Vanity Fair articles from August 2005

Vanity Fair archives from August 2005

Rachel McAdams.(Biography)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Krista Smith AGE AND OCCUPATION: 28, actor. PROVENANCE: London, Ontario. CRASH COURSE: Catch McAdams in the comedy Wedding Crashers, and next month on the Sundance Channel series Slings & Arrows. SWITCH BITCH:...

The Prisoner of Bedford; Only Martha Stewart could combine home confinement and home improvement with such intensity, whether she's racing back from her stables to make "lockdown," discussing her painful ankle bracelet, or figuring out her version of "You're fired" for her new "Apprentice" spin-off.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Matt Tyrnauer I am standing in stocking feet in the pantry of Martha Stewart's house, where shoes are verboten in deference to highly polished antique-fir floors. An industrial-size Cimbali espresso machine is hissing in the...

Hit Men in Blue? In March, more than a decade after allegations against them first surfaced, retired N.Y.P.D. detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were charged with an unprecedented crime: acting as paid assassins for the while on the force.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Howard Blum, John Connolly If Betty Hydell had not turned on the television that afternoon in 1992, she might never have learned the stranger's name. But there on the Sally Jessy Raphael show was the bruiser who had knocked on her...

Our Miss Scarlett; Indie darling Scarlett Johansson is stepping up to play in Hollywood's big-budget, high-adrenaline sandbox.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Peter Biskind What's this? Scarlett Johansson on her way to becoming a Game Boy bunny? Billed now as the love-interest-on-the-run in Michael Bay's "futuristic thriller" The Island? Our Scarlett, indie A-list ingenue, in a movie...

A House Divided; No one denies that Thomas Krens, the Guggenheim's controversial director, has put the museum on the map-literally, figuratively, and, some say, dangerously.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Vicky Ward On January 19, 2005, Peter Lewis, the 71-year-old, tall, brown-eyed, white-haired car-insurance tycoon from Cleveland, started his day at 7:30, as usual. Sitting in his light-filled duplex apartment overlooking...

The Lady and the Heel; Tamara Mellon took a Malaysian cobbler named Jimmy Choo and turned his shoes into a $200 million brand that has made her, at 37, one of the U.K.'s highest-profile businesswomen.(Biography)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Evgenia Peretz What kind of woman spends $900 on a pair of four-inch Jimmy Choo stilettos with Swarovski-crystal straps? Is she a role model-accomplished, sexy, and independent, with an unapologetic appreciation for the finer...

All Hail Caesar.(Sid Caesar)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Billy Crystal Some people wish they could have seen Babe Ruth hit a home run and light up a ballpark, or heard Caruso sing at the opera, or watched Bobby Jones hit a golf ball with his wooden-shaft clubs. Not me. Put me in "the...

Welcome to Dreamsville; A half-century ago, Walt Disney imagined a place where the glories of the past would meet the promise of the future, where adult Huck Finns and Princesses could bring their little ones and all live their separate fantasies together.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Dave Hickey It's my third morning in Mr. Disney's world, deep in the heart of cracker Eden, out on the plain of the wet palmetto, and I have seen the Mouse. I have seen the children playing with the Mouse in the speckled shade of...

And God Created Elle; More than a decade after her Sports Illustrated cover trifecta, Elle Macpherson still has the body that made her No.(Biography)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Krista Smith The first thing you notice about Elle Macpherson is that she looks exactly as you remember her from her Sports Illustrated days-even though it's been more than a decade since she appeared on the magazine's cover. As...

Elle's Beauty Tips; Wondering how Elle Macpherson keeps herself and her family looking so luminous.(Brief Article)(Interview)
August 1, 2005... What kind of beach bag do you carry? A cream linen Melissa Odabash with zebra print inside. What's in IT? Sunscreen, an iPod and speakers, bathing suits by Melissa Odabash and TNA, a cowboy hat, and Chrome Hearts sunglasses....

Aileen Mehle; Writing as Suzy for W and WWD, Aileen Mehle captivates both her readers and the boldfaced names she covers, providing sharp-eyed accounts of every glamorous social scene.(Brief Article)(Interview)
August 1, 2005... What is your idea of perfect happiness? Sunday in the park with Georges, three of them. Washington for his wisdom, Saint George to slay lurking dragons, and Clooney to carry the picnic basket. Seurat could take the day off. Which...

