| EVENT REPORT 05.12.09 8:00 AM |
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More Correspondents' Weekend Coverage: Bloomberg and Vanity Fair's Exclusive Party, Atlantic Media's Dinner, McLaughlin's Brunch, and More
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FROM WASHINGTON
As in years past, parties of every kind and color—from movie screenings to exhibit openings to hangover brunches—surrounded this year's White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Here’s a wrap-up of the weekend's attractions:
Bloomberg and Vanity Fair's After-Party
Capitol File may have hosted the weekend's biggest party, but the most exclusive honors went to Bloomberg LP and Vanity Fair, who hosted an impossible-to-get-into shindig for 250 on Saturday night. Taking over French ambassador Pierre Vimont's turn-of-the-century home in Kalorama, the party drew big names from politics and Hollywood, among them Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Glenn Close, Eva Longoria, David Axelrod, Desiree Rogers, and the ubiquitous Captains Chesley Sullenberger and Richard Phillips. The party took over the mansion's interior rooms with bars and buffets, and spilled out into the backyard, where the many trees were uplit in blue, pink, and green.
David Bradley's Private Dinner
On Friday night, Atlantic Media owner David Bradley and his wife, Katherine Brittain Bradley, hosted an indoor cocktail reception followed by an outdoor seated dinner at their Embassy Row home. Sponsored by Toyota and Robert Mondavi Winery, the annual event was twice as large as last year, thus requiring for the first time a 40- by 40-foot HDO Productions tent, which Frost Lighting technicians draped with white rope lights.
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RELATED TOPICS
White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, Capitol File, Bloomberg, Vanity Fair, Atlantic Media, Toyota, Robert Mondavi Winery, Barack Obama, Haddad Media, White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, Creative Coalition, DC Magazine, The McLaughlin Group, Time Inc., People Magazine, Time magazine |
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| NEWS 04.17.09 1:53 PM |
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People and Time Team Up for White House Correspondents Weekend Party
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FROM WASHINGTON
Cohosting, it appears, is the order of the day for media companies throwing parties before and after this year’s White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday, May 9, at the Hilton Washington.
Time Inc. publications Time and People will jointly host a cocktail reception Friday evening at Astor Terrace at the St. Regis. Expected to attend are some of the entertainers who will be at the People table the following night: Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, along with Miranda Cosgrove, Kevin Bacon, Forest Whitaker, Jon Hamm, Eva Longoria Parker, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, and Brooke Shields and her husband, Chris Henchy. Time has not released its dinner guest list.
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White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, Time Inc., Time Magazine, Bloomberg, Vanity Fair, Haddad Media, National Journal Group, People Magazine, The Atlantic, ABC, Capitol File |
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| TED KRUCKEL 12.18.08 11:47 AM |
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Since the Grinch Stole Christmas Parties, I Went in Search of Secret Santas
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 | Remember Christmas?
Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images |
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There are so many things to be mad at these days, but I hate to run with the crowd, so I have decided to focus my enmity on Lydia Hearst. She’s a big-haired model, and up until recently, a Page Six magazine columnist. That résumé bullet disappeared due to an item in her last column that basically said “shame on you” to Hearst magazines for “partying through the recession.” Then she said she didn’t write that, so Page Six printed her email showing she kind of did. (Apparently her literary skills, journalism pedigree regardless, were slight.) Then she complained about her employer (never wise) and, one way or another, she’s out of a job.
I didn’t need Page Six to tell me she couldn’t write; her musings, even assisted, were proof she can’t really think. I loved her column. But for some reason the swipe at her family’s company—she spelled out the link in case we couldn’t make the connection—got under my skin. First of all, I’m on the party beat, and I haven’t been blown away by the largesse of recent Hearst blowouts.
Secondly, who is this independently wealthy yet paid-to-party girl telling people not to throw them? The ire boiled hotter when I happened to notice that George Gurley, New York Observer writer and unapologetic party-goer (though he does often convey guilt), described a night of unusually debased debauchery—ending at 10:30 the next morning—that included a 6 a.m. phone call with Lydia Hearst inviting him to fly out to California for her birthday party. Now, I don’t think she was making calls to invitees before her morning jog, do you?
In fact, I’d argue that it’s people like her, materially unaffected by the economy yet endlessly bellyaching and cutting back, who are the reason so many professionals in the entertaining industry are having a cold Christmas.
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RELATED TOPICS
Corporate Holiday Parties, Page Six, Time Inc., Food & Wine Magazine, New York Observer, Women's Wear Daily, Condé Nast |
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| EVENT REPORT 04.28.08 5:35 PM |
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Modern Lounges Accent Correspondents Dinner Preparties
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 | Thomson Reuters's stark white setting and pink lighting
Photo: Lara Shipley for BizBash |
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FROM WASHINGTON
The cocktail parties before the White House Correspondents Association dinner, held at various sites throughtout the Washington Hilton terrace and lobby, kicked off a long night of shoulder-rubbing and celebrity sightings (with hundreds of tourists and locals waiting outside to get a glimpse) on Saturday evening. News outlets competed to get the best crowd into their rooms, relying on sparse decor, heavy branding, and the tabloid-friendly roster of celebrities they were able to lure—everyone from the Jonas Brothers and Perez Hilton to The Hills' feuding starlets Lauren Conrad and Heidi Montag made the rounds.
