If your Victorian mansion needed a paint job, you'd hire a qualified contractor. If you wanted to raise a tennis prodigy, you'd send your kid to Nick Bollettieri. So why even consider throwing an Oscar bash when you can leave it to the professionals? Ain't no Oscar party like a gay Oscar party, and the Center on Halsted is doing it right with a "living red carpet," paparazzi, free-flowing cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, a silent auction, and a Hollywood-trip raffle, plus, of course, the live telecast. With so many good movies this year (not to mention the usual panoply of gown-clad celebs), this gala benefit should offer the most entertaining Academy Award chitchat in Chicago.