Why the Biggest Oscar Party Is Cutting Its Guest List in Half

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0:44Matt Belloni:This episode of The Town is brought to you by The Madison, the new original series on Paramount+. Academy Award nominee Taylor Sheridan's most intimate story yet, unlike anything he's ever done before. The Madison follows a family raised in a world of digital distraction, forced by tragedy to truly see one another and come together. Authentic, multi-layered, and did I mention starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell? Don't miss The Madison. New series streaming March 14th, only on Paramount+. It is Thursday, March 12th. Oscar week rolls on. We've covered a bunch of different angles on this show.

1:21Matt Belloni:Everything from the races to the ratings to the business of the red carpet. We've never done an episode about the parties. Obviously, they're a huge part of Oscar lore, and specifically one event has endured. It's the Vanity Fair party, of course. Despite all the ups and downs at the magazine, it's been around for 31 years now. There are more exclusive parties during Oscar week. Beyonce and Jay-Z throw their gold party at the Chateau, for instance. That's become kind of the toughest invite. but VF is still the party that almost everyone at least stops by after the show and the official after party, the Governor's Ball.

1:56Matt Belloni:And many stars and industry people fly into town just to hit VF and be seen. When Graydon Carter started doing it in the 90s at Morton's, it was a clubby successor to Agent Swifty Lazar's viewing party that had been the party for a long time. The heyday was probably the years at the Sunset Tower, a smallish space packed with A-listers. But in recent years, the VF party has ballooned to include a lot of corporate brand managers, random TV people, journalists taking videos on the dance floor. Everyone still showed up, but it was more like a neighborhood block party than an exclusive gathering. The new editor of Vanity Fair wants to change that.

2:33Matt Belloni:Marc Gadducci says he's cutting the guest list by about half, moving the party from a huge space at the Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills to a new space outside the Geffen Gallery at LACMA. That move has pissed off a ton of people who are used to getting themselves and their publicists into that party. But that's kind of the point. I love the move, and I think it's exactly what VF should be doing. So I invited Mark on the show to talk about why he's doing it, the role of the party and Vanity Fair in general in modern Hollywood, and most importantly, who specifically is getting the axe? From The Ringer and Puck, I'm Matt Bellany, and this is The Town.

3:13Matt Belloni:All right, we are here with Mark Gauducci, who is the global editorial director of Vanity Fair, recently in the job. Welcome. Hey, Matt. Thanks for having me. So you and I got together last summer when you got the job. And one of the things that surprised me about our conversation was that you told me that you thought the Oscar party was too big. that it got it unwieldy and that one of the things you wanted to do in your job was to scale it back make it more exclusive i chuckled a little having run a number of parties over the years including ones that are uh i don't want to say coveted but people expect to be invited and i immediately thought to myself this guy doesn't know what he's stepping in there are going to be so many people who have expected that invite year after year and he's gonna have to tell them or their reps that they are not invited and so how's that going look matt um i'm in la i'm in your town and i never want to leave this place every day i wake up in 75 and uh okay that is not an answer that is not an answer when you wake up like this uh My phone is blowing up, you might imagine.

4:27Who has screamed the loudest? I've been told to change the name on my hotel room. But no, actually, it's going great. We're a few days away. And, you know, the Oscar party started in 1994, as most people know something about. But Swiftie Lazar had this very small dinner that he used to do. And when he passed away, my predecessor, Graydon Carter, took it over. He invited a small group, like 100 people for dinner. and then it was an after party for the Oscars. Pretty simple. Over the years, it became an institution unto itself where it was a red carpet that nothing is quite the Oscars, but was almost rivaled the Oscars where it became a destination that was for more than just Hollywood.

5:11It was for a group of people that included everyone that was in the magazine, whether it was people from the worlds of, you know, other parts of culture or politics or...

