Graydon's Big Fat Free Wedding

Why did Vanity Fair really cancel its annual Cannes Film Festival bash this year? Perhaps because the mag’s in-house event planner was too busy organizing editor Graydon Carter’s wedding. “Graydon wanted Sara Marks [VF’s director of special projects] to spend all her time working on his wedding, so he canceled Cannes,” gripes a Condé Nast insider. “Sara’s doing it as part of her regular salary, which does not come out of Graydon’s pocket. It’s exactly the same thing he did when he wrote his book What We’ve Lost—getting all those researchers to work on it on the company dime.” (VF spokeswoman Beth Kseniak said Marks’s work on the wedding is a “gift” to Carter.) With all that money saved on planning, what exotic locale has Carter chosen? Though the Canadian-born editor briefly considered tying the knot in Ireland, he later settled on a more prosaic setting for the May 21 nuptials: his own grandly named Swift House estate in Roxbury, Connecticut. (Pals Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg are hosting a small luncheon the next day at their nearby spread.) With a VF staffer doing most of the grunt work, busy Carter can concentrate on more important things—like the band. Rumor has it he’s arranged for a “big-name” surprise musical guest to serenade his new bride, former VF publicist Anna Scott. Will Dominick Dunne be dusting off his banjo?

Photo: PMC