Oscar Wrap-Up: Vanity Fair Stays on Top

With another year of Oscar parties gone by, there was little in the way of a shake-up among the power events, despite a significant new entry to the scene in the form of Us Weekly and Rolling Stone magazines' upstart party next to Elton John's annual biggie at the Pacific Design Center.

The consensus in the press says Vanity Fair's party at Morton's, hosted by editor Graydon Carter, remained at the top of the heap for its caché—even trimming its guest list from near 1,500 to less than 1,000 (perhaps inspired by Condé Nast cousin Vogue's similar move last year for the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute gala, in a bid to keep its "Party of the Year" status in New York). A party guest told The New York Post that "the newly svelte guest list made for 'the best Oscar party in five years.'" And The Los Angeles Times said an invitation to the party "remains the holy grail of Hollywood status validation. Some popped into John's annual fete and even the new Us Weekly/Rolling Stone shindig (both down the road at the Pacific Design Center), but this one, it must be said, is where somebodies come to assert their somebodiness, and nobodies come to gawk."

Even omnipresent party princess Paris Hilton—the mag's cover girl last October—didn't make the coveted invitation list, Women's Wear Daily reported. "The only Hilton we'll allow in is Conrad Hilton, in an urn," Carter said on Real Time With Bill Maher before the event. (She managed to find refuge at John's party, though, and we saw the heiress leaving the less-exclusive Us Weekly party around 11:30 PM.)
Posted 03.09.06
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