For now, it appears, the Academy Awards will still take place on March 2nd. The Academy will no doubt offer a charitable contribution and perhaps celebrate first responders in the audience.
But the fires are still raging in Los Angeles, and tens of thousands of people are homeless, or displaced, and entire communities have been destroyed.
Elton John will have his annual fundraiser for his AIDS Foundation because the proceeds all go to a very worthy cause, as usual.
But what about Vanity Fair? With declining circulation and readership, the former watercooler talk magazine has turned itself into one thing: a party thrower. The annual Vanity Fair Oscar party sucks all the oxygen out of Oscar night following the big show. But it’s never been about anything other than promoting itself.
Now Vanity Fair faces a big dilemma: will they really set up shop on Santa Monica Boulevard with tents, a red carpet, a huge security presence while embers smolder just a few miles away? Even if the Pacific Palisades party is 100% contained by next week, the immediate fall out won’t be resolved in any fashion.
Indeed, many of the invitees will come from Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Malibu and environs. It’s one thing to show up for charity — aka the AIDS foundation. But will anyone go to a party whose sole design is to be publicly exclusive? It seems tone deaf, to say the least.
The magazine and its sponsors spend millions on that tiresome party. But this year, Conde Nast would probably get more attention for its brands if it just donated all that money to the relief funds. Do we really need to see all the Kardashians, et al decked out in their tacky finery with the magazine’s logo behind them? And to hear they dined out on Wolfgang Puck pizzas? It will be instructive to see what they decide.
