Vanity Fair articles from December 2006

Vanity Fair archives from December 2006

Oh Baby!(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... I cannot believe that after all the important and fascinating articles I have read in Vanity Fair over the years it's actually the Tom Cruise story that moved me to write ["Someone Wanted to See Me?," by Jane Sarkin; photographs by Annie...

The Cultural Divide December.(Calendar)
December 1, 2006... Gold, the spectacular exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History, in New York City, explores the influence of this enduring symbol of wealth, beauty, and power throughout history. (Through 8/19) 3 Ross Bleckner, John Waters, and...

Hot Type.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Elissa Schappell Hold on tight, it's the big one! That's right--fetch your dictionary and a dish of disgusting English candies (try the luscious pepsin-flavored nougat); famously reclusive novelist Thomas Pynchon's back with...

RAINBOW COLLECTION.(Gravity's Rainbow Illustrated: One Picture for Every Page)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Anderson Tepper Forget CliffsNotes-what if the great, dense works of modern lit were fully illustrated? (I, for one, would relish a version of Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer.) But how exactly would that work for a book as...

LET IT LOOSE.(Rolling Stones)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Elissa Schappell Before they were the voice of Corporate Rock, the Rolling Stones were the voice of rebellion, and no rock recording is more storied than their Exile on Main St. album, laid down on the French Riviera in the summer...

GONE GONZO.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Walter Isaacson Hunter Thompson was an inventive guy, and the most remarkable of all his inventions was Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, the character he played in life. Just because it was a role did not mean it was fake. The more he...

BACK TO BERLIN.(Louis Alan Reed)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Michael Hogan Thirty-three years have elapsed since Lou Reed released Berlin, his glorious downer of a concept album about two junkie expatriates screwing, fighting, and (in one case) dying in the shadow of the Iron Curtain. "I had...

LIVING IN FASHION.
December 1, 2006... Whether you dress in couture or only dream about it, you now have the option of living in it, as well. Increasingly, the collections are having an enormous influence on interior design. It's in the lines, the fabrics, the patterns, and the...

Hot Tracks.(music albums for christmas)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Lisa Robinson An array of stars are racing to get new-and, in some cases, recycled-music out in time to put the cash back in Christmas. Here, some of the most anticipated. Gwen Stefani is working in London and L.A. with producers...

Live and in Stereo.(High Fidelity)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Byline: David Kaufman The last thing theater mavens need is another pop-rock musical based on a cult film. But with a book by the wily David Lindsay-Abaire, High Fidelity is apt to have the gnawing fascination of both the original Nick...

THE ART OF A HOTEL HOLIDAY.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Victoria Mather There is an answer to the eternal question "What is art?" Art is the new hotel accessory: bigger than the iPod docking station, better than a private swimming pool in your suite, more ego-boosting than any plasma...

BEAUTY SCHOOL.(John Paul DeJoria)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Maria Ricapito It's not surprising that John Paul DeJoria, co-founder of John Paul Mitchell Systems, believes in outer beauty. His hair-product company, founded in 1980 with a partner and $700, is now a privately held,...

Oriana Fallaci and the Art of the Interview; Oriana Fallaci's interrogations of leaders such as Kissinger and Qaddafi make today's big-name interviewers look like powder puffs.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Christopher Hitchens Here is an excerpt from an interview with what our media culture calls a "world leader": Dan Rather: Mr. President, I hope you will take this question in the spirit in which it's asked. First of all, I...

Fire in the Beltway; As the midterm elections loomed, it seemed nothing would rouse Beltway insiders to reflect the public's outrage.
December 1, 2006... Byline: James Wolcott In the early preliminaries to the 2006 midterms, a scouting party of forecasters and soothsayers sensed distant thunder across the political prairie, shivers in the air, magic in the moonlight. So thick and tangy was...

Taki's Irresistible Force.(Taki Theodoracopulos)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Dominick Dunne Although I'm officially on leave of absence from Vanity Fair for a few months to finish my novel A Solo Act, I couldn't resist when Graydon Carter encouraged me to fly to London for a few days in late September to...