Thomson Reuters suffered from crowd-flow issues due to a bottleneck (and the large check-in table) at the adjacent Newsweek fete. That said, the company did put some thought into this year's decor scheme. “After having done this event for a couple of years, we knew we wanted a fresh, clean lounge,” said Thomson Reuters marketing communications executive Iris Puerto, who worked with New York-based Watson Productions to create an all-white space, from the short shag carpeting to the low leather seating. Flat-screen monitors showed off the company’s brand-new orange and white logo, while pink lighting gave off a girlish hue.
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White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, Newsweek, Thomson Reuters, People Magazine, CNN, Time magazine, Fortune, Time Inc., Atlantic Media |
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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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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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RELATED TOPICS
Entertainment Weekly, Oscars, Award Season, Writers' Strike, Time Inc. |
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| EVENT REPORT 02.14.08 12:46 PM |
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Sports Illustrated Re-Creates City Rooftop for Swimsuit Issue
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 | Sports Illustrated's logo was reminiscent of signs found on rooftops.
Photo: Joe Fornabaio for BizBash |
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Celebrating swimsuits in the middle of February may work well for Sports Illustrated, but it presented some thematic challenges for Tuesday night's launch party for the magazine's iconic swimsuit issue. "We didn't want to do the obvious thing and make it tropical," said Ashley Morris, production coordinator for MKG Productions, which produced the party under the direction of Sports Illustrated's executive director of event marketing and athlete relations Christine Rosa and events marketing manager Kristen Leoce. So instead the team embraced the New York locale, the 52nd floor of 7 World Trade Center, echoing the skyscraper space's 360-degree views (somewhat marred by the night's snowstorm) and creating a rooftop feel for the event.
Beneath the exposed pipes and air ducts in the raw space were faux-brick structures and smoking silver chimneys, which represented the typical industrial structures found on New York City roofs. The props conveniently doubled as a place to rest drinks; low black couches on either side provided seating. Due to the size and weight of the stage and other large props, set-up was a multi-day operation, so SI rented out the space for five days, allowing MKG to move in the biggest props on Saturday, when the office tower was less busy.
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Sports Illustrated, Budweiser, Dodge, Time Inc. |
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| EVENT REPORT 02.11.08 11:26 AM |
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In Style and the Recording Academy Stage Pre-Grammy Fashion Show
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 | Rihanna performed at the "Salute to Fashion" debut.
Photo: Jordan Strauss/WireImage |
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FROM LOS ANGELES
Barry Manilow memorably sang about music, passion, and fashion in his Grammy-winning "Copacabana." Those three themes (or at least two of them) were the crux of In Style's fashion show and concert cohosted with the Recording Academy at Boulevard3 on Thursday night, an officially sanctioned pre-Grammy-awards event.
In Style fashion director Hal Rubenstein curated a colorful, high-energy fashion show, with designs from musicians-turned-designers Beyoncé, Jessica Simpson, Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Lopez, Jay-Z, and Sean Combs. Rihanna performed an impassioned full-scale concert, complete with a troupe of four backup dancers, on the runway where the models had strutted only minutes earlier.
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RELATED TOPICS
In Style Magazine, Recording Academy, Grammys, Award Season, Time Inc. |
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| Q & A 11.07.06 12:00 AM |
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Time Inc.'s West Coast Post
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 | | Kevin Winter/Getty Images |
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FROM LOS ANGELES
Cyd Wilson
Title: Director of creative development for In Style and People
What She Plans: Wilson throws two dozen events a year around the world. “I am responsible for all the branding events that involve the Hollywood community. I do events internationally for our international publications, anything that’s entertainment-industry related. The events are about a quarter of my responsibilities. I do all of our cause-related marketing between our advertisers and Hollywood charities, as well as all of our philanthropic giving for both of the magazines. I’m also responsible for our larger relationships—like maintaining partnerships in the entertainment industry, such as In Style’s marketing partnership with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.”
Staff: An L.A.-based manager and coordinator
Age: 54
Career Path: Wilson graduated from CSUN with a B.A. in business administration, and then worked in psychiatric hospital administration for 10 years. After taking a decade off to raise her kids, she volunteered with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. From there, she became development director and helped create the Time for Heroes event. Sponsors included People, whose then-president, Ann Moore, recruited her as a liaison between Time Inc. magazines and charities. Wilson began as a consultant in 1995 and moved to In Style when it launched. When its founding editor, Martha Nelson, moved to People, Wilson agreed to work with the weekly as well.
Where She Lives: Brentwood
Where She Grew Up: Born in Hollywood, raised in Van Nuys
Favorite Event Designers: Stanley Gatti, Thomas Ford
Favorite Song: “I Will Survive”
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RELATED TOPICS
Time Inc., People Magazine, In Style Magazine, Oscars, Golden Globes |
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