If Vanity Fair’s legendary party at Morton’s is the A-listers-only holy grail of Academy Award events, the magazine’s pre-Oscar Amped concert is its more democratic—but nonetheless still classy and mercifully uncrowded—younger sibling. This year’s show, at Boulevard3, featured a concert by a dolled-up Macy Gray (looking very Dreamgirls in a long garnet dress and elbow-length gloves, with a bejeweled mic stand). The sixth annual event benefited the singer’s charity, the M. Gray Music Academy. The Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am hosted.“This is our version of a young Hollywood event,” said Vanity Fair director of special events Julie Moore, who would know, since she worked on magazine events in the area before moving to New York and joining Condé Nast. “The Morton’s party goes with a formula. And whereas that party is strictly editorial, this is more ad side, with advertiser integration.”
Subtle integration, we might point out—like a clean-looking wall of Pravda vodka bottles, sans in-your-face logos or signage. Nautica’s brand name appeared on Lance Armstrong-style bracelets that served as an alternative to ugly plastic wristbands for entry to the party. Decor was spare, apart from a gallery of photographs of women shot for the magazine’s pages over the decades and a smattering of the Vanity Fair logo gobos the magazine has been known to apply liberally at events.
—Alesandra Dubin
Posted 02.23.07
Subtle integration, we might point out—like a clean-looking wall of Pravda vodka bottles, sans in-your-face logos or signage. Nautica’s brand name appeared on Lance Armstrong-style bracelets that served as an alternative to ugly plastic wristbands for entry to the party. Decor was spare, apart from a gallery of photographs of women shot for the magazine’s pages over the decades and a smattering of the Vanity Fair logo gobos the magazine has been known to apply liberally at events.
—Alesandra Dubin
Posted 02.23.07