5:22Matt Belloni:Yeah, but the Hollywood people cared the most. It became a status thing where if you were invited, you were somebody. If you weren't invited, you were nobody. So how are you managing that? All these agents, they have to tell their client that they're not invited. Because I've talked to publicists and they're like, yeah, they're not inviting the second level agents. They're not inviting the second level studio people. The lower level TV people that may have been fun to invite in the past. Like they're not invited now. so like what how are you curating this party so we start from scratch i whenever i do a party whether you know this is my first one at vanity fair at this scale that i worked at vogue for a long time you always start from scratch and think about what you want that room to look like so in this case the ethos of the party is to make a destination for the winners of the oscars people that have been on a odyssey well but i'm told you're not inviting all the oscar nominees all the winners will be oh so so you're talking about winners even if the the sound guy the sound mixing winner can get in absolutely you you you come with there's a golden rule you come with an oscar you're coming in and but the golden rule is often bastardized by the 10 agents that arrive with timothy chalamet or michael b jordan how are you handling that there's a good story you know that you you you win an oscar you're coming that's it but what about your 10 agency people sure you're win an oscar you're coming and the idea is that you bring uh that we want to create an environment that those people want to be in so they don't necessarily need to see all the people they see all the time we want to create a room of people that they might want to meet actually and uh whether it's the worlds of tech or politics or journalists themselves i want it to feel like the magazine itself you know like when you flip the pages of the magazine or scroll through it uh online and it just it should feel like a mix you know you don't want it to feel like everyone that you see in a restaurant in Hollywood every Friday night.

7:20Sure.

7:20Matt Belloni:No, I get it. But I am looking at some of the people. I perused the red carpet photos last night and was chatting with some publicists. And I'm seeing people that were invited for years, like David Spade, Lindsay Lohan, Brian Grazer, Matt Bomer, like Katie Couric. Like, who of those people are not invited now? I'm not going to talk about the guest list specifically. Specifically, who did you cut? can i suggest grazer grazer would be my number one to cut but like you're not you're not gonna get me here no way no way okay all right i'm not talking about the guest list i get it but but there is a sense that you know well you can fight me on this but like the magazine the magazine world in general is not what it was we all know that the cost of this party i'm told it costs between three and four million dollars to throw this party or it has in the past isn't this decision to downscale largely to cut costs no i would say that our our all of our numbers are up across the board except the invite list okay so you're spending the same amount on the party you say but not inviting i'm not i'm not going to talk about our costs and our production but i would say that uh look the magazines are very different now than they were in the 90s there's no question than when this magazine started.

8:41We used to have one product. We used to have one product that we put out monthly and that was it. Now, obviously, a magazine is a podcast. It's a website. It's TikTok. It's Instagram. It's YouTube. It's a film project. And it's also an in real life event. You know, like the red carpet that we produce is going to be bigger than it's ever been before. And the content that we, I don't love that word, but the content that we make, which is the sentence of which is a live stream. that's that's as much the magazine as the monthly issue that comes out but you're not letting media

9:14Matt Belloni:inside the party you say or at least they're not allowed because one of the problems of the party and people have complained over the years is that it's a lot of like corporate brand managers from procter and gamble and lvmh and people like that that no star wants to see but you have to invite for advertiser relationships and then you invite in a bunch of media people who are taking twitter videos of Will Smith on the dance floor. And like, it's just not special. It's it's it's ended up with a sense of this is something you have to go to make your scene and then you go to the place you really want to go.

