Innholdsfortegnelse for The Oscars i Vanity Fair

Noël Coward, the ultimate sophisticate, said it best in the opening lyric of his campy song—“I’ve been to a marvelous party.” He didn’t mean the Oscar party, but that is exactly what people say, and have been saying for 75 years [actually 85 now], on the morning after the Academy Awards. Oscar night is the party night in Hollywood—New Year’s Eve and the Fourth of July rolled into one—and since 1994 the Vanity Fair party has been the one to be seen at. It’s also the hardest to get into, which makes it all the more desirable. Such glamour, such swank, such high fashion, and, above all, such star power. The crowd outside cheers the famous descending from their limousines, and the journalists, lined up behind velvet ropes, scream the…

I or more than a dec ade, the only way people could get a glimpse inside “the most famous party in the world,” as the press refers to the Vanity Fair Oscar party, was by devouring page after page of photographs in the May issue. After some partygoers tried to sneak in their own cameras, guests were politely asked to check their cameras on arrival and collect them on departure. For all intents and purposes, what happened at the party stayed at the party, unless it was shot by a V.F.-commissioned photographer The idea to do a photo booth, which we introduced in 2010, was prompted by the simple thought that our guests might enjoy taking home a strip of candids as a souvenir. We banked on the idea that…

Not one of these 21 revered actors, directors, screenwriters, and songwriters ever received an Oscar in a major competitive category. But they were happy just to be nominated, weren’t they? Back row (with number of nominations in parentheses): John Barrymore (none), William Powell (3), Noël Coward (2), Peter Sellers (3), Glenn Close (6), Ernst Lubitsch (4), George Gershwin (1, posthumously), Arthur Miller (1), Deborah Kerr (6). Middle row: Carole Lombard (1), John Garfield (2), Alfred Hitchcock (5), Stanley Kubrick (13), Marlene Dietrich (1). Front row: Lillian Gish (1), Edward G. Robinson (none), Greta Garbo (3), Peter O’Toole (8), Richard Burton (7), Cary Grant (2), Barbara Stanwyck (4). That’s Katharine Hepburn on the wall, at right; with four Oscars, she is the Academy’s all-time winningest performer. Consolation prizes: Lubitsch, Kerr, Gish,…

When James Dean’s Porsche Spyder crashed almost 60 years ago, killing the actor just before the premiere of Rebel Without a Cause, his legend was sealed. But the Oscarnominated director who gave Dean that immortal role, Nicholas Ray, has been virtually forgotten. Examining Ray’s genius, his loves (including Natalie Wood and, perhaps, Sal Mineo, both of whom won nominations under his direction), and the addictions that ruined him, SAM KASHNER recaptures the dramas behind Rebel Without a Cause as well as the bond shattered by Dean’s death James Dean was only 24 years old when he crashed his Porsche Spyder and died on a lonely stretch of highway outside Bakersfield, California. The tragedy occurred on September 30, 1955, scarcely a week before the opening of Rebel Without a Cause, the…

April 1995 was a watershed moment for Vanity Fair: that month Graydon Carter devoted the entire issue to Hollywood to mark the 100th anniversary of the moving image. “For Americans especially, the movies remain the one true indigenous entertainment art,” he wrote in his Editor’s Letter. “It is something we have just always been good at. Indeed, it can fairly be argued that moviemaking is the one artistic endeavor in which America has always led the world, and probably forever will.” Nobody at the time imagined that Carter was establishing a tradition, or that a foldout cover of talent would become an annual event. Nineteen covers later, however, it endures as the gold standard of special movie issues. Features editor Jane Sarkin and I have helped organize them all. For…

In 1964, Irving Paul “Swifty” Lazar—the literary and talent agent (and social whirligig)—began holding a yearly Oscarnight “viewing party,” hosting a sit-down dinner for close friends and mainstays from Old-Line Hollywood, during which the assembled would watch the televised Academy Awards ceremony. Additional glittering guests would arrive throughout the evening. And, in time, being “invited to Swifty’s” became synonymous with L.A. exclusivity. When Lazar passed away, in late 1993, the starriest night of the year seemed destined to lose its sparkle. But then Vanity Fair stepped in. On March 21, 1994—at Mortons restaurant, in West Hollywood—the magazine established what would emerge as the premier annual gala in American nightlife. The Vanity Fair Oscar party, from its inception, was a chic, formal dinner followed by an after-bash that would draw a…

