Attendees examine a historic archive of Vanity Fair's previous issues during the "Vanity Fair: Hollywood Calling" exhibition at the Annenberg Space For Photography. Los Angeles, Calif., Feb. 22, 2020. (Anthony Mayen / The Corsair)

Whoopi Goldberg is bathing in milk right next to late comedian Richard Pryor, the priest. A little to the right is actress Ali Wong as Marie Antoinette. Welcome to Vanity Fair: Hollywood Calling – The Stars, the Parties, and the Powerbrokers. Beginning Feb. 8, the photography exhibition is hosted by the Annenberg Space for Photography in Century City.

Vanity Fair: Hollywood Calling is curated by David Friend, creative development editor for Vanity Fair, and Susan White, former director Susan White. In the jazz era, Vanity Fair made the switch from using art illustrations for its magazine covers to using contemporary photography. With the constant threat of print becoming as obsolete as payphones, Annenberg Space Education Coordinator Kimberly Forbes notes the importance of collectible hard copies of art photography to make American entertainment culture tangible.

“It’s a marriage of everything...It’s almost romantic in a way. It’s as if somebody wrote you a handwritten note. You just go oh my god, you actually took the time to do that? There’s something so nostalgic and romantic about it.” Forbes said.

The documentary-portion at the exhibition chronicles celebrity photography from the time of prohibition-era Hollywood glamour shots to the 2020 Academy Award panorama photo that graced the cover of Vanity Fair this Oscars season.

Like a blockbuster film release, timing was crucial. “The end all to be all is to be seen, and to be known, at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party,” Forbes says. “Everybody waits for the pictures from this party, basically. To see what are they wearing, who are they with, the winners on the red carpet with their actual Oscars. What the Met gala is to the fashion world, the Vanity Fair Oscar Party is to the entertainment industry.” The publication has shaped American arts culture and cover story photography for nearly a century for Angelenos; it all happened a dart's throw away.

This year's Hollywood issue featured a panorama of famous faces as various characters in an avant-garde desert road trip. Their destination is, of course, Hollywood. Willem Defoe was a Wiley tractor driver, Laura Dern portrayed a Beverly Hills mom who crashed her Escalade into an electricity pole. The artists of the piece channeled people not poses. Photography phenomenon Ethan James Green captured the piece.

The exhibition features iconic moments from Vanity Fair’s past and present, such as a nude, pregnant Demi Moore that changed the way America viewed expecting women. As for the tub of Goldberg and milk, photographed by Annie Leibovitz in 1984, “Whoopi Goldberg’s photo is based on her character [from her broadway show] of a little girl that wants so desperately to be white that she starts to put bleach on her skin,” Forbes said." It’s taking you through this little brown girl that’s living in a white world.”

Always one to make statements, the magazine changed history with its spread of the Black Panther Cast in time for the 2019 Oscar season. Its inclusion of artists of color in recent years has been key in supporting the diversity that’s been taking the big screen.

As an art collection, the exhibition achieves what magazine photos sometimes cannot: intimacy. “Seeing a picture of a celebrity in a magazine is one thing,” says Jayse Rednour, a guest services agent of the museum. “In the space...the photos are blown up...you’re face to face with them, and you connect on a deeper level.” Rednour is the photographer for the guest experience that allows visitors to the space to pose a la Vanity Fair themselves. No pressure. After taking the photo, users are given the option to email it to themselves or share it to social media. Andy Warhol's "famous for 15 minutes" future is here as promised.

The exhibition is at 2000 Avenue of the Stars and closes July 26.

Vanity's Fairest At Their Finest