Vanity Fair Party Cancelled and Everyone Wants Elton!

Elton was surrounded by supplicants as he stood by his spouse, David Furnish, in the penthouse overlooking all of Los Angeles.

The crowd - under light bulbs dangling from exposed steel beams and fiberglass insulation - included Soho House owner Nick Jones, NBC chief Ben Silverman, Griffin Dunne, Julian Sands, Fisher Stevens (whose “Crazy Love” was up for an Independent Spirit Award) and Miramax chief Daniel Battsek, who has three films in contention for various awards tonight.

This is the 16th year Sir Elton has hosted the fund-raiser. “I wanted redemption for the life I lived beforehand, the drugs, the drink, the loose sex, whatever,” he tells Russ Mitchell about founding his Elton John AIDS Foundation today in an interview on “CBS News Sunday Morning.”
On Thursday, Madonna was checking out the SoHo House space as a possible venue for the party she’s throwing tonight with her kabbalah cohort, Demi Moore. But Variety reports they’ll hold it at the home of Madonna’s manager, Guy Oseary.

“It gives the A-list Vanity Fair crowd someplace to go to,” a source tells Variety. “It’ll probably be pared down to where it’s 85 percent talent, not a lot of suits.”

The star quotient should be equally stellar at the super-exclusive soiree pop icon Prince is throwing at his new house in Benedict Canyon. Think the likes of Tom Cruise and Will Smith. And Penelope Cruz is said to be hosting a party for fellow Spaniard and likely Oscar winner Javier Bardem at the nightclub Villa.

This could also be a bigger year than usual for the Governors Ball, held immediately after the Oscars ceremony in a tent outside. Usually the A-list stars race through the black-tie crowd on their way to the Vanity Fair bash. This year they’ll probably linger and sample some of Wolfgang Puck’s cooking.