9:49Absolutely. We want it to be special. Like that is it always was. And in looking back to how it started and the original ethos, that's what we're trying to achieve. So you're right. There will be no press inside other than Vanity Fair, no photographers other than a couple that we have for ourselves i mean think about it this way that like this is our we have the exclusive on this story why would we give it away well because you want press and the advertising like who are your sponsors sure but you but but i think that you really the most important thing is the red carpet is that's that's the place for all of to make all the news to make all of the tiktoks and the instagrams and for people to that that's a place that people actually talk to the press there's more press than ever on the red carpet but once you go inside we're actually going to put stickers on people's phones and ask that they don't use social media bungalow style bungalow style sure i mean the best weddings parties that i've been to are the ones that you actually don't see anything from because people are present it's like a psychological difference

10:44Matt Belloni:as much as a no it's the beyonce party you don't see press from the beyonce jay-z party and it's it's lended an ethos of mystique to it and people want to go because of that um what we're a business podcast what is the business of this party is this a loss leader do you have sponsors now who are the sponsors we live in an age of sponsorship matt i know that um i saw that puck did a uh what looked like a great event at the french ambassadors residence in dc the other night and delta was there front and center totally no shame but is it is it delta or is it like skims the live stream itself is the biggest piece of this puzzle and we have ads in the middle of the live stream so if you think about it that way it's like we're creating a show and then we're running you know a piece of editorial content that we run advertising against that's like old school media so if you think about it that way that's that's where you see our our sponsors show up that makes sense and we're grateful to them but you don't you don't have them on the step and repeat or anything like that no no no and you're moving to lacma why lacma is that to kind of elevate the brand a little bit We're artsy.

11:52Matt Belloni:We can compete with the Met Gala a little bit. No, I would never. Are you kidding? I would never. Oh, sorry. I touched the third rail there. You are not allowed to say anything competitive with the Met Gala. Anna will have your head. No way. It's not smart for anybody. But I would say that I went to visit Michael Govan maybe a couple of years ago now and saw from his office, which is across the street, down onto the LACMA, you know what was the zoom thor building under construction and i just thought it was extraordinary and the way he uh we have a story that's coming out in our spring issue the cover of which launched today uh about how he just against all the haters through sheer will was able to make this happen over two decades and i was so impressed by what he had uh what his vision was and how he had you know of just been able to accomplish it through determination.

12:48And I think it's honestly just a really beautiful building. So we are not inside the building. He has his opening in a month, but we are on the LACMA grounds. We're thrilled to be there. And I can't wait to do much more with him. This is like a partnership that we're going to be doing with LACMA around their work and our party over a number of years.

13:08Matt Belloni:And you mentioned the cover. It's nice to do a Kylie Jenner cover the week of the Oscars if you really want timmy to show up at your party even if he loses not that that was the reason not that that was the reason it's not the reason i mean we also we put tiana on the cover recently and i know i know i'm giving you a hard time but about kylie i'll talk about kylie for a second because sure um you know tina brown the editor of vanity fair in the 80s after when it revived after frank crown and sheldon the jazz age tina really made vanity fair loud i think grayden made it uh grand and And Radhika Jones, my immediate predecessor, made it inclusive.

13:47But in all that time, you know, the Kardashians have become a global cultural influence. And none of them have ever been on the cover before. I found that kind of amazing when I arrived. That is weird. Not even Kim? Not even Kim. Graydon didn't like the Kardashians.

14:03Matt Belloni:He found them trashy. I can't speak to that. But I just thought it was a... It reflects the new cast of characters that I want to bring to Vanity Fair. Sure. Is Graydon coming to the party? Well, I know you invited him. I have said no talking about the guest list, but I have said this already. So it's out there. Yes, Graydon is coming and I'm so thrilled to have him. He was my first boss and I'm happy he's coming. This episode is brought to you by AMC+. The critically acclaimed series Dark Winds returns for a fourth season from executive producers Robert Redford and George R.R. Martin. When a young girl disappears, the Navajo tribal police are pushed beyond their limits, forced to confront unfamiliar land, twisted obsessions, and a trail of grisly murders.

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15:29Matt Belloni:Who would be the big get for the party this year? I want there to be a mix of icons of people that you can't believe are there. They're still with us, thank God. And you haven't seen them in years. And people that are very right now. I think that mix is really important. Let's talk about Vanity Fair in general, because it has an interesting relationship with Hollywood. And I do think that that relationship has changed a bit over the past decade or so. It used to be, and why don't you give me your pitch for why Vanity Fair is still relevant in Hollywood? And then I'll give you what I think people in town really think of it.

