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Despite a Selfie Ban at the BAFTA Tea, Stars Couldn’t Help Themselves Around Leonardo DiCaprio

Forget fashionably late. Rooney Mara arrived ten minutes before the BAFTA Los Angeles Award Season Tea was set to start. The actress, clad in a monochromatic dress, bashfully kept her head down as she made her way inside the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. Her Carol co-star Cate Blanchett soon followed — but first stopped to greet Mark Ruffalo. “Spotlight was incredible!” purred Blanchett, as she gave the actor a huge hug. The duo continued chatting while reporters clamored for their attention. With that, the actors made their way inside where tea sandwiches and scones awaited them. Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais was spotted at valet later in the day — though it seems the Brit had skipped the tea party to attend to other affairs.

But no matter, as stars like Brie Larson, Christoph Waltz, Alicia Vikander, Michael Shannon, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Bel Powley were all on hand. Globes pro and previous winner Joanne Froggatt said she goes into the red carpet gauntlet knowing you can’t always please critics. “Not everybody is going to like what you’re wearing all the time,” the Downton Abbey star told us. “It’s a matter of opinion, so that’s fine. As long as you feel good and you feel comfortable and confident, then that’s the best. That’s all you can do.”

Newcomer Rachel Bloom, nominated for Best Comedy Actress in a TV Series, said she was still pinching herself. “It’s insane that I’m a part of it,” said the Crazy Ex Girlfriend actress who is nominated alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lily Tomlin, Jamie Lee Curtis, and last year’s winner Gina Rodriguez. “It’s the most wonderful kind of overwhelming.” She said she’s been learning about fashion as she’s been preparing with a stylist. “Fashion has always been a source of stress for me because I don’t know how to dress myself. I’m short-waisted, short-torsoed, big boobs. I don’t really understand what a belt is. But you get on these shows and people fit the clothing to you and suddenly you start seeing, ‘Oh! I should be wearing petite jackets,’ and you start to get a sense of how you should look. But ultimately, you’re paying experts to clothe you, so I see how people in entertainment are good at fashion because they learn about it just by having nice things put on them. I really admire people who have a natural sense of style. They have, like, a superpower.”

While discussing the custom-made gown she’ll wear to the Globes, Bloom divulged, “I’m wearing under my dress a corset and then two pairs of Spanx over it because the Spanx cover up the lumps of this corset thing. That’s what busty girls have gotta do! I basically look like a pirate wench in my undergarments.”

Another nominee newbie — Sarah Hay of Flesh & Bone — said it was only her third carpet ever. While she perfectly looked the part, she said getting ready that morning proved stressful. “I had a little bit of a wardrobe malfunction,” she told us. “The dress that I had bought from New York City didn’t arrive in time, so I decided to do an impromptu change.” She ultimately wound up in a look by British label SAFiYAA, and her Judith Leiber clutch was hand delivered by the designer herself. “She just stopped by and gave me this. … It was all last minute because my dress didn’t work out. I think it turned out okay. It’s a little sexy for my personal style, but I think it’s fine.”

The party’s front entrance featured a sign that read “Selfie Free Zone,” though a few attendees just couldn’t help themselves at the sight of Leonardo DiCaprio. The suit-clad movie star rode solo as guests snapped away — despite the security team surrounding him in a hidden nook of the room. Meanwhile, Outlander’s Caitriona Balfe only had eyes for one guy. “There’s one of my co-stars over there,” the nominee cooed upon spotting her on-screen husband Sam Heughan. “Sam and I have been seeing each other all week and Tobias [Menzies] gets in tomorrow [Sunday] morning. We’re going to have breakfast and I’ll go and get glammed up and hopefully he’ll go put on his pretty dress too and we’ll meet at the Globes.”

Balfe and Heughan — who’ve shared more than a few intimate moments on-camera — were naturally more covered up for this occasion, although Balfe maintains they’re not completely nude during those infamous sex scenes. “[We wear] some really unflattering, dignity-shattering, stick-on paper underwear, which no one should ever have to ever wear. Obviously there’s not a lot of space to hide things, but we do both wear some sort of underwear.”

Elsewhere, Christina Milian seemed to be channeling her version of Emma Stone’s 2015 Golden Globes Lanvin look — though she said any comparison was pure coincidence. “Ooh! She wore something like that? Really?! How funny! I’m going to look at that one again,” she said while rocking a Marc Jacobs top which she paired with John Paul Ataker-designed pants that featured a train. “The Golden Globes is such a chic, very cool awards show and this weekend, you’ve got to bring out the best of the best when it comes to the clothes. I was going for a little bit of a modernized Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland kind of vibe.”

Sunday night’s party plan will be decidedly more low-key. “My family’s going to get together and we’re all going to watch the show,” said Milian. “I know people have parties, like, ‘Oh, everybody has to play games or you’ve got to come in character.’ I haven’t done that yet, but we will get the popcorn and appetizers going.”

Check out a few of our favorite looks from the event in the gallery above.

Photos: Getty

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