Just before midnight, two of the Oscars’ biggest winners, Mikey Madison and Adrien Brody, descended on the Vanity Fair party, one of the starriest shindigs of Hollywood’s longest — and biggest — day of the year at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills.
Brody is swarmed by photographers when he strides into the main party space with his partner, fashion designer Georgina Chapman, grinning on his arm and his Oscar statue in hand. The actor’s parents, Sylvia Plachy and Elliot Brody, are a step behind.
Every few feet, “The Brutalist” star gets stopped by one A-lister after another offering their congratulations: There’s Oscars host Conan O’Brien, who has been fielding kudos of his own for a job well done as first-time emcee. Next, Brody says hello to Queen Latifah, who performed the tribute to Quincy Jones during the show. Then, Vin Diesel stops Brody for a handshake and, as Brody inches closer to the bar at the center of the room, Jon Hamm gives him a pat on the back. By the time, Jerry Bruckheimer wrapped up his congratulations and Diplo got around to testing out the trophy’s weight, I realize I’m sandwiched between two Oscar winners.
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On the other side of the glass window, Madison (who swapped her pink and black Dior Haute Couture gown from the ceremony for a black Dior ballgown) is fielding congratulations from the gaggle of Young Hollywood talent congregated on the outdoor patio. Jenna Ortega (Madison’s “Scream” co-star), Madelyn Cline, Hunter Schafer, Danny Ramirez, Reneé Rapp, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Rachel Zegler and Cara Delevingne gathered around Madison, who clutched her Oscar excitedly, eventually moving on about 20 minutes later to take a seat on the plush velvet couch in the party’s sunken living room. (The venue was designed to have a retro-glam feel, evoking a 1960s Hollywood party, drenched in marigold and peach hues.)
By this point, Brody is sitting too; Chapman stands to take a picture of him and his parents on the couch across from Madison’s. It would be another half hour until Madison’s “Anora” director Sean Baker arrives from the Neon party with his entourage, including his producing partner and wife Samantha Quan, carrying so many trophies they were difficult to keep track of. When the “Anora” crew, including Yura Borisov and Mark Eydelshteyn, squeezed onto the couch for a group photo, there were nearly enough trophies for everyone to hold one.
While Madison and Brody were two of the most sought-after sightings, they were hardly the only stars engulfed by attention at the bash.
When this Variety reporter arrived just before 11 p.m., the party, hosted by Vanity Fair’s Radhika Jones, was in full swing, with best supporting actress winner Zoe Saldaña just stepping out of a sprinter van with her Oscar and family (parents Asalia Nazario and Aridio Saldaña, and her husband Marco Perego Saldaña) in tow.
“I’m going to ask my boys where they want to put the award, and as long as they don’t run around and chase each other with it, I think we’re going to be fine,” Saldaña told Variety’s Marc Malkin on the gold and silver arrivals carpet.
Asked what she hopes young women see when they look at her — the third Latina to win that trophy, and the first not playing Anita in “West Side Story” — she replied: “That you can do anything you want to do. You can defy gravity.”
Once inside, Saldaña (in a black and pink party dress from Saint Laurent) caught up with the gravity-defying “Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo (wearing her second ornate, white Vivienne Westwood number of the night), who held court in the middle of the living room with her mother Edith Erivo, Lena Waithe, Serena Williams and Debbie Allen. Then came a slew of well-wishers gushing over Saldaña (and angling for a selfie with her Oscar), so the “Emilia Pérez” star and her family didn’t make it far past the entrance. Instead, they staked their claim on a banquette, where they perched to snack on In-N-Out burgers and dance to the music.
Further into the 5,000 square foot room, the crew from “A Complete Unknown” huddled in a small alcove near the bar, where onlookers sipped on Don Julio 1942 cocktails and Kosta Brown wine, but really hovered to catch a glimpse of Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner, who’d skipped the red carpet to meet up with her beau inside the party. Both swapped their formal wear from the ceremony to sexier looks for the after (for him, an unbuttoned black and white tuxedo, and for her, a lace, corseted Ashi Studio gown).
The superstar couple celebrated Chalamet’s second Oscar nomination with a crew of family (his mother, Nicole Flender, and her equally famous sisters Kim Kardashian and Kendall Jenner) and friends (including his co-stars Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro). “Hey girl,” Fanning said to Hailee Steinfeld (who sparkled in silver Tamara Ralph) before they turned to pose for the house photographer.
The flow of the night was breezy, with a steady flow of incoming and outgoing stars. One example, as Erivo left the bash around 11:30 P.M. (possibly headed to Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Gold Party?), “Sing Sing” standout Clarence Maclin made his way in through the mirrored hallway that led from the arrivals carpet. Demi Moore and her daughters Tallulah, Rumer and Scout Willis also made a quick in and out (after all, she had a trayful of french fries to get home to). Last year’s Oscar darling Da’Vine Joy Randolph arrived (gilded in gold Valdrin Sahiti) at nearly 1 A.M.
How did we spot all these stars you ask? If you’re looking to figure out who’s who at the packed party, follow the flashbulbs. Case in point: when Camilla Cabello giddily greeted Olivia Rodrigo, who was sitting on a cushion in the center of the room, a photographer immediately appeared to snap a photo. Sitting directly behind the pop princesses under the glow of a giant five-foot disco ball was “Star Wars” legend Mark Hamill, tapping away on his cell phone.
The interaction (or lack thereof) lasts only for a beat before Cabello and Rodrigo rush off to chat with British singer Raye, who was playing cards on the couch with her sister Abby Keen and still buzzing from the rush of performing “Skyfall” during the James Bond segment at the show. Raye’s tribute partners Lisa and Doja Cat were also there — the latter of whom hit the dance floor with her boyfriend Joseph Quinn.
Club VF, as the discotheque room was branded, was Lil Nas X’s domain. The hitmaker clocked the most hours of anyone, twirling and twerking (with a champagne glass in hand) to every song on the DJ’s set list from ABBA and Gloria Estefan to Kendrick Lamar. At one point, he stepped outside for a breather (and another glass of champagne) where he gave Halle Bailey a quick hello.
Lupita Nyong’o, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, “Wicked” Oscar winner Paul Tazewell and fellow costumer Ruth E. Carter (who Tazewell gave a shoutout to after his historic victory) also got down on the dance floor. In fact, during one round of “Spot the Little Gold Men,” this Variety reporter counted a half dozen Oscar trophies swaying to the beat.
By 2 A.M., the party had largely cleared out with “Wicked” star Marissa Bode among the last to leave the Uber pickup lounge. Many guests at VF, like Madison, Baker and Saldaña, eventually ended up at Madonna and Guy Oseary’s annual bash, sponsored by Capital One and Gucci, which featured a surprise performance from Lil Wayne introduced by Chris Rock.
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