Callie Khouri’s first screenplay came from deep within: she knew what could happen to two women in a car—when some guy pushed them too far. The last thing she expected, in the spring of 1988, was that the macho Ridley Scott would want to direct it, that a bevy of Hollywood’s top actresses would want to star, or that the Academy would end up giving her an Oscar. Thelma & Louise, as SHEILA WELLER recounts, was a full-throttle, white-knuckle triumph for those who got it (from Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis—both of whom earned Oscar nominations—to a virtual unknown named Brad Pitt) over the many who didn’t It was one of those wee-small-hour-of-the-mornings in L.A., in the spring of 1988, and Callie Khouri, a 30-year-old music-video line producer, was driving…

The Best of Everything, based on Rona Jaffe’s that included a trio of hot ingénues (Peyton Place’s and a slick young Robert Evans. Talking to many three-girls-in-the-city movie, nominated for a “one-man studio” who propelled it to the screen, wildly popular novel, was a plush, CinemaScope, DeLuxe-color 1950s jewel, with a cast Hope Lange, supermodel Suzy Parker, and Diane Baker), plus Joan Crawford, Louis Jourdan, of the talents behind Twentieth Century Fox’s stylish cultural time capsule—the ultimate costume-design Oscar and best original song—LAURA JACOBS learns about the the off-camera dramas, and why the result was far more than a potboiler-in-pearls The genre was a winner for the movies, right from the start. Requirements were minimal: a big city, three pretty faces, some wolves. Sally, Irene and Mary was the first—silent…

Ready, Set. . . STYLE! 3 Weeks to Go A few days of eating healthy, hiking, doing yoga, and relaxing at a wellness retreat is the perfect way to gear up for the pre-awards madness. We Care Spa in Desert Hot Springs is a popular choice, while the Pearl Laguna in Laguna Beach repeatedly earns five-star reviews. It’s important to literally feel comfortable in your own skin, so check out Dr. Ava Shamban’s practice for awards season’s cosmetology needs (e.g., re-surfacing and collagen fillers). DAY AFTER Now that you’ve survived the whirlwind, indulge in some luxurious body treatments. Try a four-handed massage at the Hotel Bel-Air Spa by La Prairie or hydrotherapy at Spa Montage to unwind in style. 4 Hours to Go To achieve stunning tresses the day of,…

The Making of Pulp Fiction The first independent film to gross more than $200 million, Pulp Fiction was a shot of adrenaline to Hollywood’s heart, reviving John Travolta’s career, making stars of Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman, and turning Bob and Harvey Weinstein into giants. How did Quentin Tarantino, a high-school dropout and former videostore clerk, change the face of modern cinema (and win an Oscar in the process)? MARK SEAL takes the director, his producers, and his cast back in time, to 1993 In late 1992, Quentin Tarantino left Amsterdam, where he had spent three months, off and on, in a one-room apartment with no phone or fax, writing the script that would become Pulp Fiction, about a community of criminals on the fringe of Los Angeles. Written…

Three years after the fall of Saigon, Hollywood finally dealt with Vietnam. And how. PETER BISKIND tells how Coming Home and The Deer Hunter split the industry, the critics, and the 1979 Academy Awards Throughout the duration of the bloody, wasteful, and fratricidal Vietnam War—roughly, say, from the commitment of the first American military advisers, in 1961, to the war’s end, in 1975—the Hollywood studios maintained a discreet silence, save for a few exceptions, such as John Wayne’s jingoist picture, The Green Berets, released in 1968. This was a deeply unpopular war, and conventional studio wisdom held that Americans saw enough of it on the six-o’clock news. But the dam finally broke in 1978, when the studios released two high-profile features, both replete with Hollywood’s best and brightest, Coming Home…

GRAYDON CARTER is the editor of Vanity Fair. DAVID FRIEND is Vanity Fair’s editor of creative development. KATHERINE STIRLING is Vanity Fair’s articles editor. HILARY FITZGIBBONS, a Vanity Fair art director, oversaw this issue’s design and layout. MARK JACOBSON edited the photographs for this issue. JUSTIN BISHOP is Vanity Fair’s staff photographer. PETER BISKIND, a Vanity Fair contributing editor, has written many books about Hollywood, including Down and Dirty Pictures. CAT BUCKLEY is an editorial assistant at Vanity Fair. JACK DELIGTER is an editorial associate at Vanity Fair. DOMINICK DUNNE (1925–2009) was a legendary Vanity Fair special correspondent who wrote more than 100 articles for the magazine. His books include a memoir, The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper. BRUCE FEIRSTEIN is a screenwriter (GoldenEye; The…