Directly across from Chateau Marmont, looming large above Sunset Boulevard, is a billboard with the face of Gracie Abrams for a new Chanel campaign featuring the house’s fine jewelry line Coco Crush.
It was no coincidence that Chanel selected the famed Hollywood hotel for a starry campaign celebration Wednesday night. It was obviously planned months in advance, just like the expert Chanel touches in so many of the Chateau’s corners. Like, in the garage with a neon Coco Crush sign or a vintage convertible with Chanel license plates. Or the many rooms that hosted a revelers during a cocktail hour or for photo shoots and gossip sessions between buzzy stars, singers, artists, actors, designers and stylists.
A crush of moments from the larger-than-life to the intimate could be felt from the cobblestone driveway to the velvet curtain-draped dining room that hosted a dinner and piano-side performance by Lily Allen. Even Abrams had some experience to share from the awe to the small. “Oh my god, the billboard. Holy shit, I know,” she said, looking over toward the sky. “That is a big picture of my face right there.” She was fresh from a quiet and reflective New Year’s Eve. “We did a burning of wishes for the new year. Secret resolutions and hopes for loved ones.”
Abrams, in Chanel threads and pieces from Coco Crush, said she was honored to be the cause for celebration. “I’ve enjoyed this campaign process so much and wearing these pieces because whether it’s on stage or at home in my day-to-day life, it’s very comfortable and just feels like me,” she explained. ““I appreciate so much what Chanel is doing in this very moment and they people they are inviting in.”
Chanel welcomed past the velvet ropes a long list of stars and a certain phenomenon from Heated Rivalry who happened to be thee crush of the night: Connor Storrie. “We met upstairs. Everyone wants to meet you,” Tessa Thompson said in addressing dinner guests before dessert (and following plates of branzino and rib-eye) as she eyed Storrie at the main table in the center of the room. “Here’s your chance.”
Plenty of people took that chance as Storrie, fresh from announcing the Actor Award nominations earlier in the day, fielded a steady stream of selfie requests and compliments for his work as Ilya Rozanov opposite Hudson Williams’ Shane Hollander in the Jacob Tierney-created series, which became a certified phenomenon over the holiday break. While Williams was experiencing Harry Styles-like pandemonium outside New York’s 30 Rock for a taping of The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Storrie was tucked away inside the celebrity hideout catching up with Abrams (who placed their photo as the No. 1 slide in her Instagram carousel), Maggie Rogers, Conan Gray and others like “the most famous person in the room,” whispered one attendee.
Other than eyeing Storrie, Thompson had official duties she accepted only moments before by toasting Abrams and introducing Allen. And she nailed it.
“Tonight you have the chance to meet people that you probably have a little Coco Crush on or that you admire and I love that. I had the chance to do that many times over tonight. One of those people is the extraordinary Gracie Abrams. We should raise a glass and toast her for being the new face of Coco Crush. She is indeed most crush worthy,” she said before turning her attention to Allen and her critically acclaimed new album West End Girl. “I recently slid into someone’s DMs, which I hadn’t done in a while. It’s cool to do it. Everyone’s making their in-and-out lists in 2026 so slide into more DMs. I did so because I listened to this record and I listened to it in the way that I used to listen to records, which is front to back, dedicated. I didn’t do anything else. I was late to the party and I listened to this record in bed alone and I was so transported into the world of her experiences into her amazing, beautiful, brilliant, brave mind.”
Those experiences have been splashed across the globe as fodder for countless articles as Allen reportedly wrote the album inspired by the dissolution of her marriage (in very NSFW ways) to actor David Harbour. Even with, again, the larger-than-life narrative, Allen delivered a most intimate and at times cheeky performance of such songs as “Pussy Palace,” “Madeline” and “Tennis.”
Before the latter, she said, “Luckily, they are not based on real life experiences and these things definitely did not happen at this hotel.”
When it was over, one of the night’s boldfaced names said, “It felt like watching a therapy session. I was mesmerized.”
Many people were, whether it was the music, the moment, the story or the Storrie of it all. Speaking of a good story, Thompson had the best one for how she was going to end her evening by ducking into a cozy hotel suite to watch her new Netflix show, His & Hers, opposite Jon Bernthal. “I have friends coming here to watch it with me upstairs at midnight and I’m so excited. I’ve never watched something in real time that I’m on and I’m nervous,” admitted the Hedda star. “I have seen it because I produced the show, so of course I saw the cuts, but it’ll be very special tonight to watch at midnight with some friends.”
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