Books/Magazines
Vanity Fair Cancels Oscar Bash Due To Strike
By Duane Wells

Feb 7, 2008

Forest Whitaker's celebrates his Oscar at last year's Vanity Fair party

Looks like Hollywood’s biggest night will be a little less glamorous this year. Vanity Fair Magazine has announced that it is scrapping plans for its star-studded annual Academy Awards soiree this year in deference to the three month old writer’s strike.  

Hosted by Vanity Fair honcho Graydon Carter, the annual Vanity Fair party as hot a ticket in Tinseltown on Oscar night as the Academy Awards broadcast itself. Only the A-list are sent invitations to the bash which was this year slated to move from its homebase at the now shuttered Morton’s in West Hollywood to a new location in Hollywood.  

"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," the magazine said in a statement posted on its Web site.  

"We want to congratulate all of this year's nominees and we look forward to hosting our 15th Oscar party next year," the magazine said.  

Vanity Fair plans to resume it’s annual bash next year.  

Meanwhile, with or without a resolution of the strike, plans for the Oscars are still moving forward as are plans for the annual Governor’s Ball catered by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, according to Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  

The Writers Guild of America and the movie and television studios have hinted that an an agreement that could end the strike might come as early as this week.