Graydon Carter, the former Vanity Fair editor who launched the magazine’s famous Oscars party, has revealed that just one guest received a lifetime ban from the annual event.
Carter, 75, took over the monthly Condé Nast title in July 1992 back when he was known for founding the satirical magazine Spy with Kurt Andersen.
He is now poised to release a new memoir, When the Going Was Good, about his time at Vanity Fair, including what he describes as the “poisonous atmosphere” of his first few years.
Just one person was banned for life from the famous Oscars gala, he wrote: Harvey Weinstein.
Page Six reports that Carter divulged how the now-disgraced film producer and convicted rapist would regularly show up with “more guests than his invitation indicated and would bully the staff”.
“He got banned from everything because he was rude to the staff and I didn’t like that,” Carter told the publication, adding that the ban was temporarily lifted, then reinstated again.
He said this behaviour was “not from drink… it was just within him”.
The Independent has contacted Weinstein’s representative for comment.
Carter came up with the idea to host a new Oscars party following the death of famed Hollywood agent Swifty Lazar, who represented legends such as Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Cary Grant, Noel Coward and Truman Capote.
Until then, Lazar was known for his Oscar Night galas thrown in Beverly Hills, an invite to which was deemed as important as making an appearance at the Governors Ball.
“I don’t know why I thought [Vanity Fair could fill the gap],” Carter said. “I had not thrown any big parties up to that point. But I do believe that, if you think there is a possibility of failure, don’t have too many eyes on it.”
The Vanity Fair party grew to the point that editor Sara Marks, who handled the guest list, became the object of “bribery, threats and even abuse”, but Carter was firm in his stance of getting “as many movie stars with Oscar statues in one room as humanly possible”.
Carter stepped down as editor of Vanity Fair in 2017, announcing that he wanted to leave “while the magazine is on top”.
“I want to leave while it’s in vibrant shape, both in the digital realm and the print realm,” he told The New York Times. “And I wanted to have a third act – and I thought, time is precious.”
When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines, is scheduled for release by Penguin Press on Tuesday 25 March.
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