Wintour to ‘own’ Vanity Fair Oscar party
Anna captured Condé throne by freezing out rivals, hiring acolytes and Vogue-ifying all mags
SINCE its inception in 1994, the Vanity Fair Oscar party, long hosted by Editorin-Chief Graydon Carter, has become the must-attend bash for Hollywood Alisters. Everyone who’s anyone poses on the red carpet. The night’s big winners inevitably stop by before or after hitting their own studio-hosted affairs; and stars not attending the awards ceremony show up here to watch it on big-screen televisions. The only other annual party that’s as star-studded is the Met Gala in Manhattan.
In 2018, those two events could look more similar than ever, as tongues are wagging that Anna Wintour — editorin-chief of Vogue, editorial director for Condé Nast and Met Gala host — will helm the VF Oscar party as well. This despite Vanity Fair having a brand-new editor, Radhika Jones, who takes over Monday as Carter steps down after 25 years.
“The minute Graydon said he was leaving, Anna was owning that party,” said one Condé Nast insider. “They’re calling it the Met Gala of the West.”
Sources even speculated that the bash, which is currently held at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, could morph into “the Condé Nast Oscar party.”
A well-placed insider told The Post that “nothing has been decided but . . . [Wintour] will be heavily involved.”
Magazine-world sources in both NYC and Los Angeles say that the codirector of Condé Nast’s Talent Group, Jillian Demling (for years, Vogue’s entertainment director), will now help corral big names for the event, along with longtime VF West Coast editor Krista Smith.
“There’s no way Anna’s gonna have a brand new editor host that party,” said one New York media insider.
(A spokesperson for Condé Nast told The Post, “Radhika [is] empowered to make all decisions relating to everything from the cover subjects and creative direction, to making the Oscar party and New Establishment Summit her own and deciding who joins or leaves the team. Any assumption to the contrary is uninformed and pernicious.”)
Even so, it’s clear who’s really running the show. Since Wintour joined Condé Nast in 1983, she has steadily worked her way up the ranks, expanding her control and allegedly banishing those who don’t agree with her. And with the Oct. 1 passing of Condé’s longtime president and fig- urehead, S.I. Newhouse, her reach is mightier than ever.
AS the magazine industry suffers in the digital age, with sharply declining ad sales and circulation numbers, Condé Nast — long known for its glamour — has been hit as hard as anyone. In the past two years, the company has shuttered the print editions of Teen Vogue, Lucky, Details and Self and decreased the publishing frequency of GQ , Glamour, Allure and W (although it did launch a quarterly print companion to Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle Web site, earlier this year). Layoff fears are rampant: WWD re- ported on Nov. 10 that “[s]ome of the weaker magazines and divisions are expecting [staff ] cuts of up to 20 percent.” The goal: to shave $100 million off the budget.
For decades, one of Condé’s legendary operating costs was its payroll for top editors. The Post previously reported that Carter was pulling in $2 million a year, while longtime Glamour Editor-in-Chief Cindi Leive earned $1.25 million.
But since Anna took the reins as Condé’s artistic director in 2013, and editorial director in 2014, many of these pricey, once-revered top figures have left the building. Leive — long said to be a rival of Wintour’s and, according to one former Condé editor, “Anna’s idea of too square” — just departed Glamour after 29 years with Condé. Margaret Russell, as reported by The Post’s Keith Kelly, was “given the old heave-ho” from Architectural Digest in 2016. Allure’s founding editor, Linda Wells, was said to be fired in 2015. Self Editor-in-Chief Lucy Danziger was given the ax in 2014. In 2013, Klara Glowczewska was let go from Condé Nast Traveler and Brandon Holley was reportedly sacked from Lucky.
Such power vacuums have left room for Wintour to install talent — often acolytes — who have not only saved the company money but are also more easily controlled.
Fashionista reported that “Holley wasn’t on board with Wintour . . . [who] intended to make the shopping magazine more aspirational. Holley wanted to hold onto Lucky’s scrappy, relatable tone and affordable market stories.” So Wintour replaced her with Eva Chen, who had been the beauty director at Wintour’s pet project Teen Vogue. Meanwhile, Teen Vogue founding editor Amy Astley, also the former beauty director of Vogue, was tapped to take over at Architectural Digest.
Now, said a former high-placed Condé staffer who worked under Wintour, “All her editors are singing her song. They’re all living in terror of her. She attends almost all meetings, and the editors won’t even speak up, they’re so scared.”
