Leo at the Weinstein BAFTA Party - an exclusive (slightly stalky) eyewitness account

Because the party don't start 'til Leo walk in...

After the BAFTA awards ceremony, lavish dinner and generous back patting have all been ticked off there’s only one place where the movie illuminati go next: the Weinstein BAFTA after-party.

Hosted by formidable Hollywood kingpin Harvey Weinstein at The Rosewood Hotel, the yearly shindig is the only celebrity party where the guest list is never exaggerated.

On Sunday night the hotel’s art deco dining room (complete with plush red leather booths and ‘fire’ tuba player stationed at the entrance) was packed with a diverse sweep of A-listers including the likes of Benicio Del Toro, Idris Elba, Emilia Clarke, Cuba Gooding Jr, Bryan Cranston, BAFTA host Stephen Fry, Gwendoline Christie, Jack Whitehall, Matt Smith, Bel Powley… (need we go on?)

But even in a starry room such as this there’s always a celebrity Main Event, a Star Of Stars, if you will. And as the canapés and Grey Goose cocktails circulated, and as guests dipped hungrily into the chocolate fountain in the party’s dedicated pudding room (our happy place), there was one question on everyone’s lips - ‘when is Leo getting here?’

Given the post-ceremony hoopla of drinks, dinner and photocalls, the Weinstein BAFTA party doesn’t really get going properly until 1.30am. ‘Oh he’ll come along later’ people were saying with the dedicated hopefulness of One Direction fans who camp out in the rain, ‘I’m sure he’s just been held up in traffic.’

But by the time the clock had turned to 3am even the most hopeful were beginning to give up hope.

But then just as the DJ was packing out the dance floor with Skee-Lo’s I Wish, the atmosphere in the room shifted slightly. There was the slight crackle of electricity in the air that attends the arrival of a star.

And into the party swept Leo himself. A pair of security guards walked in front of him pressing people in his path gently to the side, like manoeuvring a boat through an ice field, while a Pied Piper-esque trail of buddies, hangers-on and beautiful female friends, including the model Lily Donaldson, followed on. We can exclusively reveal that the man himself looked tanned and delicious, despite doing his very best to reduce his good looks with a truly awful ‘really hoping I can hide under this thing’ flat cap.

Under the pressurized circumstances we lost all use of our arms and did not manage to take a photo, so you’ll have to make do with this stick drawing instead:

Don't say we don't spoil you...

The Weinstein Company's BAFTA Film Awards after-party was co-hosted by Bvlgari