Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter bridges left and right coasts. (Culture).

NEW YORK Growing up in Canada, Graydon Carter fueled his youthful obsession with New York and Hollywood with frequent trips to the neighborhood movie house.

"I loved any movie about New York--`Sweet Smell of Success,' `Desk Set' and `My Man Godfrey'--and I loved movies about journalism like `His Girl Friday.' They taught me about the outside world," he says as he takes in the view from his corner office on the 22nd floor of the Conde Nast Building.

Carter is no longer on the outside looking in; he's a major player in New York and Hollywood power circles. In addition to editing Vanity Fair, the glossiest--and one of the most profitable magazines--in Conde Naste's publishing stable, he's recently added the title of producer to his resume.

It was Carter, 53, who helped broker the deal between CBS and Gedeon and Jules Naudet, the French …