received Oscar nominations for her roles in The Emigrants and Face to Face.

- Associated Press

Anna Nicole Smith,

still not interred nearly three weeks after her death, will remain unburied a little while longer.

A Florida appeals court has ordered that the former Playmate's body not be removed from Florida until Smith's estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, has had the chance to argue for reversal of a lower court ruling that would allow Smith to be buried in the Bahamas.

The court gave other lawyers in the case until 2 p.m. today to respond.

Arthur went to the appeals court after Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin refused to reconsider his earlier decision giving the lawyer for Smith's infant daughter, Dannielynn, control of burial plans.

Arthur wants Smith buried in her native Texas. Arthur's lawyer argued in the filing that having Smith buried in the Bahamas would inconvenience her mother because she "will have to have a passport and round-trip airplane tickets and several thousand dollars to even visit or put flowers on [Smith's] grave."

Smith died in a Florida hotel Feb. 8. The cause of her death is still undetermined.

- Associated Press

While the courtroom wrangling over the disposition of Anna Nicole Smith's earthly remains dragged on in Florida, the wrangling over custody of her infant daughter Dannielynn (a golden child, who could be worth half a billion dollars) dragged on in the Bahamas.

A Bahamian judge held a hearing yesterday on the custody dispute but did not issue a ruling. The child is currently in the care of Smith's b.f. at the time of her demise, Howard K. Stern, who is listed as the father on the birth certificate.

Smith's former b.f., Larry Birkhead, and her mother, Virgie Arthur, also are seeking custody.

Birkhead flashed reporters a thumbs-up as he left the courthouse.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Isaacs dealt only with procedural matters and scheduled the next hearing for mid-March.

Smith had been fighting for a share of the estimated $500 million estate of her husband, the Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, since his death in 1995.

- Associated Press

Novelist

Philip Roth

has won the PEN/Faulkner award for

Everyman

, a short, unblinking meditation on the end of life.

The runners-up were Charles D'Ambrosio's The Dead Fish Museum, Deborah Eisenberg's Twilight of the Superheroes, Amy Hempel's The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, and Edward P. Jones' All Aunt Hagar's Children.

Roth, who will receive $15,000, is the first three-time winner of the PEN/Faulkner. He won in 1994 for Operation Shylock and in 2001 for The Human Stain. The PEN/Faulkner Award was founded in 1980.

- Associated Press

Singer

Bobby Brown

was arrested in Attleboro, Mass., on Sunday while in town to watch his daughter at a cheerleading competition.

The 38-year-old singer was picked up for failing to show at a child support hearing in October.

In October, Brown paid $11,000 in delinquent child support after being threatened with arrest if he stepped back into Massachusetts. He owed more than two months of payments to Kim Ward, of Stoughton, the mother of two of his two children. It wasn't immediately known if Brown still owes child support.

In June 2004, Brown was sentenced to 90 days in prison for missing three months of payments. That sentence was immediately suspended after Brown paid about $15,000.

Brown, a Boston native who had a hit solo album with the 1988 Don't Be Cruel, and pop diva Whitney Houston are divorcing after a 14-year marriage.

- Associated Press