LAWRENCE SCOTT:
MY CELEBRITY AFFAIRS
by Loy Bernal Carlos
Cover photo by Terri Diamond Photography
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“I am not Martha Stewart, page 4 vol. 36,” he quips in a tone that rings more with an air of confidence, not of arrogance. “I beat my own drum. I’ve never been a follower, I’ve always led my own parade.”
Lawrence Scott is ebullient tonight, although he is probably found this way most of the time. After all he is, for celebrities and individuals of power and affluence, the quintessential go-to event planner–a term that insufficiently describes what he does.
Sitting at a table at Fresco by Scotto on Manhattan’s East Side, he is at a tale end of a meeting with a new client, a singer who is planning a big splash in the new year. Listening in on the conversation, bystanders are more inclined to guess that he is an agent, a manager or a publicist rather than someone who meticulously constructs and produces events.
Scott offers the artist a litany of suggestions on how best to build the type of drama and anticipation for her launch. He talks about advertising and marketing, whom to invite (and whom not to), and how to invite those that matter in order to increase their likelihood of accepting and attending. And while he mentions champagne, caviar and bits and pieces of possible elements of the party itself, he does so primarily to illustrate his points. For Scott, deciding on party details at this early stage is premature, and often unproductive. Details get stale over time.
Unlike most people in the business, Scott doesn’t simply single out his part of the story and call it a day. He believes fervently that his job is to understand his client’s story first, and then to play an integral role in its narration. As a result, how clients market themselves and the narrative they choose to go with are perhaps the most important ingredients in the creation of a Larry Party™. Larry’s parties are not just events. They are fully-strategized, well-synchronized “invasions.”
Asked about his process and role in conceiving an event, he explains, “My events are not about linens and centerpieces. I am helping my clients tell their own stories. It is not my story we are telling. It is always their taste…but my style.”
One of the most effective ways to visualize the essence of his clients is by visiting their homes. He gives a cheeky example, “You go to a client’s house and do a walk through. Every room is Ralph Lauren. Then there’s this one room with a stripper pole. A stripper pole?! You know what I mean?”
That’s the kind of surprise Larry Scott says he is looking for. He doesn’t like to dwell merely on the mundane, inch-deep appearances that people present for society’s sake. He prefers to explore the “edge that makes them who they are. It’s the fantasy in their home.” That is the mystery that guests are going to be intrigued by. It’s what gives individual events its own personality.
Dressed in all black, his long hair neatly combed back, Larry Scott’s outward appearance alone doesn’t scream “PERSONALITY!”. Personally, he prefers a more subdued environment. While his events are often dramatic and over the top, he chooses to distance himself from that hype in his own life. “I am not Liberace. I like to be private. Some people like [the attention]. I prefer to be in a private surrounding. Some people do the entourage thing, I’m at the Pond in East Hampton. I don’t like going to every ‘opening of an envelope.’ I don’t like oversaturating myself.”
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