Survivor: The White House Edition; As with Vietnam, so with Iraq: in the last act of a failed war the backstage action is about saving reputations, not lives.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Michael Wolff Bush fires Cheney and names McCain as the replacement V.P.-although it is not yet entirely clear to me who tells Bush to fire Cheney, if not Cheney. The war in Iraq, except for the shooting, is so over. But between...

Karl Rove's Split Personality; Armed with a vast new database, White House strategist Karl Rove has carved America into ever narrower slices, sharpening conflicts that drive voters his way.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Todd S. Purdum I The 34 Steps In the five years my family has lived in a quiet corner of northwest Washington, our neighbors have included the secretary of homeland security, the executive editor of The Washington Post,...

What Christie's Won't Sell; When he decided to sell an oil painting of Joseph Stalin, the author called Christie's-only to be told that the auction house had a strict policy: We don't sell Stalin.
December 1, 2006... Byline: A. A. Gill I first saw him leaning against a wall, nonchalant and a little crooked, like he'd had a good lunch. I suppose what caught my eye was the prosaic surroundings-an old 60s sofa, a ceramic lampstand, a set of golf clubs. A...

In Mrs. Astor's Shadow; Since Brooke Astor's grandson, her powerful friends, and her longtime staff alleged that the 104-year-old philanthropist's son, Anthony Marshall, and his wife, Charlene, were taking advantage of her failing health, a New York court has removed her from the Marshalls' care.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Vicky Ward On Friday, September 29, early on a dark evening, military hero, former C.I.A. officer, and former ambassador to Kenya, the Malagasy Republic, and Trinidad and Tobago Anthony Marshall, 82, sat in the Midtown Manhattan...

Sleeping with the Fishes; Happy at last, Sumner Redstone is still far from mellow-witness his public trashing of superstar Tom Cruise and firing of Viacom C.E.O. Tom Freston.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Bryan Burrough High on the slopes above Beverly Hills, so high the clouds sometimes waft beneath it, one of the most exclusive enclaves in Southern California hides behind a pair of mammoth iron gates. If you're expected, a...

"Hello! It's Sexy Time!"; What does a British comic disguised as a simpleminded Kazakh TV reporter have to reveal about America.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Rich Cohen Every generation or so, a man comes to our world from the provinces and sees it as if for the first time. Sometimes he comes as Napoleon, sometimes he comes as Gandhi, but he's always the same man, and he always follows...

What if ... SANTA'S WORKSHOP WERE A Terrorist Cell.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Henry Alford Dec. 8 Elf spells out specifics of his jihad in Fridge Phonics magnets. Dec. 12 David Milch pitches HBO pilot Infidelf. Dec. 19 HBO exec says Infidelf star Tony Shalhoub will "definitely win a...

True Lies.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Bruce Feirstein PART ONE The Getting It's the most wonderful time of the year. This year, we're not putting anything on sale. I hate to shop. I can always pay it off. He's gonna find out who's naughty or...

What if ... Global Warming MELTED SANTA'S WORKSHOP.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Henry Alford Dec. 4 Santa e-mails Easter Bunny, "dood, i'm fockt:(" Dec. 8 Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins narrate somber enviro-documentary Land Without PlayStation III. Dec. 13 Mrs. Claus tries to reduce elf...

iLife vs. Life Itself.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... "The device, which Apple is calling iTV for now, will plug into a television and wirelessly pull in video and music from a Macintosh computer in the den or from the Internet. The box, which will cost $299, is about the size of a slim paperback...

IN CHARACTER ... starring Hugh Laurie.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Howard Schatz 1. You are a dedicated father who, with your wife, has just sat down to dinner with your 15-year-old daughter, who is defiantly announcing that she's pregnant. 2. You are a fashion designer on the morning of your...

Money On the Wall; In the past decade, the art world has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry, with stars being manufactured while they're still in art school.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Ingrid Sischy Andy Warhol, who loved to paint dollar bills, once said, "I like money on the wall. Say you were going to buy a $200,000 painting. I think you should take that money, tie it up, and hang it on the wall. Then when...