16:09I would think it celebrates the best of our culture and investigates the forces that propel that culture. So that can be money or politics. The history of anti-fair in Hollywood is that it's always had a star on the cover and we have a Hollywood issue. And there's an influence of Hollywood throughout. The way I think about Hollywood is probably a lot less rigid than, and I would say more modern than previous generations have thought of this town. I think of Hollywood as not just film and television. I think of it also as sports and the influencer culture and business and even fashion in some ways is show business.

16:48And so I don't think of Hollywood just as Los Angeles. It's also, it's global. You know, it's in Korea as much as it is here. And so I would say that when I think of our Hollywood coverage, I don't think of it like a trade publication in the narrow confines of like, these are the deals that are being done. This is what's going on with Warner Brothers. I think about it as show business and in a much broader point of view. That said, all of some of the best characters, I think, you know, you've been doing a great job covering probably the most interesting business deal in America right now or the world, perhaps, because it involves politics and technology and Hollywood and culture and great personalities.

17:34So Hollywood is a place that we want that we have always been and want to be. I just think of it a little differently in that way.

17:42Matt Belloni:OK, you want to hear what I think, please? And I think this is reflective and this is not, I'm not crapping on you at all. I think that Vanity Fair is still a luxury brand. People in Hollywood want to be associated with it. It still means something to be on the cover of Vanity Fair. It's one of the five, six magazines still around that still do mean something to people. They want to participate, though they can increasingly dictate the terms of that participation. What I think it has lost, and I don't say this to be mean, I think it's lost juice. It doesn't have the juice that it once did with the industry where it felt urgent.

18:27Matt Belloni:And you knew that at the end of the day, Graydon wouldn't be afraid to stab someone or to go hard. and against the right topic or the right subject. And there was a little bit of, today you'd probably call it snark, but it was the spy magazine ethos. And I just think it's so much more difficult to do that in the age of social media than it was in the old days of magazines, that it sort of, it has turned BF into a luxury brand, which is not a bad thing. I mean, you still have a category of advertising in fashion that very much wants that, but it doesn't have the same juice. We will take on deserving subjects without flinching.

19:16That includes Hollywood.

19:17Matt Belloni:So if you top of my head, there is a good story about how Ryan Murphy has, you know, had bad behavior and people hate him. And he's had a bunch of flops in a row. You're doing the Ryan Murphy story. If there's a story worth doing, we're doing it. On my first day at Vanity Fair, I talked to the team specifically about politics, but I had noticed that it's related to your point. So let me get there. That magazine journalism had become, I felt, too similar to almost advocacy work. Like this idea that if you were going to be in the magazine, it was platforming somebody and that you were moving forward as an endorsement or something.

20:00When in fact, like that's not what journalism does. Right. Right.

20:05Matt Belloni:And so I said to everyone, you got a lot of attention for your your Trump cover or your your Susie Wiles cover. Well, that you're jumping. Yeah, that that was the result of this conversation I had with my team. I said, we're going to go to Washington and Florida and we're going to knock on the doors of the people that run this government. And we're going to say, can we talk to you and take your picture in good faith? And turns out Susie Wiles said yes. And we went down to the White House and they invited us in and we did the thing. So I think that that's a good example of what take, you know, that we're not afraid to pull punches.

20:35We can punch up. We can. And I would do just the same thing in Hollywood if there was the right story.

