Wet and wild party for Baftas

GALLERY: Bafta night in pictures

It was the wildest party of the year. The biggest names in Hollywood had arrived in London to celebrate the "British Oscars" - and not even torrential rain was going to stop them having a good time.

Nicole Kidman and Warren Beatty led an unprecedented array of A-list movie stars who flocked to the Grosvenor House Hotel for the post-Bafta celebrations, and they stayed up until the early hours to celebrate in wild style.

Grosvenor House's ballroom was transformed into a party venue so lavish that Warren Beatty said: "I have never seen a room more beautifully done than this." Scantily clad cabaret dancers caroused among the after-party crowd, which made enthusiastic use of the roaming tequila-girls and the vodkadispensing ice-sculpture. Adrian Lester cut a dash on the dance floor, while Sir

Richard Attenborough was locked in earnest conversation with Dustin Hoffman.

Jamie Bell, last year's winner of the best actor Bafta, and Russell Crowe, who won this year's, mused together on their shared status, while Nicole Kidman was squired for the night by director Stephen Daldry. Daldry flies to New York today to put the final touches to his new film The Hours, which stars Kidman as Virginia Woolf.

It was a night of triumph for The Lord Of The Rings, which carried off five awards. However, the most eye-catching performance was Kidman in a daring low-cut dress.

The revelry was all a bit too wild for Sissy Spacek, who tumbled down some steps and came to earth with a nasty bump as she left an exclusive after-show party at The Sanderson hotel.

She had been partying with Mr Beatty, his wife Annette Bening, Kevin Spacey, Dame Judi Dench, Crowe, Kidman, Harvey Keitel, Stephen Daldry and Dustin Hoffman - who somewhat surprisingly rolled out of his limo with James Nesbitt, the star of Cold Feet.

It was wet feet, though, that had the world's most pampered women in a lather as they arrived at the Odeon Leicester Square for the ceremony earlier in the evening.

Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Dame Judi, Saffron Burrows, Audrey Tatou and Anna Friel were some of the stars who arrived in all their finery only to find themselves wading through a soapy stew of suds, thanks to heavy rain and an inefficiently rinsed red carpet.

Kate Winslet, who presented Peter Jackson with the best film award for The Lord Of The Rings, was still brooding on the unexpected obstacle at the Bafta after-ceremony party at the Grosvenor House hotel.

She said: "I haven't yet taken off my shoes and, when I do, I am convinced my toes will be black from the dye leaking through my shoes onto my stockings and my feet.

"Coming in, I had major soapsuds on my shoes and all up my the back of my dress and, frankly, that's not a good look. You spend a couple of hours getting ready - someone doing my hair, doing my make up, someone dealing with my dress, the whole thing - and it's just a little irritating."

Beatty was made a Bafta Fellow, the ninth American to receive the honour. He said: "I'm always in a state of elation when I come to London - as in so many ways London doesn't change. It's a very special feeling to win an award here, a real honour."

Tom Wilkinson, the only Briton up for a best actor award in next month's Oscar ceremony in sunny Los Angeles, confessed to being somewhat starstruck by the Hollywood visitors, saying: "I'm a real star-tourist.

"I love star-gazing and this event is tremendous for it. It's a bizarre feeling- - very odd. There are so many of the world's most famous people here."

Kidman echoed many at last night's celebration when she said: "The Baftas holds its own in its own right, and I think comparing it to the American Oscars is patronising. It is about the British film community - and that is a really important, thriving force in the world."

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GALLERY: Bafta night in pictures