What it was like inside the Vanity Fair Oscar Party

By Dan Heching, CNN

With the third anniversary of the start of Covid-19 lockdowns coming up this month, Oscar Sunday this year felt like a time stars were finally more relaxed and open to being out and about and mingling. That freewheeling ease was in full effect at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills overnight.

While newly minted Oscar darling Jamie Lee Curtis was surely fast asleep by the point the party was peaking, the night’s three other victors in acting categories — Ke Huy Quan, Michelle Yeoh and Brendan Fraser — were all in attendance, receiving endless showers of praise and congratulatory wishes. Fraser got a celebratory hug from previous Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin. A few moments later, he was seen catching up with his “Blast from the Past” costar Alicia Silverstone, in what surely was a blast from the past (that film, costarring Oscar-winners Sissy Spacek and Christopher Walken, came out a full 24 years ago).

Billie Eilish looked showstopping in a giant black taffeta gown, before changing into a simpler black suit to move about the party with greater ease alongside Jesse Rutherford. “Girls” stars Allison Williams and Jemima Kirke were seen catching up in the line on the way in to the glitzy fete, while three cast members of “White Lotus” Season 2 — Sabrina Impacciatore, Adam DiMarco and Beatrice Grannò — hung out steps away. At one point, Cate Blanchett and Salma Hayek made their way past and headed straight to the photo line at the main entrance to the party.

Inside, while In-N-Out burgers were being served, Kate Bosworth and Justin Long were spotted in line for a photo booth. Mindy Kaling made her way through the crowd, with BJ Novak in tow. Winnie Harlow danced. Kate Hudson hung out with her half brother, actor Wyatt Russell. And Sigourney Weaver reminded everyone what a movie star was, by simply sitting on a banquette and exuding the most magnetic of auras.

Toward the end of the evening, CNN asked Ashley Graham about her interview with a seemingly begrudging Hugh Grant during the pre-Oscars show. Graham, in good spirits, said, “My mother always told me to kill ’em with kindness,” before adding that she felt “very supported” in the ensuing hours after the Oscars, when her exchange with the Brit started trending on Twitter.

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