20:41Matt Belloni:okay um what does the whole death of access journalism mean to a magazine like bandy fair you just i mean i i have looked at old profiles in vf and elsewhere and just the level of access and the level of you know ability to quote and all of that stuff it's just gone away there's no reason for any star of any magnitude to do that i would frankly there's no reason for you to do that why antagonize a publicist or a star by doing an honest portrayal in a profile when you can have their best friend interview them like vogue does well we still do it so there's that i mean i would say you're talking about the death of access journalism i just talked about a great example of yeah but that's politics that's politics you can take your swings in politics you can't take your swings in hollywood well we actually aren't reliant on our fyc business the awards advertising the awards advertising the studios are partners you rely on access you want ryan murphy to give you the pictures of his new jfk jr first i i don't assign based on uh fear of of retribution it just it it never works by the way you know that better than anybody i agree trust me you pull a story because you're afraid of the response you're making the wrong decision i think there's a lot of self-censorship though and that's and it's just It's not you.

22:07Matt Belloni:I'm not I'm not harping on you. I think the social media age has flipped the switch on the power dynamic. And every single star has more power than any media outlet. So you tow the line. Yeah, no, I think I think that happened in social media. That's true. But audiences see that and I have grown up with that. The idea of having a real profile, you know, I want the profile to mean something. And so if you if we get if we are known for having fair profiles of people and that are able that earn trust both with the with our audiences and with our subjects, then that actually means something. It's harder work and it's a more long-term view of it.

22:47But as you know, Matt, you can write and report juicy stories that have access. I'm on your podcast. I listen to it all the time. You have plenty of access.

22:58Matt Belloni:Yeah, that's true. It's just a different kind of form. And I came up doing this in this forum. It's harder to steer a brand. I ran into this at Hollywood Reporter. It's harder to steer a brand where there's a brand and there's an expectation of a certain type of content. And then if you start doing something else, people freak out. Like cutting half the list for the party. Well, exactly. How interesting would it be if there was a magazine out there that was willing to take a shot? Okay. Well, we will see. I got to say, I did think you did a nice job with the Hollywood issue this year. I thought it was cool.

23:31Matt Belloni:Is that because you were in it, Matt? It was not because I was in it. But no, I thought there were some good ideas in it. And it felt like a traditional Hollywood issue. But there were some fun things that I did not expect. I appreciate that. Cool. Thank you. I'm not here to crap on you. So what does success for you look like? What did they say to you at the beginning? How do you define success for VF? I think of the readership of VF. The people that I think about when I'm looking over a lineup are that the readership are the people that are in the magazine. The people that might like to be. and then everyone that is interested enough to buy a ticket to the arena so i'm always thinking about those people and if that so i'm trying to listen to all three of those parts of our audience uh that come in different ways some of it is qualitative some of it is like data that comes in but if people if it resonates with people and it feels like they're um getting a window into something into some world that they're not a part of because even if you're like a studio exec, you might not in Hollywood, you might not understand what's happening in the Elysee Palace in Paris.

24:38I would like to be able to bring people into other worlds. So that's very qualitative. But actually, what success looks like is that we're able to accomplish a lot of what you're talking about, what we're talking about right now in terms of access journalism, and being able to be known for having fair but exciting and I think some fun stories that exist not only in a magazine, but actually exist across all of the platforms.

25:07Matt Belloni:How do you stem the bleeding at these brands? Like that's what people are curious about in publishing. I want subscriptions. I want to make things that people are willing to pay for. I came up in an era of Google search, which I think was corrosive to journalism, not only because it made us target stories that, you know, we're just going to trend higher, but also because we trained an entire generation of journalists to wake up in the morning, see what was trending already on Google and go write two of the three stories that day based in the voice of their publication. I say that to journalists all the time.

25:41I mean, you know, because you actually do. You don't make phone calls. They don't go out and meet people. They don't develop relationships and go get stories that not just have a take on something, but actually start a conversation. AI promises, we'll see what happens, but it promises to wipe away Google search and to aggregate better than your, I said this the other day, better than your favorite blogger's favorite blog. And so in that world, I really believe in the tools and tenets of old school magazine journalism. But if you are going out there and not only getting the story, but also can package it in a way that is compelling.