37 HOURS IN HOLLYWOOD

From a dawn run for Erewhon smoothies to sunset on Hollywood Boulevard, with stops in London, Paris, Nashville, and New York, Vanity Fair invites you to ramble and roam the corridors of a global industry at a crossroads. JEREMY O. HARRIS narrates the journey

JEREMY O. HARRIS

6: 03 AM PT

BEVERLY HILLS

The Future

The sun rises over Erewhon to find the Future of Hollywood in line at the tonic bar: assistants scrambling to make their presence known during the morning juice run. Navigating the demands of bosses exploring weekly fad diets, depending on the microdose or peptide their hottest clients are taking, the Future are the backbone of an industry many of us only know from episodes of Entourage (a show that premiered before some of them were born). They're the first to touch every call, to open every email, and to cover every script. But with the steady march of AI into the halls of power, some fear their time in the industry might amount to nothing more than a Malibu Mango smoothie. In the meantime, they still have ©AssistantsvsAgents, where they can air the wildest demands of their bosses—and only humans can understand those.

7:15 AM PT

PM GMT SHEPHERD'S BUSH, LONDON

Lewis Hamilton

More than 5,000 miles away, Fl driver, dandy, and film producer Lewis Hamilton multitasks in style, reading scripts and rolling calls while getting his hair braided at 3D Salon. Soaring to the heights of one industry is no longer enough, and Hamilton stands as the preeminent exemplar of Hollywood's new generation of superstar. Up next: a documentary for Apple. To win, to survive, means to thrive in every genre, with brilliant tresses and as one of the flyest dressers.

8:17 AM PT

HOLLYWOOD

David Ellison

Back in LA, the most talked about man in Hollywood arrives on the Paramount lot. David Ellison was once an aspiring actor who so loved aviation that he helped finance a film in which he played a pilot opposite James Franco. Now he's flown to more ambitious heights. He's scored an Oscar nomination for Top Gun: Maverick, merged Paramount with his company Skydance, and is spearheading an attempted acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Depending on whom you ask, Ellison is either a media savior (investing in content; championing filmmakers), or the architect of its demise (naming lightning rod journalist Bari Weiss as head of CBS News; laying off 1,000 people). What's not in question is that the man dubbed the first millennial mogul is the most important new power broker in Hollywood—and he has vision.

8:32 AM PT

5:32 PM CEST 8TH ARRONDISSEMENT, PARIS

Ayo Edebiri

Back in Europe, Hollywood's latest ingenue (a term Ayo Edebiri pokes fun at in interviews) snaps a picture of photographer Tyler Mitchell at Le Bristol hotel as the two prepare to attend Matthieu Blazy's Chanel debut at the Grand Palais. It's an auspicious day, Edebiri's first appearance as Blazy's new muse and ambassador. As she heads to the show, this multihyphenate artist is manifesting the dreams of Black girls everywhere who have waited for a young star who looks like them to be seated in the front row.

10:20 AM PT

6:20 PM GMT SLOUGH, ENGLAND

Shawn Levy

Across the Channel in Britain, where our blockbusters are increasingly filmed, an entire universe is coming alive at Pinewood Studios on the set of Shawn Levy's Star Wars: Starfighter, with Ryan Gosling and Mia Goth. The man who shaped many a millennial child's imagination with TV shows like The Secret World of Alex Mack and The Famous Jett Jackson has done the near impossible and continued to shape their imagination into adulthood. Levy's work as a producer and director has taken him from comedy (Date Night) to drama (All the Light We Cannot See) to spandex (Deadpool & Wolverine) and now to space opera. In an industry that consistently struggles to reward those who navigate roads less traveled, he's an exception.

