Last December, Leonardo DiCaprio and Baz Luhrmann shared a quiet second at a non-public residence in Los Angeles. They have been gathered at an after-party for a vogue present held that night time by luxurious model Celine. Iggy Pop gave a shock efficiency at the present, and Cindy Crawford’s daughter Kaia Gerber strutted the runway, all earlier than DiCaprio and Luhrmann sat gazing into an elaborate out of doors hearth pit. Seated on the stone edge and going through the well-known pair was one other visitor, Michael Braun. He promptly burst into flames.
A lick of fireplace sparked what one partygoer described as a mohair sweater. Braun’s whole torso ablaze, DiCaprio recoiled in shock as Luhrmann sprang into motion. Braun yanked the sweater off, extinguishing the flames in a single fortunate swoop. Shirtless and charred, clad in solely leather-based shorts and Doc Martens, Braun was immediately the topic of an outpouring of textual content messages and social media DMs, sharing a video that captured the freak accident. It was a breakthrough second for a person whom insiders have change into extra inquisitive about as he has grown enmeshed in the closed-off social circle of the most well-known folks in the world.
More from Variety
“Who the fuck is Michael Braun?” one highly effective agent texted me nearly 18 months in the past. They could be the first of many to ask. Be it his name-dropping Instagram account, appearances in group pictures at the Vanity Fair Oscar occasion and the Met Gala, or grazing at the newest members-only restaurant to hit L.A., Braun is all over the place. Yet nearly nobody, besides the many boldface names he collects as pals, is aware of who he’s or how he got here to occupy this rarefied area.
His acquaintances learn like a celeb yearbook: Kristen Stewart, Timothée Chalamet, Margot Robbie, Justin Bieber, Gigi Hadid, Taika Waititi, Channing Tatum. Many of them frequent events at Braun’s West Hollywood house, which sits immediately in the shadow of the Chateau Marmont.
I referred to as sources from each nook of the social scene – business figures, nightlife gurus, superstar wranglers, restaurateurs, model managers, prime occasion planners, and so forth – they usually all had the similar response: nobody knew something particular about Braun, however they’d all just lately requested pals about him. Hollywood is a city that runs on standing, in spite of everything, and its gamers get anxious after they can’t determine somebody’s place in the pecking order. Even a few of the B- and C-list actors who’ve appeared on Braun’s Instagram (his deal with is just @Michael) know nothing about him. One admitted to reaching out to attend a Braun occasion just because much more illustrious names have been on the checklist.
Very little biographical info on Braun is out there on-line. The Vancouver actual property developer Westbank Corporation is listed as his employer. Before his Celine sweater went up in flames, his watershed second was a extensively coated “Squid Game”-themed Halloween occasion he hosted in 2021 which drew Rebel Wilson, Anna Kendrick, the Biebers and lots of extra. Vogue ran a prolonged photograph essay utilizing Braun’s title in its headline, with zero context as to how or why he’d convened the occasion. There are rumors he comes from a rich actual property household (unfaithful, Braun says). One individual stated that Braun and his finest good friend Vas J. Morgan, a British actuality star, have been vouched for in Hollywood by Topshop heiress Chloe Green (he denies this too). Another says Braun labored the Toronto International Film Festival circuit for years, trying to rub elbows with the glitterati (not solely correct, he says). Of common peak and construct, with incessantly altering hair size and colour, Braun’s trademark is his uncommon voice — high-pitched with an emphasis on enunciation. Imagine Truman Capote by the use of Saskatchewan.
The two greatest takeaways from many conversations about Braun have been his candy and accommodating persona (which might additionally come throughout as cloying and overly-flattering, a few of his critics say), and the protected surroundings he offers for celebrities. Between COVID-19 and the ubiquity of digital camera telephones and social media, Braun presents protected havens for stars to let their hair down, quite a few sources stated (except, in fact, he’s the one posting).
I just lately reached Braun in Tokyo, the place he’s supervising the opening of a Westbank property. He referred to as the sweater video “a viral moment” that impressed the similar response each time: “The first question people ask is ‘Are you OK?’ And then they start laughing.”
Braun presents a quite simple rationalization as to how he matches into this shiny world: It’s his job. Born the son of a health care provider whose non-invasive beauty surgical procedure observe is a market chief in Vancouver, Braun stated he took up actual property at age 22 and located his calling. He was employed 13 years in the past by Westbank, which owns Shangri-La Hotels in Vancouver and Toronto. He says he was given clear marching orders for these properties: to make them Hollywood’s house away from house. Many movie and TV tasks shoot in Vancouver, and the Toronto Shangri-La is at the middle of the metropolis’s annual movie competition.
“We wanted those hotels to be the destination of choice for the movie industry. Directors, top-tier talent, agents. My job as director of sales and marketing was to make Shangri-La the place to be,” he says. After cementing Shangri-La places as go-tos for the business, Braun says he recruited two huge manufacturers to solidify his stronghold in superstar hospitality. The first was convincing star chef David Chang to open a Momofuku in Toronto — his first location outdoors New York City — in 2012, and the second was to deliver Soho House up north, he says. Westbank is the main tenant of the Adelaide Street constructing in Toronto the place Soho House operates. It owns 50% of the enterprise in that location, based on Braun. Representatives for Chang and Soho House didn’t have instant touch upon the matter. Another location ultimately popped up on the TIFF circuit as a must-attend spot, he says: his private penthouse condominium.
Braun shared that his enterprise technique mimics the blueprint of Chateau Marmont proprietor André Balazs or Sunset Tower Hotel and San Vicente Bungalows kingpin Jeff Klein.
“The reason people stay there is because there’s a familial sense with the ownership. It’s my job to create that rapport. You’ll see Jeff Klein hanging out with Tom Ford. If you brought André Balazs to the Oscars, every single actor would say hi to him,” Braun stated. [Editor’s note: Not every single actor would say hello to Balazs].
To Braun’s credit score, he is an efficient sport when requested immediately about pervasive questions concerning his relevance. In regards to his extreme flattery, Braun stated “sometimes people don’t realize my whole life and my current job is hospitality,” he says. “It can come across as too helpful to everyone, but I understand it. I respect some people that are better at being harsher.”
Braun is insistent that nobody has ever needed to “vouch” for him or his good friend Morgan on the scene. His L.A. home has change into such a famous vacation spot that Braun has been recognized to lend it out to main manufacturers, like he did for an occasion final 12 months for vogue home Burberry the place Madonna turned up and danced in his lounge. His mom and sister, he provides, moved to Los Angeles in 2004 and he’s been shuttling forwards and backwards ever since.
He has plans for rising his visibility — extra accommodations, eating places, and even a vogue assortment at the moment underway. Interestingly, he notes he realized Hollywood etiquette a couple of decade in the past from a former occasion fixture — Lindsay Lohan. “She’s probably the person that introduced me to socializing in Hollywood. She would be the seminal person in my entrance to that world,” he says.
Apologies to Lohan, however Braun is the one guarding the entrance as of late.
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the newest information, observe us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Click right here to learn the full article.
Discussion about this post