Note: “Barbie” is getting the red carpet roll out finally after all the strikes prevented promoting movies. The Oscar machine is powering up. If “Barbie” doesn’t make the Oscar Top 10, it will at least win the popular vote for Best Box Office movie. In Los Angeles, Warner Bros. took over the rooftop at the Pendry Hotel, packed it with entertainment press, and brought Greta Gerwig and the cast as well as Billie Eilish, brother Finneas, and music producer Mark Ronson. 

I watched “Barbie” on the flight home from LA last night. It is Gerwig’s singular vision, exploding with color and politics served like a strong pill mashed into apple sauce. Some of it is outstanding. A few things annoyed me, but that’s a guy-thing. Overall, I was much more impressed by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling the second time around. And the production is insanely good. Gosling’s Ken song and Billie’s song “What Was I Made For?” are certainly going to get Best Song nominations. And Rhea Perlman is lovely.–RF

In the doll metaverse, Barbie is queen. A party at New York’s posh Peninsula Hotel brought together her movie creators with members of the Academy to anoint her with awards. The movie about her has had world domination in sales. Even in Morocco — where I saw it when it was released in July along with “Oppenheimer”—famously creating the “Barbenheimer” unit—it was a hit. I was happy to report this to producer/star Margot Robbie, who spear-headed the collaboration with Mattel and starred, and Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, scriptwriters with Gerwig directing. The phenomenon spoke of girl power, and what men have to do to measure up. So where was the movie’s primary Ken, Ryan Gosling?

Ryan Gosling made the movie a musical, his song and dance numbers major entertainment a la “La La Land.” Mark Ronson filled me in on creating the movie’s sound: he just followed Greta’s script. There wasn’t even supposed to be music, but fortunately she, a major music maven, and fan, was keen on creating a sound. Eschewing the pink cocktail of the evening—a Prosecco with cotton candy —  Ronson said he was overstuffed from Thanksgiving with family, and following a routine, waking at 7am to write and invent music. How do you follow up on Barbie? Ronson is writing a book on DJing in the ‘90’s.

“What would I do without acting?” exclaimed Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham agreeing, his “White Lotus” character should be continued into the next season. “Didn’t you love the writing?” he asked. I would follow Mike White’s writing anywhere, he said, so happy to be working. Next up: he’s the husband in the Broadway production of “The Queen of Versailles,” based on Lauren Greenfield’s 2012 excellent riches-to-rags documentary, with Kristin Chenoweth as his wife.

Neil de Grasse Tyson, Katie Couric, Carol Kane, Sandra Bernhard, and many others made the scene celebrating “Barbie.” When I asked Robbie how she would follow up, she said, “You tell me,” even as requests for a sequel swirl. Baumbach quipped, “We’re looking for another doll.”

UPDATED A couple of months ago it was revealed that “Austin Powers” director Jay Roach was going to make an “Ocean’s 11” prequel. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling — Barbie and Ken — would reunite for the heist movie.

Now I can tell you exclusively that the title of the planned film is “Oceans.” That’s because Gosling and Robbie will play the parents of Danny Ocean, the character played by George Clooney in Ocean’s 11, 12, and 13.

The Oceans (I don’t know their first names) will teach son Danny and daughter Debbie (Sandra Bullock) how to steal from the rich in this new caper. The Oceans will have a team to help them, of course.

The new movie will be set in the 60s, which is ironic since the original “Ocean’s 11” with Frank Sinatra, the Rat Pack, et al was released in 1960.

My sources say “Oceans” will set up the more modern “Ocean’s 11” trilogy, not to mention “Ocean’s 8” which starred Bullock and a team of women. (There’s still no “Ocean’s 9,” but who knows!) No word on who’s going to write the new film, but David Levien and Brian Koppelman would be excellent candidates after doing such a good job with “Ocean’s 13.”