12:00 PM PT

MIRACLE MILE

Michael Govan

As CEO and director of LACMA, Michael Govan—seen here in the museum's new Zumthor-designed David Geffen Galleries with curator Leah Lehmbeck—is not afraid to cause a stir. Earlier this year, Govan previewed the reported $835 million gallery to a select audience, setting off an avalanche of op-eds and social hot takes before any art even graced its walls. Almost two decades into his tenure, Govan has made LACMA the preeminent art museum in Los Angeles, anchored by its annual gala, cohosted this year by Gucci creative director Demna, and championing artists like Tavares Strachan.

1:40 PM PT

BEVERLY HILLS

Jason Blum & Matthew Belloni

Everyone knows this town runs on one thing: good gossip. At The Grill, a mogul and a muckraker are having a late power lunch—off the record, of course. Jason Blum, producer of the Paranormal Activity and Insidious series, leans in with his trademark boyish brio to listen as entertainment journalist Matthew Belloni (one part town troublemaker, one part town crier, 100 percent town addiction) regales him with stories that can't ever be published in Puck. That's what lunch is for.

3:35 PM PT

MID CITY

Law Roach

After lunch, shopping. Law Roach scours the racks at Recess for pieces once destined for the dustbin. As he's said many times before, Law doesn't style; he architects, making moments for stars and starlets across the globe. One wonders what happens to these monuments of style that he so uniquely builds and the collective gasps that they elicit. Perhaps they end up back in a consignment shop like this one, patiently awaiting their next red-carpet moment, in 2053.

5:47 PM PT

7:47 PM ET NASHVILLE

Sombr

Youth, even for the young, is an impossible thing to capture. But like a 21st-century Rimbaud, Sombr—with his more than 56 million monthly listeners on Spotify—comes deliciously close. His puppy love songs are inescapable on TikTok and pop radio, and he's captured the hearts of a legion of Gen Z fans. It's time for a final sound check before his show at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium, and at well above six feet tall, with a waist dreamed up by Hedi Slimane, even his figure is impossibly, aspirationally young.

10:08 PM PT

SILVER LAKE

Rachel Sennott

From A Different World to Girls, navigating the unique challenges of growing up has been a rich topic for Hollywood. Now, Rachel Sennott, who captured the internet's attention with her viral videos, has submitted her entry into the canon with her new series, I Love LA. After a late dinner at Bar Stella with cowriters Emma Barrie and Max Silvestri, Sennott puts her feet up and enjoys her status as the new zillennial It girl.

1:03 AM PT

KOREATOWN

Parris Goebel

You haven't been to a proper Gay Guy Music Video Night if you haven't witnessed one of choreographer Parris Goebel's infectious performances and found yourself out of your seat jumping with glee. From Rihanna at the Super Bowl to Lady Gaga at Coachella, Goebel has articulated a choreography for a whole generation of dance enthusiasts on social media. Tonight she's getting her fans on the dance floor, spinning a set at Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, including some of her original songs.

7:04 AM PT

10:04 AM ET HUDSON RIVER, NEW YORK

Benny Safdie The next morning in New York, Benny Safdie, one half of everyone's favorite auteur brothers, sets sail on the Hudson to snap some pictures and find inspiration in his home city. In 2023, Benny acknowledged a creative split from his brother, Josh—and they've been swatting down rumors of a feud ever since. After receiving the Venice Film Festival's award for best director for his movie The Smashing Machine, starring Dwayne Johnson, Benny is enjoying some time off before he's seen costarring in Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated The Odyssey and gets down to work on Lizard Music, his next collaboration with Johnson.

11:00 AM PT

DTLA

Gustavo Dudamel

Back on the West Coast, Gustavo Dudamel rehearses Mahler's second symphony with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The alluring conductor, who has captured the imagination of both classical music and Hollywood, is about to achieve a feat of double duty. Not only is 2026 his last as music and artistic director of the LA Phil; it's also his first in a similar role at the New York Philharmonic, where he will fully assume the role of music and artistic director for the 2026-27 season. In February he'll conduct a reimagining of Goethe's Egmont, adapted for Cate Blanchett.

