A crowded, maskless bash filled with “rich people” flouting pandemic rules was thrown at billionaire Travis Kalanick’s lavish Soho penthouse at the end of the summer, reports said.
The party, which was ostensibly hosted by a friend of the ousted Uber CEO, was thrown in September and featured “lounge music” and lots of “red wine” — and looked straight off the set of Showtime’s hit drama “Billions,” The Cut reported Monday.
“There were tons of people there, and of course no one was wearing a mask,” Cat Marnell of “How to Murder Your Life” stardom told the magazine.
Marnell, 38, said she was asked to remove her shoes when she got to the penthouse, which “was so big, with walls and walls of glass” and had a private pool.
“Anyway, rich people are having maskless, indoor parties,” she told the magazine.
At the time of the party, New York City was in phase four of its reopening plan, which banned indoor gatherings larger than 50 people. Experts have repeatedly said indoor, maskless gatherings can be very risky — and are what’s driving the surge of new coronavirus cases.
A representative for Kalanick told The Cut he’d lent his apartment to a friend and was unaware of the party and also doesn’t know Marnell.
Still, pandemic parties are nothing new to the tech boss. In an August Vanity Fair story, Nick Bilton said he was asked about going to a celebration at Kalanick’s Los Angeles home, and while the fest was held outdoors and was “smaller” than previous parties, it was reportedly held during a major surge in coronavirus cases in Southern California.
At the time, large gatherings were only allowed with attendees who came from a single household, Business Insider reported.