The world’s most famous Oscars party will be so exclusive this year that literally no one will be allowed in.

But those who had hoped to be On The List can relax: the zero-tolerance door policy for the annual Vanity Fair party, held every year at Morton’s restaurant in West Hollywood, is a result of it being cancelled, the latest casualty of a writers’ strike that began three months ago.

With the bill for the event estimated at $2 million (£1 million), Vanity Fair felt that it could not afford the risk of the February 24 Oscars ceremony being cancelled and the party having to be called off at the last minute.

The Vanity Fair party has been an institution in LA for 14 years, getting bigger and more famous every year, inspiring a coffee table book and a memoir by Toby Young, the British journalist and former Vanity Fair staffer, which has now been adapted into a Hollywood film.

The party’s guest list is so A-list that celebrities often attend simply to see other celebrities. At last year’s party a 10ft Vanity Fair logo made out of sculpted hedging was erected outside the entrance in the car park. Inside, free cigarettes were served along with the drinks and the miniature cheeseburgers. The tables were set with Asprey accessories and custom-made engraved enamel lighters.

Although the Writers Guild of America is thought to be in the final stages of negotiations with Hollywood’s studio bosses over a pay deal, including royalties for movies and TV shows streamed online, it is feared that an agreement might not be reached in time to save this year’s Academy Awards.

Last month the strike resulted in the cancellation of the Golden Globes ceremony because actors refused to cross writers’ picket lines. It was turned into a press conference and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association lost its $6 million broadcast fee.

The decision to call off the Vanity Fair party was taken by Graydon Carter, the magazine’s New York-based Editor. “After much consideration, and in support of the writers and everyone else affected by this strike, we have decided that this is not the appropriate year to hold our annual Oscar party,” the magazine said in a statement. “We want to congratulate all of this year’s nominees and we look forward to hosting our 15th Oscar party next year.”

Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has insisted that the Oscars will take place with or without resolution of the writers’ strike.

Although Hollywood’s actors remain supportive of the writers in advance of their own contract negotiations with the studios, it is thought that they will be reluctant to turn down an Oscar for the sake of not crossing a WGA picket line.

According to Toby Young’s memoir, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, the only person ever to have gatecrashed the Vanity Fair party was a journalist from America’s Star tabloid who arrived with a pig and claimed it was the star of the film Babe. It was 1996 and Babe was a Best Picture nominee. It emerged that several pigs had been used in the filming.

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