BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – “In 20 years since coming, this is the most fun I’ve ever had,” Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody said Sunday at Vanity Fair’s annual Oscars party. “I had real conversations, about politics, life and art.”
For a change, a real conversation was almost inevitable at this annual meeting of industry leaders. The main reason was the train wreck where Will Smith hit Chris Rock onstage.
“I can’t talk about it at that point,” said Amy Schumer, who hosted the Oscars with Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall, after speaking to Larry David just outside the tented dance floor. “It was such a big problem and I’m still processing it, and I have to be so careful,” she added, before turning to a group of friends for a lifeline. “Someone makes me stop talking.”
It’s been nearly 40 years since Vanity Fair’s former editor Tina Brown dreamed up a party that would steal the thunder from Swifty Lazar’s Oscar wing. mr. Lazar didn’t just know how to tie up the stars, Mrs. Brown noted in her published journals. He also domesticated a “menagerie” that was present on his terms or not at all.
When a celebrity of Mr. Smith’s stature makes public appearances, it’s more than a source of cackling editorials and viral memes. It is a threat to the fiction of show business kumbaya. So this year’s Vanity Fair party was a bit like a celebrity campfire. Other Oscar parties, like Madonna and Guy Oseary’s, may be more intimate and exclusive, but nothing beats Vanity Fair for sheer bold volumes.
And so for a few late hours in a series of tents, gardens and outdoor lounges at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, the most famous people in the world mixed, danced, drank and smoked (mostly weed), proving what an amazing celebrity can be. It is a universally established truth in Hollywood that at some level of fame, everyone is your best friend.
To reach the shrine, invitees had to pass through a series of security checkpoints (negative PCR test results were required) and a blue carpet of screaming photographers. Some luminescent glowworms, including Billie Eilish, Pedro Almodóvar, and Jessica Chastain (who wore an emerald green Gucci gown that Ariel evoked in “The Little Mermaid”) were then immediately diverted to a private studio where Mark Seliger shot their formal portraits.
Others immediately processed the actual party, where cameras, telephones and other recording equipment were strictly prohibited. Surprisingly few people ignored the phoneless rules to capture theatrical moments like Kathy Hilton dancing with Marjorie Gubelmann, aka DJ Mad Marj, or Bill Murray wearing a flamboyant beret, dancing alone.
Had they lingered around midnight they would have caught Will Smith, seemingly unperturbed by the controversy he’d just caused, accompanied by his wife and kids, and swinging to “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It.”
They are also said to have held Serena Williams towering above the crowd in a silver mini-dress, and Zendaya standing next to a potted palm tree and conversing with Timothée Chalamet, both surrounded by a nimbus of marijuana smoke exhaled by an acquaintance.
They would have seen Jason Bateman in a bro cuddle with Kevin Bacon; Jon Hamm was alone near the men’s room for a moment, looking abandoned like a rabid puppy; Kristen Stewart flutters to the floor in a black lace dress; and Zoë Kravitz chains up smoking Marlboros.
They allegedly caught Sarah Paulson yelling, “Dog! Dog! Dog!” as she slid past Kate Hudson and Chris Pine to pet a stranger’s fluffy white doggy.
In the Before Times, it was customary for the most famous to work dutifully on the red carpet, doing a few cheery circuits, before going to another, presumably better party.
Midnight was the traditional witch hour. This time the mood was cozier, and for obvious reasons. Two years of separation has taken its toll on the famed herd.
“People are genuinely happy to see each other again,” said Georgina Chapman, the fashion designer, as revelers pressed together so tightly on their way to one of the tequila bars that it was easy to forget such a thing as social distancing ever existed.
“Of course,” Ms Chapman added, “next week we will all get Covid.”