It’s hard to imagine Marie Antoinette at a foam party—but then again, she didn’t have Instagram. Lauren Sánchez does. And she’s not afraid to use it.
In case you’ve been living under a rock—or in a rent-stabilized apartment without WiFi—Sánchez just married Jeff Bezos in Venice in what’s becoming a familiar display of their bespoke brand of show-offery. (Remember the 11-minute space flight where she emerged from the capsule as an astronaut, lashes intact?) This time it was a $50 million Venetian bacchanal. The vibe? Bunga bunga meets influencer retreat.
The guest list read like a tax-avoidance summit: billionaires, reality stars, crypto-evangelists, and the usual Kardashian entourage, most arriving by private jet to celebrate a woman whose best quality, according to her own posts, is being “blessed.”
The dress code for guests fell somewhere between Euphoria and Abu Dhabi.
For the bride, it was Dolce & Gabbana, chronicled by Vogue, which described her dress fitting with near-religious reverence: “‘I feel like a princess!’ Lauren cried. ‘You look like a princess!’ came the chorus from her glam team, seamstresses, production crew, and entourage.” But the real showstopper came from Anna Wintour, who used the wedding as a runway for her own exit, announcing, with impeccable timing, that she would step down from Vogue after 37 years at the helm. Farewell, queen; long live the algorithm.
Venice wasn’t always a billionaire’s playground. It was once a fiercely independent republic, ruled not by monarchs but by Doges—merchant princes elected for life, forbidden from flaunting their wealth, required to serve the city above themselves. The symbolism of Bezos staging his wedding here isn’t subtle: The modern Doge now arrives by helicopter, sails off in a superyacht, and livestreams the festivities to millions.
And while it’s trite to invoke poor Marie Antoinette at every carnival of excess, one can’t help but notice the historical echo: a decadent elite obliviously clinking glasses while populist tides swell just beyond the velvet rope.
Back in New York, as the confetti settled in Venice, the Democratic primary for mayor delivered a sharp jolt to the ruling class. Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, ousted their favorite insider Andrew Cuomo from contention. Mamdani is everything this crowd fears: young, ascendant, equally good on Instagram and explicitly committed to taxing the rich into accountability. That’s not coincidence. It’s backlash.
Thanks to social media, billionaires no longer whisper their wealth—they blast it. Discretion is dead. The tech and celebrity classes now operate by a shared principle: if you’ve got it, flaunt it, monetize it, and post it before brunch. Lauren’s followers were treated to every toast, every “candid” champagne moment from the deck of a half-billion-dollar boat. The effect is dizzying. And provocative.
Take Kim Kardashian, one of the wedding guests. A few years ago she posted images of a gargantuan diamond ring she’d been given. Days later, she was tied up and robbed at gunpoint in her Paris hotel by a gang of elderly jewel thieves who said they simply followed her trail of online breadcrumbs. They were sentenced just last month. A cautionary tale, but one seemingly ignored.
And the problem isn’t just the optics—it’s the actual message. When you flaunt your yacht while housing insecurity is soaring and cities are on fire, you are begging to be taken down—digitally, electorally, or both.
For every photo Lauren posts, it’s one more vote for Mamdani, or whoever else is promising to redistribute the spoils. Bezos himself proved no match for AOC when she decided to stop Amazon from building HQ2 in New York.
This isn’t a critique of love or even wealth. The softcore fever dream of the Bezos-Sánchez romance has been good sport for years. And let’s be honest: anyone entering their second or third marriage deserves a bit of glam. But it’s how they chose to do it: with such gleeful disregard for the moment we’re all living in, such vacuum-sealed belief in the exceptionalism of the rich.
I wish Jeff and Lauren much luck as they set sail on the world’s largest yacht for their next marital voyage. May they have foam parties for many years to come.
But make no mistake: in a time of record inequality and TikTok populism, this wedding wasn’t just a party. It was a campaign ad for the other side.
