| NEWS 12.09.08 5:30 PM |
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As SAG Strike Looms, It's "Full-Steam Ahead" for Golden Globes Party Organizers
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 | The NBC Universal and Focus Features 2007 party, sponsored by Cartier
Photo: Line 8 Photography |
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Another year, another strike threat. Last year, the Golden Globes ceremony and its typical big-scale parties were canceled in favor of a press conference during the writers' strike—and this year the possibility of a SAG strike looms. Although there is some private concern as to the fate of the January 11 ceremony, organizers are saying the show will go on, as they prepare to ensure the unofficially affiliated bashes happen seamlessly.
Billy Butchkavitz, who produces and designs HBO's production-heavy fete said, "We're going forward as if nothing is going on. I kept asking [my clients] about it—and you never know with the Golden Globes people—but they're saying that nothing should affect [the party]." Butchkavitz considers his group lucky because HBO's is the last party at the Beverly Hilton to load in because part of its space, restaurant Circa 55, is open until 10:30 p.m. the night before the ceremony. "This is the one time that it pays not to have a lot of setup time," Butchkavitz said, indicating that none of the build out will happen if the party is called off at the last possible moment.
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RELATED TOPICS
Golden Globes, SAG, Writers' Strike, In Style Magazine, NBC Universal, HBO, Cartier, Award Season |
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| Q & A 10.30.08 10:00 AM |
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Jonathan Wolf Choreographs the Intricate Eight-Day American Film Market, Untouched by the Strike or Economy
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 | American Film Market managing director Jonathan Wolf
Photo: Courtesy of American Film Market |
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Each year, 8,000 members of the film industry gather in Santa Monica for the American Film Market, where they buy and sell rights to motion pictures in a marketplace format, making $800 million in deals in eight days. Spearheading the event is Jonathan Wolf, executive vice president for parent organization Independent Film & Television Alliance, and managing director for the AFM. Wolf talked to us about the unique challenges of planning the highly choreographed event—which rolls into Santa Monica from November 5 through 12—and how the writers strike and the overall economy have affected the program.
How is planning this trade show different from planning any other?
The AFM is very different from a typical trade show. Firstly, you can’t see a motion picture on a trade show floor; you need to go to a theater. So a very important part of the American Film Market is staging the event where we have access to at least a couple dozen theaters in close proximity.
The second difference is that most of the show is about negotiating and closing deals, not just about marketing and creating general interest. This means that the exhibitors don’t want big open space on a trade show floor; they want offices where they can shut the door and have a negotiation. This is why we take two hotels in Santa Monica [Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel and Le Merigot Beach Hotel], close them for two weeks, and convert both hotels into office buildings. All of the beds in the hotel get moved out, and all of the companies move in things they need to create excitement about their films. We have five days to prep—the challenge is doing that in an efficient manner. You don’t have the benefit of taking a forklift to the trade show floor and dropping things in booths. We’re working in an eight-story hotel with elevators designed for guests, not for moving the kind of freight we bring in and out.
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Independent Film & TV Alliance, American Film Market, WGA, Writers' Strike |
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| NEWS 03.10.08 2:32 PM |
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Fashion Week Grows "Tabloid" Celebrity Presence
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Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week kicked off yesterday at Smashbox Studios in Culver City. And if L.A.'s fashion week has been underwhelming to some in the past, this season isn't likely to change that perception, with a slightly smaller lineup of shows (22 rather than last season's 23) and some mid-profile standbys (like Kevan Hall, Sue Wong, and Eduardo Lucero) missing from the designer roster.
Nonetheless, the program is sticking to—even punching up—one of its classic ingredients: celebrities, although not necessarily the A-list kind. The Pussycat Dolls, Lauren Conrad, Jenna Jameson, Traci Lords, and Nicky Hilton are among the folks showing or participating.
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Fashion Week, Mercedes-Benz, IMG Fashion, Writers' Strike |
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| EVENT REPORT 02.25.08 3:05 PM |
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Brightly Hued Elton John Party Assumes Oscar Night's Top Slot
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 | Elton John's brightly colored Oscar bash
Photo: Stefanie Keenan/WireImage |
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With Vanity Fair's exclusive bash off the slate this year, a new entity claimed the title of biggest Oscar party last night (apart from the academy's own ball): the Elton John AIDS Foundation fund-raiser. Sir Elton John and David Furnish hosted the foundation's 16th annual party at the Pacific Design Center, with Chopard and VH1 cosponsoring. The event raised $5.1 million—up considerably over last year's $4.2 million and by far a record.
The gala event began with a cocktail reception, followed by a formal dinner and viewing for 680 (more guests than last year by a small margin, but considerably fewer than in previous years after a decision to cut superfluous guests who weren't contributing to the benefit's bottom line). Following dinner offered by Mark’s Restaurant owner and chef Wayne Elias and co-owner Chris Diamond with their Crumble Catering team, guests bid on live auction items including Sharon Stone's 1974 Corvette and a world travel package patterned after Oscar-winning film Around the World in 80 Days. To cap off the night, Elton John and his band performed for more than an hour, along with guests Mary J. Blige and Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters. About 200 more guests joined the dinner group for the auction and performances.
