For the Oscars, we’re most likely going to do what we usually do – on Monday, we’ll cover all of the Oscar fashion and gossip, and then on Tuesday, we’ll cover the fashion and gossip from the many post-Oscar parties. In recent years, the Vanity Fair Oscar party has not really been a buffet of good gossip. Party-goers get all dressed up for the carpet, of course, but then they make their appearances inside and move along to the other parties. I suspect that the lack of VF-party gossip is connected to how that particular party has become less insidery and more like yet another event where celebrities feel like they don’t have any privacy. VF now publishes tons of photographs from inside the party, and they have a portrait studio set up there too. Well, it just so happens that VF’s new editor wants to take the party back to its more private and intimate roots. According to Page Six, this year’s “revamped” VF party is already drawing many complaints:
Vanity Fair’s revamped Oscar party has already enraged a swath of industryites after the mag slashed its guest list, banned outside press and even dared to put a Kardashian on its cover! The annual party will feature a smaller list this year, and new Global Editorial Director Mark Guiducci has spun the trims as a necessity to create a more intimate, curated vibe. But the move has some townspeople in full revolt.
Sources tell Page Six Hollywood that Guiducci has packed the list with fashion world VIPs while snubbing some of Hollywood’s executive ranks. The cuts include brass from Netflix, Disney, Amazon and A24, we hear. Sources at the mag tell us that Guiducci is trying to bring the VF bash back to its roots when it began in 1994 at more intimate Morton’s for winners, nominees and A-list guests including Prince, Nancy Reagan, Lee Radziwill and Dolly Parton.
But in going back to the future, some feel that the hallowed Condé Nast title has also resorted to a rather crass tactic: Betraying its roots, by putting a reality star on its cover to attract the party attendance of a movie star. Sources tell P6H that Guiducci was so concerned about drawing A-listers to his first ever Oscar party that he was willing to give the cover of the storied magazine to Kylie Jenner as a way of ensuring her beau Timothee Chalamet would be at the party. (An insider insisted that the bash would be a likely stop for Chalamet anyway as a nominee for “Marty Supreme.”)
Either way, “Mark doesn’t know anyone,” sniffed a showbiz vet when asked about Guiducci’s plan to slash the list, alienating some regulars. Guiducci, 37, hails from the fashion and art worlds thanks to previous stints at Vogue and Garage, leaving some cut guests in the industry feeling confused and slighted. Guiducci also never hired a Hollywood correspondent despite holding informal talks with several candidates. His experiment of bringing LA-based Olivia Nuzzi on as West Coast editor was a catastrophe after Nuzzi became embroiled in a scandal involving her ex-fiancé Ryan Lizza and was forced to step down.
At least one A-list director who was removed from Sunday’s party list has been left bewildered and royally miffed, we hear. Diane von Furstenberg, a fashion fave who hasn’t dressed an Oscar winner in years, continues to make the cut. (DVF hosted her own annual Oscars power lunch on Thursday for guests including Gwyneth Paltrow, Jane Fonda and Demi Moore.)
“It’s a smaller list because it’s a smaller venue,” says one source referencing this year’s venue change from a custom structure at the Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills to LACMA in mid-Wilshire. This source added there are no big names for dinner, but they expect to get a flood of A-listers after the red carpet. Among that flood will be at least a few of the Kardashians thanks to the cover, which prompted eye-rolls within Condé. Longtime VF editor Graydon Carter — who we hear is attending the bash after years away — once proudly told the New York Times of his alleged no Kardashians policy: “If you walk in and the first person you see is Kim Kardashian, that sort of brands the evening for you.”
One music industry source says they’ll only hit Elton John’s party this year, while Jay-Z and Beyonce‘s bash and Madonna and Guy Oseary‘s after-party have become the night’s most exclusive affairs.
Yeah, I actually love this kind of gossip and I suspect that Vanity Fair and Conde Nast love it too. Sure, Mark Guiducci is coming in for some lashings, but that’s how it works – he’s trying to make a name for himself as well, Nuclear Wintour-style. Let’s be honest, no one would read a cut-and-dry story about the changes being made for this year’s party, which is why half of this is basically free promotion for the party itself. As for putting Kylie Jenner on the cover… I don’t think it was a quid pro quo to ensure that Timothee Chalamet made an appearance at the party. Chalamet has been to the VF party many times before and he’s likely to attend again, with or without a cover for his girlfriend. The reason why Kylie got the cover is because Vanity Fair believed in January that Timothee was a lock for the Oscar. That’s the real tea – VF-without-a-Hollywood-editor didn’t know that Chalamet’s antics were alienating Oscar voters and sinking his chances to win this year.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images. Cover courtesy of VF.
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