The whole idea for “Oceans” comes from the great chemistry between Robbie and Gosling in “Barbie.” And while there is no “Barbie” sequel yet, I am assured that one is inevitable once director Greta Gerwig makes her “Chronicles of Narnia” film. We can count on it.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. threw a swanky party last night for “Barbie’ in Hollywood at the rooftop restaurant of the Pendry Hotel. Guests of honor included Gerwig, co-writer (and husband) Noah Baumbach, stars Gosling and Robbie, plus singer Billie Eilish, her brother and co-writer Finneas, and soundtrack producer Mark Ronson.

Gerwig — I think — will be finally get a DGA nomination and or an Oscar nomination for directing after her extraordinary work on “Ladybird” and “Little Women.” The “Barbie” movie is a director’s film with a specific vision completed realized. “Barbie” is almost certainly headed to a Best Picture nomination, as well.

I asked Greta what her kids — who are 4 and 1 — think of mom as a moviemaker.

She said: “Harold, my 4 year old, said when Barbie was over, Is that it? Like, ‘you’re done with this filmmaking now, right?’ Little does he know!”

The first time the “Air” cast got together since the actors’ strike, Jennifer Lopez was in the audience.

JLo played it cool on Thursday afternoon while her husband, Ben Affleck, took to the stage for a Q&A with Viola Davis, Julius Tennon, Jason Bateman, and Marlon Wayans in attendance. Scott Mantz moderated the panel for the Critics Choice Association at the Four Seasons Hotel.

(Full disclosure: I was flown out for this and a celebration of Amazon Studios’ films this season. I never do this kind of thing, but “Air” was already one of my top five picks of pics this year. And I got meet “Saltburn” director Emerald Fennell.)

JLo didn’t ask any questions, and she may have unnerved Ben, who kept dropping his mic — not in the snark way but for real — during the session. “Air” is kind of a dark horse this Oscar season. It came out in the spring in theaters, made $50 million, went to Amazon Prime, and then got caught it in the no-promo strike. But it’s an Aplus film, with standout performances from Matt Damon (who was not there, but gives a sensational performance) and Davis, who steals every movie she’s in.

Marlon Wayans surprised me. I do think of him only as doing comedy, from “In Living Color” to “Scary Movie” and that kind of thing. He’s turned into a thoughtful actor, however. He plays the low key basketball coach and civil rights hero George Raveling (now 86 years old) who was an important adviser to a young Michael Jordan. When aske about the influence of Michael Jordan and his sneakers, Wayans told us he was routinely beaten up for his Air Jordans as a kid in New York. So making the movie was a big deal for him.

There’s much discussion of the main line of dialogue in “Air,” written by Alex Convery: “A shoe is just a shoe until someone steps into it.” That line is spoken by Damon’s Sonny Vaccaro in his pitch to Jordan’s parents (Davis and her real life husband Julius Tennon play the couple).

In the end, it was Deloris Jordan who made the fateful deal that married Nike to Michael Jordan. And we learned during the Q&A that it was Davis who improvised a version of the tag line in her key conversation as Deloris with Damon on screen. Davis says, “A shoe is just a shoe until my son steps into it.” In any season, Davis’s delivery of that line would and should earn her an Oscar nomination. (Damon, too, for his stop-the-movie speech.)

Our Q&A suddenly got turned up a notch when Davis, who does not love these panels, passionately spoke about Doloris Jordan, Nike, and race. Listening to her deliver an impromptu philosophical speech was like hearing a kind of modern Shakespearean monologue.

“The movie,” she said, “is about the power of dreams.” She spoke about the way she conveyed Deloris, who does a lot of listening to Nike executives who don’t take her power or influence seriously. But Damon’s Vaccaro gets it. Davis said, as a Black woman, “You’re always negotiating being seen.” She wins that negotiation hands down when she gets Nike to give her son a royalty on every sneaker sold.

“Air” is directed by Ben Affleck, who also stars in the film as Nike founder Phil Knight. Even though Affleck’s “Argo” won Best Director a few years ago, I’m not if he’s taken seriously as a director. This may be because he’s also a Star and a regular presence in the tabloids. But listening to him discuss the making of “Air” should impart to all Oscar voters that the director of two other top notch films as well — “Gone Baby Gone,” and “The Town” — knows what he’s doing, and he’s here to stay.

PS Hoping to get a video of Viola at the Q&A and will update here.