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Elton John AIDS Foundation, Oscars, Award Season, Writers' Strike, Chopard, Vanity Fair, VH1 |
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| EVENT REPORT 02.25.08 1:07 PM |
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Silver Tones Bathe AIDS Project's Downsized Oscar Party
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 | AIDS Project's tented Oscar viewing party
Photo: BizBash |
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At last year's AIDS Project Los Angeles Oscar viewing party, first-time presenting sponsor SBE Entertainment Group's Sam Nazarian said he hoped to see the bash grow to include 1,000 guests in 2008—but there's nothing like a 100-day-long strike to stomp on big plans. Indeed, this year's AIDS Project party was almost canceled as the strike raged on into February. But when the labor dispute ended two weeks before the award ceremony, so did any plans to call off the event, which ended up drawing more than 500 guests to the Abbey last night.
On the silver anniversary of the AIDS organization (the group is 25 this year, and the event is seven), the party tent was awash in grays and blues. Gray carpeting and billowy drapery blanketed the dining space, and the color-changing chandelier that was on display at the SAG awards also made an appearance. Dupioni-wrapped boxes filled with fruit from Couture Baskets served as centerpieces, with the fruit being donated to AIDS Project's food bank, the Necessities of Life program. Guests dined on dishes from the Abbey’s chef, Michael Brown, and Jennifer Love Hewitt reprised her hosting duties.
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Oscars, Award Season, Writers' Strike, AIDS Project Los Angeles |
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| NEWS 02.25.08 12:43 PM |
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In Wake of Strike, Stewart-Hosted Oscars Proceed Amid Typical Hoopla
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 | Jon Stewart on stage at the Kodak Theatre
Photo: Michael Caulfield/WireImage |
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The 80th annual Academy Awards—the ceremony that many feared might not materialize on account of the now-ended writers strike—indeed proceeded last night at the Kodak Theatre, in star-filled, picket-free grandeur. And although staffers spent the days leading up to the awards diligently protecting the arrivals area on Hollywood Boulevard against persistent rain, the dreary day in Los Angeles belied the relief of organizers, including Oscar broadcast producer Gil Cates, who had said emphatically that the academy would put on its show regardless of any effects of a writers strike (but who was no doubt showing his best poker face as he said it).
Louis Horvitz directed the show, and playing host again was Jon Stewart, who earlier this month pulled out of hosting duties for a big New York fund-raiser, citing the strike as the reason. In his opening monologue, Stewart quipped about the cancellation of Vanity Fair's party (which the mag axed nominally in solidarity with the striking writers), suggesting that Vanity Fair might just invite the writers to the party as a show of solidarity instead. Stewart also called attention to the montage-heavy telecast, saying, "Had the writers strike continued, they would have had to pad the show with even more montages." (Organizers had a significantly abbreviated time to prepare the script.)
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Oscars, Award Season, Writers' Strike |
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| NEWS 02.22.08 3:14 PM |
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Oscar Event Update: What's Really On (It's a Lot)
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 | Silver Spoon's suite at the Kress
Photo: BizBash |
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You may have heard something about the matter of a certain labor dispute that was threatening Oscar events in Los Angeles. With some hugely significant exceptions, though—Vanity Fair's A-list-only bash, plus Ed Limato's pre-awards soiree, and some less heady others—many of the major events around town are going on as planned now that the strike has ended. Here's the rundown.
Silver Spoon is putting on a two-day gift suite, which began yesterday, at the strikingly revamped historic venue the Kress. Entertainment Fusion Group is handling PR. Guests traveling to the suite along Hollywood Boulevard from the west have to detour around the Oscar red-carpet setup, already being placed in front of the Kodak a few blocks away.
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RELATED TOPICS
Oscars, Award Season, Writers' Strike, Elton John AIDS Foundation, AIDS Project Los Angeles, Diamond Information Center, Night of 100 Stars, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Gift Suites, Motion Picture & Television Fund, WGA Strike Fund, Billboard, Children Uniting Nations, Variety, Lexus, Essence Magazine, Target, AOL, Night Before |
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| NEWS 02.20.08 1:13 PM |
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It's Official: EW Has Canceled Its East Coast Oscar Party
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 | Entertainment Weekly's annual party in New York has been nixed.
Photo: BizBash |
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FROM NEW YORK
Add another to the list of canceled Oscar-related events. In addition to Vanity Fair and Diane von Furstenberg calling off their shindigs, yesterday came the official word that Entertainment Weekly is not going ahead with its annual East Coast Oscar viewing at Elaine’s. Revealed by Page Six, we confirmed that EW's Oscar plans include smaller events instead of its usual gathering.
"In 2007, after our very successful L.A.-based Oscar party, we made a decision to not go forward with any New York Oscar event," a spokesperson from the magazine told us. "Given this year's uncertainty surrounding the ceremony, we decided to create a couple of smaller events [in Los Angeles] rather than one big one. These include a cocktail gathering with the cast of one of the films nominated for Best Picture, and a screening program where we will offer our readers the opportunity to see the five Best Picture-nominated films at the renowned ArcLight Theater in L.A."
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Entertainment Weekly, Oscars, Award Season, Writers' Strike, Time Inc. |
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| NEWS 02.13.08 12:34 PM |
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It's Over: In Time for Oscars, Writers Vote to End Strike
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It's official: The 100-day-long strike that wreaked havoc on award season and other Los Angeles events is over.
Writers Guild of America members voted overwhelmingly to end the walkout yesterday, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The trade reported that 3,775 writers turned out in L.A. and New York to cast ballots or fax in proxies, with most voting in favor of ending the strike.
Organizers for the Oscars, less than two weeks away, will now begin their scramble to assemble the telecast. Under normal circumstances, work on the script would have begun last month. —Alesandra Dubin
RELATED TOPICS
Writers' Strike, WGA, Award Season, Oscars |
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