Swarms VIPs at the Oscars (5)
I believe the answer is:
hosts
'swarms vips' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'the oscars' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'hoss' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'at' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hosts that I've seen before include "vast crowds" , "Innkeepers" , "Great numbers of party-givers" , "welcomers of guests" , "Multitudes" .)