Condé insiders say Wintour often dictates who should write certain stories and which celebrities should — and shouldn’t — be on covers.
“Every cover choice had to be approved by Anna,” said another former Condé employee. “We had gotten approval for an actress to book on a Friday, and then Monday, we were told, ‘[Wintour] no longer wants her.’ This particular actress had been on other Condé Nast cov-
ers, but she might be [considered] a little trashy. Meanwhile, we’d had Kardashians on covers!
“So [the booker] had to go back and explain that we no longer wanted this actress. We weren’t allowed to say Anna pulled it, but [the publicists] all know that. So we promised the actress a cover. But it never actually came to fruition. Anna had her favorites — like Sienna Miller could get a cover at any time.
“Anna would pull full shoots or say, ‘ This model has to get cut out of every image.’ Of course, she had approved all the models [beforehand], but maybe [the model had] changed her hair and Anna hated it. There were lots of stories with 10 different design changes and then we’d wind up killing the story.”
The problem, the ex-employee added, is that “every [magazine ends up] looking the same: Vogue-esque.”
The former high-placed staffer agreed, citing the decision to put Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover of Condé Nast Traveler in October 2015: “Travel lovers don’t care about celebs. They care about Istanbul. She’s putting such a stamp on all the mags, outside of VF and the New Yorker, that they all read the same.
“I have the utmost respect for Anna, but if there’s one thing fashion teaches you, it’s one size doesn’t fit all.”
THE New Yorker point is an interesting one. That magazine’s editorin-chief, David Remnick, seems to be one of the only people to whom Wintour listens. In fact, it was he who brought VF’s new editor-in-chief, Jones — whose background spans Time, the Paris Review and the New York Times — to the attention of top brass, Condé CEO Bob Sauerberg previously told The Post.
The former Condé editor believes that Jones “will get 68 percent of VF, and Anna the rest. Anna and [her] team will run the look of the thing completely.”
And Wintour’s warpath is hardly finished. “She wishes [Editor-in-Chief] Stefano Tonchi were out at W,” said the former high-placed staffer. “She’d like to have more control there.” (Other insiders said the two barely speak.)
She also “recently gutted GQ ,” said the former high-placed staffer. Jim Moore, the creative director for 20 years, was out as of last week and seven other editorial employees have been let go.
The Post reported on Friday that Condé is considering having one fashion market editor work on Vanity Fair, W and Glamour, rather than each magazine having its own.
Wintour is also said to be the power behind Condé’s branding arm, 23 Stories, where editors help create ads — something that would have been shocking in the past, as editorial and advertising always had a separate church-and-state relationship.
But such is the state of things at the newly penny-pinching Condé. Finances may also be the reason why Wintour’s likely to host the Oscar party.
“It makes sense for Anna to host,” said a source who’s been involved with the VF Oscar party planning for many years. “Graydon’s whole thing was to run [the party] — and Vanity Fair — like his own small private club. That’s really why he’s leaving: This new age isn’t what he signed up for. Now the party’s started making money for Condé Nast because of corporate sponsorship. [Since 2016 a musical portion of the event has been] sponsored by Apple, and agents, publicists and heads of marketing attend.
“Anna did the same thing with the Met Ball . . . It rakes in the dough for the [Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute], which is what the Met needs.”
And, the party-planning source added, “Wintour has proven pull for fashion, entertainment, Wall Street and Silicon Valley stars” — a perfect mix for a Vanity Fair party.
Which isn’t to say it’s not personal for Wintour.
“The fact that Hollywood has overshadowed the fashion world in the media explains why Anna wants that party,” said a longtime glossy magazine editor. “The influence of magazines is dying — it’s all video and mobile, and Hollywood is the content for those things. Publishing and fashion have to rely on entertainment to survive. She’s no dummy.”
A Vanity Fair spokesperson told The Post that Jones “has already held a meeting about the party” before her official start date.
But even if, as another Condé source speculated, Wintour ends up letting Jones take more of a starring role at the event, there will be no question about who’s really holding the puppet’s strings.
“Anna’s running everything there,” said the New York media insider. “And it’s Anna’s way or the highway.”
The minute Graydon [Carter] said he was leaving, Anna was owning that party. They’re calling it the Met Gala of the West. — Condé Nast insider on the annual Vanity Fair Oscar party