1:15 PM PT

HOLLYWOOD HILLS

Dakota Johnson & Ro Donnelly

At a cozy Spanish-style bungalow that they've transformed into an office, Dakota Johnson, the beguiling actor and anchor of Celine Song's $ 108 millionjuggernaut, Materialists, reads scripts over lunch with her business partner, Ro Donnelly. The setting matches the duo's laid-back vibe. What sets TeaTime Pictures, their production company launched in 2019, apart from many others is its commitment to early-career directors like Cha Cha Real Smooth's Cooper Raiff and Daddio's Christy Hall. Next up, Johnson is preparing for her feature directorial debut, A Tree Is Blue, which is set to star Charli xcx and Jessica Alba.

1:35 PM PT

MANHATTAN BEACH

James Cameron

When we speak of the innovators, the greats, those who give us hope in the human spirit as machines threaten our future, we think of James Cameron. With each outing, he has outdone himself so much that we have taken for granted that he's invented technologies to make his films that have extended far beyond the production studio—all while shattering box office records. In his Manhattan Beach studios, surrounded by props from his juggernaut films from The Terminator to Avatar, Cameron recreates the iconic graveyard scene from Hamlet, his performance-capture head rig filling in for poor Yorick's skull, a technological proxy of potentially infinite jest.

1:55 PM PT

9:55 PM GMT COVENT GARDEN, LONDON

Sadie Sink

After a long day filming for the upcoming Spider-Man movie, in a top-secret role that is fueling a web of internet rumors, Sadie Sink is getting ready for bed at the Rosewood London. After completing the upcoming season of Stranger Things—the show that launched her to global stardom—and being nominated for a Tony in the Broadway hit John Proctor Is the Villain, Sink deserves a good night's sleep.

2:03 PM PT

5:03 PM ET CHELSEA, NEW YORK

Jennifer Venditti

To have the eye, the unimpeachable talent to recognize a star, is one of the rarest gifts in our industry. Casting director Jennifer Venditti has it. From the late Angus Cloud and Hunter Schafer in Euphoria to the dynamic faces you see across the Safdie oeuvres, Venditti has discovered some of our most dynamic actors. So much so that she literally wrote the book on it; A24 published Can I Ask You a Question? The Art and Alchemy of Casting in 2021. This year the Academy Awardswill be introducing an achievement-in-casting category for the first time. With Venditti's impressive work on Bugonia, Marty Supreme, and The Smashing Machine, she's in pole position.

4:33 PM PT

BEVERLY HILLS

Nikki Glaser

This year the mother of all Hollywood roasts did the seemingly impossible: Nikki Glaser made the Golden Globes fun again. Her libidinal and riotous set returned what was once widely considered awards season's most enjoyable night to its former glory. Up next, Glaser will cowrite and star in a Judd Apatow-produced romantic comedy, and the town sits on pins and needles wondering if her Globes sequel will be as good. But first, she has this Sunday roast to prepare.

5:03 PM PT

HOLLYWOOD

Teyana Taylor

From music to dance to acting, is there anything Teyana Taylor can't do? Her turn as Perhdia Beverly Hills, a complex revolutionary and reluctant mother in Paul Thomas Anderson's opus One Battle After Another, has earned her widespread praise. She's also costarring alongside Kim Kardashian in Ryan Murphy's AU's Fair and will be seen opposite Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in The Rip next year. Tonight she's getting ready at the Hotel Roosevelt, her kids in tow, for one of her many red-carpet appearances. Her next stop just may be the Oscars stage.

7:27 PM PT

HOLLYWOOD

Jimmy Kimmel

Who better to cap off our 37 hours in Hollywood than Jimmy Kimmel, back at his studio revisiting a good news day. This September, in the face of censorship, Kimmel unwittingly became a beacon that united everyone from anti-fascists to Ted Cruz. Soon there were calls to boycott Disney and protest an administration that would dare take away an American's right to laugh—and to free speech. Perhaps as more rights come under attack, Americans will remember this moment of collective power.