Who was seen where at the oscar parties?
FOR those not invited to this year’s Academy Awards, the second-best option might have been the viewing party and dinner hosted by Vanity Fair.
At 4.30pm on Sunday, about
120 of Hollywood’s chosen began arriving at the Wallis Annenberg Centre in Beverly Hills. Early guests included Sarah Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch, the billionaire scions and Donald and Steve Newhouse, of the family that owns Vanity Fair’s publisher, Condé Nast.
Inside a custom-built tent with olive trees and upholstered benches, Radhika Jones, the editor of Vanity Fair, wore a dusty rose Christian
Dior gown accented with a diamond Cartier necklace and earrings. “I have one glass of Champagne at the beginning of the evening and then I pace myself, because it’s going to be a long night,” she said.
Does she enjoy the party? “It’s full of interesting people and everybody wants to celebrate and that’s a good mood,” she said.
Guests took their seats in a circular dining room as the telecast began. Their places were marked with name cards alongside miniature Oscars.
As waiters in chambray shirts ferried carafes of wine, Jones said she had worked to make the party more diverse.
“It’s something that’s important to me because part of our job at Vanity Fair is to lead and reflect the culture,” she said. “We are lucky to be living in a moment where some of those tents are getting a little wider.”
Champagne at the Governor’s Ball
A seemingly endless string of escalators is the only way to access the ball, where hungry celebrities finally find true sustenance and the winners get their Oscar statuettes engraved with their names. Everyone has to take the escalators, which course through the Hollywood Highland shopping mall, from lowly journalists to Jeff Bezos himself.
Once inside the opulent ballroom, which was anchored by a massive floating chandelier that featured some 2 000 tubes of light constructed from recycled material, guests munched on a primarily plant-based menu – a delight to Joaquin Phoenix, the vegan best actor winner who was seen planting a big kiss on Todd Philips, the director of Joker, before heading over to the engraving room.
That room, once open to all guests of the ball, is now limited to winners and their dates. They walk in. They walk out. They show off their names to their immediate circle.
Renée Zellweger, the best actress winner for her portrayal of Judy Garland in Judy, danced her way out of the room. She headed to her table where she continued the theme of her acceptance speech, lavishing thanks on all those who helped turn her performance into a win.
Nearby, Brad Pitt sipped on a soda, mugged for eager onlookers, then grabbed his trophy and sneaked out the side door before anyone could get another word out of him.
But the attention was on Parasite, the South Korean film that made history as the first foreign language movie to ever land the best picture prize. The cast table was hopping.
While they waited for director Bong Joon-ho to return from the backstage press room, the producers greeted well-wishers, toasted each other with Champagne and even spilled a number of drinks on the silver lamé tablecloth in their reverie.
All Roads to Vanity Fair
Back at the Vanity Fair dinner, the space was opened to several hundred guests who began arriving.
Bong, who won best director, best screenplay and best picture for Parasite, seemed like he might be the last one down the emptied-out carpet at 12.30am.
But just after 1am, Zellweger arrived, clutching her best actress trophy. She lingered for about 30 minutes, greeting well-wishers among the few dozen remaining guests, who seemed intent on staying until the very last of the hamburgers were served. | The
New York Times