On Oscar night—after the academy doled out its awards at the Kodak and many guests scattered to the Governors Ball and Vanity Fair's and Elton John's bashes—a host of other parties was taking over town. Included in that group last night was at least one substantial newcomer, one annual party that grew, and one that shrank: Leeza Gibbons’ new fund-raiser with Olivia Newton-John and David Foster, Mercedes-Benz’s bash, and AIDS Project Los Angeles’s viewing party respectively.
Leeza Gibbons
The first Night to Make a Difference benefiting the Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation and Olivia Newton-John’s Cancer and Wellness Centre took to Mr. Chow, where about 250 guests dined on a 10-course meal during the broadcast that showed on 16 plasma screens in the space. Ken Paves hosted a red carpet arrivals program, volunteer correspondents interviewed celebrities about nonprofit causes, and musical guests including R&B and pop singer Thelma Houston and DJ Steve Aoki performed at the event, which streamed live online for six hours on Sunday, beginning at 4 p.m. The new event—for which tickets sold out the week before show time—has a three-year contract with Mr. Chow for future Oscar night galas.
“The veteran [Oscar night] events that have been around become kind of a closed room. It’s a wonderfully exclusive group, but there are so many people who want to be involved on Oscar night,” Gibbons said. “We all want to believe that we make a difference, and Hollywood is able to inspire people—we hope to cast a wide net [with our webcast].”
About starting a new event in a recession, Gibbons said, “In these challenging times… clearly corporations and sponsors are much more conscious about where they’re lending their support and how much they can afford to lend. Everyone wants to be mindful about throwing a party when many people don’t even have jobs. But we said, O.K., the economy is down, but our resolve is up.”
The event’s executive producer Robbie Blumenfeld added, “We had 130 people working on the broadcast on Sunday. The volunteerism in getting this event off the ground was just unbelievable.”
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedez-Benz took its bash to the new Montage Beverly Hills, after having spent previous years at the Four Seasons. The move was tied into the auto brand’s hotel partnership program dubbed Destinations, which entitles Mercedes owners to lodging privileges. The evening, produced by New York-based Bronson Van Wyck, included a viewing party in the hotel’s Spanish-inspired ballroom amid cozy lounge seating, towering palms, plasma screens, a center bar, and an after-party, during which DJ Samantha Ronson spun. (Ronson's on-again-off-again girlfriend Lindsay Lohan hovered nearby.) Polite in Public set up a paparazzi-theme photo booth where guests could snap their mugs holding fake Oscar statuettes.
“[This annual event] has been a party for us to host our industry friends—producers, directors, and other folks we work with all year on product placement,” said Mercedes-Benz's New Jersey-based manager of brand experience marketing, Lisa Holladay. “We can’t ignore the economy and its impact on marketing plans, but this is one that we felt was really important to keep. We thought it was a great opportunity for us to really come in and make a big impact as others are scaling back, so this is a bigger event for us than we’ve typically had. We cut the number off at 500 R.S.V.P.s, but we were still getting A-list replies [into the weekend] and obviously we were accepting those.”
AIDS Project Los Angeles
On the contrary, a nearby party had reduced its guest count. AIDS Project Los Angeles’s eighth-annual "The Envelope Please" viewing party, presented by SBE Entertainment and the Abbey and hosted by Jennifer Love Hewitt, brought about 300 guests for dinner, versus about twice that figure last year.
In previous years, it had offered $300, $500, and $1,000 ticket prices, and this year dropped the least expensive ticket option. Instead of making use of a large adjacent tent, this year the party utilized only the Abbey itself, dressing it up with things like champagne-colored linens that complemented its already ornate decor. Organizers brought in about 25 additional plasmas to give everyone a good view of the awards proceedings, happening a few miles to the northeast. The City of West Hollywood helped out by picking up permitting fees, Metrosource magazine served as the event’s media partner, and sponsor Couture Baskets brought is fruit-filled decor, the contents of which head to the food pantry after the event.
“The economy is impacting our donors, so we decided to scale the event down,” said A.P.L.A. senior development officer for events David Coscia. “It’s really a family event. I see it as a community, family kind of event.”
