'Vanity Fair' cancels most lavish bash at the Oscars

For those not-quite-A-listers and hangers-on who fail to receive an invitation to Hollywood's most lavish annual Oscars-night party this year, consolation is at hand, for once. No one else is getting one either.

Vanity Fair magazine decided yesterday that it would cancel its post-ceremony champagne-fest in sympathy with a writers' strike which has dragged on for three months. It normally attracts most of the year's main winners as well some of Hollywood's best-known actors.

Although members of the writers' union will meet on Saturday to hear details of a tentative deal that could end the dispute and lift the threat of disruption to the Oscar ceremony on 24 February, Vanity Fair said it would not be right to plan a party with the strike still on.

"After much consideration, and in support of the writers and everyone else affected by this strike, we have decided this is not the appropriate year to hold our annual party," the magazine said on its website. "We want to congratulate all of this year's nominees and we look forward to hosting our 15th Oscar party next year."

The party, hosted by Vanity Fair's editor, Graydon Carter, is always one of the most sought-after invitations on Hollywood's most glamorous night, but it has been far from clear how many actors will come out on 24 February if the strike is rumbling on. The Golden Globes event was a disappointment last month as actors boycotted the event in sympathy with the Writers Guild of America, which is fighting for better pay and royalties on internet broadcasts.

Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said on Monday that the Oscars would take place with or without resolution of the labour conflict.