Graydon Carter Calls it Quits

Vanity Fair cancels annual Oscar bash
Tuesday, February 05, 2008

(NEW YORK) Graydon Carter has pulled the plug on his magazine's Oscar party.
 
Vanity Fair this afternoon officially announced that the magazine has decided to cancel its annual star-studded extravaganza on Academy Awards night, February 24.

The party, billed as Tinseltown's most exclusive ticket, was to have taken place at CAA favorite Craft in Century City, after relocating from Morton's, which had played host since 1993. Last year, Morton's lost its lease, and is currently being converted to the L.A. outpost of Soho House. "When Morton's announced it was closing, we thought it was time for a change," Carter told Variety in October. "Craft is the ideal place for the party: great food--which we will not be serving family-style, by the way--great location with a dramatic entrance and a big, sweeping space."

According to a spokesperson, Vanity Fair had originally intended to build out beyond Craft's terrace to add additional space. The extra breathing room, however, was in no way a direct correlation to what many had presumed to be an increased guest list; on the contrary, the event was going to be curtailed to cater to a slightly smaller crowd.

"After much consideration, and in support of the writers and everyone else affected by this strike, we have decided that this is not the appropriate year to hold our annual Oscar party," a spokesperson for the Condé Nast title said in a statement. "We want to congratulate all of this year's nominees and we look forward to hosting our 15th Oscar party next year."
 
The announcement comes at a surprising juncture in the ongoing Writer's Guild Association strike (now approaching the 90-day mark), which in the last two days offered an optimistic glimpse that the Hollywood writer's strike was coming to a possible end.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards proceeded unfazed thanks to a WGA waiver, as will the upcoming Grammy Awards on Feb. 10, where the WGA has promised not to picket. A spokesperson for the Academy Awards had no update on whether the waiver would also be applied to the Oscars.

The 80th-annual Academy Awards will take place at the Kodak Theatre and be televised on ABC.