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There\u2019s never a bad time to be at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Last Wednesday at 3:45 p.m. the bar was full, and the producer Ilya Salkind<\/strong>\u2014you don\u2019t know him, but he did the original Superman<\/em> movies\u2014was eating an early dinner. He got the Polo Lounge McCarthy Salad, as everyone does, and was chatting with a pair of agents looking to make a Christopher Reeve documentary. Art dealer Gordon VeneKlasen,<\/strong> who\u2019ll open an LA outpost of Michael Werner Gallery this year across from Larry Gagosian<\/strong>\u2019s spot in Beverly Hills, wandered through, early for a meeting. An elegant-looking woman in a coat insisted that her tea rest for 10 minutes before it was served to her. This is the classiest place to take a drink in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n In strolled Simon Fox,<\/strong> the busiest man there\u2014he\u2019s the global CEO of Frieze, the art fair company owned by Ari Emanuel<\/strong>\u2019s Endeavor, and Frieze Los Angeles was set to open the following day. He\u2019s British, once ran the publishing umbrella that owns The Mirror<\/em> and OK!,<\/em> and favors blue suits. He ordered a glass of Champagne and a bottle of flat water.<\/p>\n \u201cI have that worst and most obvious Los Angeles excuse: traffic,<\/em>\u201d he said, explaining his 15-minute tardiness, his English accent stretching out that dreadful word.<\/p>\n I wanted to chat with Fox about the business of Frieze, which started out as an arts magazine in the \u201990s and in a 10-year span starting in 2003 birthed extremely popular art fairs in London and New York. Emanuel\u2019s Endeavor bought 70% of it in 2016, and then opened the first Los Angeles outpost in 2019. Fox was hired as CEO in 2020, and opened the fair in Seoul in 2022.<\/p>\n Those fairs all face stiff competition from the Art Basel fairs on each of those continents, as they compete for blue-chip galleries to exhibit and collectors to attend. So last year Frieze bought up more fairs: Expo Chicago and the Armory Show in New York. The latter gives the group a big shindig to complement the boutique-ish Frieze New York, which takes place at The Shed in Hudson Yards, a downsize from the giant tent that it once occupied on Randall\u2019s Island.<\/p>\n Adding a fair in Chicago was a bit more surprising. I didn\u2019t see it coming, even though I had a major inadvertent tip-off. I ran into Fox and Frieze fairs director Christine Messineo<\/strong> in line for the Chicago architecture boat tour in 2023, but it didn\u2019t occur to me for a second they were doing anything other than admiring the skyscrapers by Mies van der Rohe and Norman Foster<\/strong> and Rem Koolhaas<\/strong>\u2014much less buying the art fair that was opening the next day.<\/p>\n \u201cAri\u2019s from Chicago,\u201d Fox said, leaning forward. \u201cSo there is a corporate love for the city.\u201d<\/p>\n Fox is from England, and was educated at St. Paul\u2019s School and then Cambridge. He moved to Los Angeles for his first post-college job, at a bank that was later bought by Bank of America.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I had the funnest, best time. I mean, really, I nearly moved here,\u201d he told me. \u201cI kind of fell in love.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s fair to say he\u2019s having an even more fun time now. Fox told me about the private homes he\u2019s been in this week, spectacular homes with stirring architectural pedigree\u2014some with real historical significance and some that are just really, really big. He wouldn\u2019t say the names of the collectors who opened their doors to him, but I\u2019d been to a few art-filled pads myself, and I\u2019ll share my list.<\/p>\n Walmart heir Sybil Robson Orr<\/strong> had her annual cocktail party for Serpentine at her eight-bedroom mansion in the Bird Streets, with Lana Del Rey<\/strong> showing up to hang out with Hans Ulrich Obrist<\/strong> under the James Turrell<\/strong> skyspace installed in the roof. Former NFL player Keith Rivers<\/strong> had a party at his place, and Jason Swartz<\/strong> opened up the Sheats-Goldstein house\u2014the original Lautner house and the newer additions, which include a nightclub and perhaps the world\u2019s first infinity tennis court\u2014to various trustees of local institutions. (James Goldstein,<\/strong> the house\u2019s owner, eventually popped up on Instagram in Milan for Fashion Week.) The Getty Villa started as J. Paul Getty\u2019s private ranch house\u2014Frieze threw its kickoff party there Monday night, and there\u2019s plenty of Greco-Roman sculpture dotting the immense property. And filmmaker Lorraine Nicholson<\/strong> (recent Vanity Fair<\/em> contributor,<\/a> daughter of Jack<\/strong>) invited the curator Jed Moch<\/strong> to install a bunch of works in her historic midcentury-modern home in Laurel Canyon.<\/p>\n \u201cFrieze is just like an extremely important week for the city,\u201d Nicholson said as the musician Beck<\/strong> and the artist Issy Wood<\/strong> and various Haim<\/strong> sisters filled the balcony of her home at the opening dinner. \u201cI keep on going up to people and taking their hand and saying, \u2018This is a very<\/em> important week<\/em> for the city.<\/em>\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The most coveted home-tour invite was to Jimmy Iovine<\/strong>\u2019s 10-bedroom stunner across the street from the Playboy Mansion, for a benefit auction to raise funds for his school with Dr. Dre,<\/strong> the Iovine and Young Academy. Attendees didn\u2019t even mind that they couldn\u2019t really see much of the Beats cofounder\u2019s art holdings<\/a>, as the event was confined to a cavernous room that Iovine had converted into a skating rink for his wife, Liberty Ross,<\/strong> who just really loves skating.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m glad you finally found a use for this room, Jimmy,\u201d James Corden,<\/strong> the night\u2019s emcee said drolly from the stage as Ed Ruscha, Benny Blanco, Brian Grazer,<\/strong> and the young music exec Justin Lubliner<\/strong> looked on.<\/p>\n Iovine came on next to kick off the auction, proclaiming, with utter confidence, \u201cThe stock market\u2019s going up 5,000 points tomorrow, so spend it tonight.\u201d Corden tried another tactic, saying, \u201cI want you all to point out the richest person in the room.\u201d Many fingers were directed at Iovine. The auction was put together by Sotheby\u2019s and the LA dealer David Kordansky,<\/strong> and several of his artists\u2014Hilary Pecis, Austyn Weiner, Chase Hall, Jennifer Guidi<\/strong>\u2014watched with a combination of fear and intrigue as auction house reps bid their works up and up, with some breaking records.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n