Graydon Carter on Making a Scene—and a Magazine

Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter runs the glossiest magazine, hosts the most A-list parties, and runs one of New York's most exclusive restaurants, all on the same principle, he tells the Guardian's Janine Gibson: "Life is all about seating and lighting." The key, he says, is not who you let in but who you leave out, and making all those big egos look and feel good. Vanity Fair, he says, "is like running the Metropolitan Opera in a way."

Gibson mentions in her piece—but pointedly does not mention to Carter—his Devil Wears Prada treatment at the hands of Toby Young, a British writer who dashed off a tell-all about disastrous experiences at Vanity Fair called How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. In the movie adaptation, the character of "Clayton Harding" is to be played by Jeff Bridges, and the real-life model for the character is reportedly not amused. (More Graydon Carter stories.)