Mr. Felt Goes to Washington.(Mark Felt)(Editorial)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Graydon Carter On the morning of the last day of my honeymoon in late May, a fax arrived from my assistant reminding me that we were releasing the "Wig" story to the press that day. This was news that snapped me back into reality....

The Mystic In The Vatican.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2005... As an active member of the Catholic Church, I was relieved to find that your article ["He Believed in Miracles," by John Cornwell, June] was at least written by a practicing Catholic, and even a loving critic. I was also glad that the...

Hot Type.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Elissa Schappell Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum... Drawn to the sea, rough company, and Kingston by Starlight (Three Rivers), novelist Christopher John Farley's nervy heroine passes herself off as a salty dog. Mark Helprin's...

Bad-Boy Blues.(Lunar Park)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Elissa Schappell Bret Easton Ellis is an alcoholic, coke-snorting, self-obsessed crybaby whose once promising literary career has been eclipsed by his celebrity. Since his abusive father died, 13 years ago, Ellis, a bloated...

Posh Classics.(Pringle of Scotland Ltd.)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Christine Lennon Ever wonder who invented the twinset, the matching crewneck-and-cardigan sweater combination worn by sensibly chic women? No doubt the millions of freshly sheared Kashmir goats that roam Mongolia (where nearly 25...

Roosevelt Rendezvous.(Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Emily Poenisch At 78 years old, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel boasts a history as rich and fabulous as the luminaries who have stayed and played within its storied walls. The Spanish-Moorish gem-initially backed by high-powered...

Foreign Affair.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Bruce Handy Smart, provocative, genuinely tense political thrillers-your Seven Days in Mays and Parallax Views-went out of fashion around the time that Ronald Reagan turned the public presidency into a feel-good pulpit, the...

Grizzly Tale.(Grizzly Man)(Movie Review)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Aaron Gell One of the little-noted side effects of Prozac is the way it's drained all the romance out of madness-except, of course, in the films of Werner Herzog, whose love for crackpots, fantasists, dreamers, and divine lunatics...

CENSORED.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Adam Laukhuf Culled from over 100 hours of interviews, The Aristocrats, a new documentary from comedians Penn Jillette (Penn & Teller) and Paul Provenza, is devoted exclusively to a single joke, which, until now, was a secret rite...

Rescue Me.(Rescue Beauty Lounge)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Christine Muhlke When Ji Baek gets annoyed, New York women benefit. Miffed with the lack of chic, clean places to get a pedicure, the 35-year-old changed the way women get their paws and claws done, fusing her business sense with...

Kiehl's Gets Groomed.(Stylist Series)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Christine Muhlke Kevin Mancuso, the man behind the heads of Renee Zellweger and Jennifer Connelly, has worked closely with Kiehl's to develop and test the Stylist Series, a range of products that create modern textures, from...

To Live and Die in Iraq; Runaway brides, celebrity trials, Laura Bush's stand-up act-the media would rather cover anything other than the unrelenting carnage in Iraq.
August 1, 2005... Byline: James Wolcott They're blowin' this town all to hell. -Bo Hopkins in Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969). What a weekend it was. So much happening. Streets humming with activity. On Thursday, April 28, after intense...

Celebrities Behaving Madly.
August 1, 2005... Byline: Dominick Dunne I haven't been so stunned since the O. J. Simpson acquittal, in 1995. I couldn't believe my eyes or ears as I sat in front of the television set and heard the verdict being read in the Michael Jackson child-abuse...

How to Get Away with Murder; Some get away with almost anything: Michael Jackson.(Tom DeLay)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Michael Wolff Tom Sneddon, the Michael Jackson prosecutor, and Howard Dean, the new Democratic National Committee chairman, have similar grievances. For Sneddon, standing slack-jawed in the glare of the news-conference lights and...

Cormac Country; Cormac McCarthy would rather hang out with physicists than other writers.(Biography)
August 1, 2005... Byline: Richard B. Woodward The parking lot at the Santa Fe Institute, in New Mexico, features rows of vehicles typical of American academia-S.U.V.'s and minivans, a few older-model BMWs and Mercedeses, a Toyota Prius, and an inordinate...