Kylie Jenner on the spring cover of Vanity Fair. Mert Alas / Vanity Fair 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.)
For those lucky enough to have made the list, some of Guiducci’s new rules are allegedly causing headaches. For example, guests at the pre-party dinner have been told they can’t take official red carpet photos against the Vanity Fair signage until after the show and the dinner is completed, sources said. That means talent must go inside, eat and come out and take photos (while full and tipsy).
To some, the curated vibe feels like a potential hostage situation. (But a source familiar with the event countered the assessment, saying guests were never supposed to walk the carpet heading into the dinner due to the new format.)
As a result, there has been mounting friction between Guiducci and Sarah Marks, the party planner, according to a source. But another insider downplayed any drama, pointing out that Guiducci has known Marks since he was 21 and saying that party planning can cause some frayed nerves, natch.
“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 for 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.
To be fair, even under Carter and his successor Radika Jones managing the guest list has been a perennial headache, and one Vanity Fair journalist told P6H that he thinks the new editor is being unfairly judged. The journo chalked all the ill will up to “sour grapes.” (Considering we were among the outlets banished from this year’s party we readily admit this source may have a point!)
Ultimately, the negative feeling about this year’s VF bash might be a reflection of Hollywood’s rigidity, with one insider telling us: “Everybody in Los Angeles hates change.”