Cy Twombly.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Amy Fine Collins I suppose people start off by being irritated, Cy Twombly has noted about the public's response to his oeuvre, but in the end they can't resist the temptation to join in. At an Italian gallery, a lady once kissed a...

Maurizio Cattelan.(Italian artist)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Waldemar Januszczak Maurizio Cattelan probably exists, but it's by no means certain. Not existing is exactly the kind of stunt this joke-mad Italian artist might seek to pull off. Don't be fooled by photographs you see of him...

The Warhol Factory.(Andy Warhol)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Bob Colacello Oh, what a lovely reunion it was for 23 veterans of Andy Warhol's Factory, at New York's 205 Club, which, like the original Factory, is covered in aluminum foil. Holly Woodlawn, fondly remembered for faking sex with a...

The Subject as Star; Brad Pitt has done it.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Bob Colacello Attention, all self-adoring major contemporary-art collectors! Get out your checkbooks and American Express black cards! Or call that Swiss bank and order an instant wire transfer! Robert Wilson, the king of...

Luc Tuymans.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: A. M. Homes Luc Tuymans has been called the most influential painter of his generation the leading art magazine, Artforum, recently dubbed the scope of his influence the Tuymans Effect. He is someone who has thought very long and...

Eli Broad's Big Picture; With a net worth estimated at $5.8 billion, a billion-dollar modern-art collection, and board seats at museums from New York's MoMA to L.A.'s moca, Eli Broad is among the greatest powers of the international art world.(Company overview)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Bob Colacello The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -George Bernard Shaw, ...

Ileana Sonnabend.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Linda Yablonsky With her tent dresses and sphinx-like demeanor, Ileana Sonnabend doesn't exactly project power art dealer. Nonetheless, at 92, she remains among the most daring and unpredictable of our time. With her first husband,...

V.F.'s Jazz Age Canvas; Vanity Fair's great pre-war editor, Frank Crowninshield, helped introduce modernist art to America as an organizer of 1913's breakthrough Armory Show.
December 1, 2006... Byline: David Friend Were it not for modern art, there would be no Vanity Fair. At the beginning of the 20th century, the nation got its first full-strength dose of the European avant-garde thanks in part to a worldly, sophisticated,...

The Way They Work.(Mathew Cerletty, Banks Violette )
December 1, 2006... Byline: A. M. Homes At 33, Banks Violette is the white guy from Ithaca, New York, with a lot of tattoos, a G.E.D. diploma, a couple of years of community college, and an M.F.A. from Columbia University-and is one of the most sought-after...

Ellsworth Kelly.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Dave Hickey We were walking down the tree-lined swath of lawn behind Ellsworth Kelly's studio in Spencertown, New York. Ellsworth chatting pleasantly about this and that. Then he stopped and pointed: Look at that purple! I looked....

Enfant Terrible; Since early childhood, when he rejected the rules of his bourgeois parents, Francois-Marie Banier has been hell-bent on turning his life into art, through his novels, plays, diaries, photographs, and now paintings.(Biography)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Amy Fine Collins On a brilliant autumn afternoon, as rare in Paris as a hurried lunch, the artist-of-all-trades Francois-Marie Banier is wending his way through the plane trees and graveled paths of the Jardin du Luxembourg, the...

Jeff Koons.
December 1, 2006... Byline: Dave Hickey The Jeff Koons effect: You're standing in Rockefeller Center gazing up at a humongous floral puppy that looms over you like a homecoming float for some ultra-chic kindergarten like the ultimate gift in a Neiman Marcus...

Bruce Nauman.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Jim Lewis Bruce Nauman is a national treasure, the most American of American artists, and one of the most celebrated, both at home and abroad. For 40 years, he's cleared a singular path through the fields of art, establishing,...

Doug Aitken.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Byline: A. M. Homes A young artist in full bloom, Doug Aitken has redefined pop culture and high art with images that are accessible to all and sublime to those in the know. Working in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art and...

John P. Murtha; Last year, Representative John P. Murtha, of Pennsylvania, was lauded for his break with the president over the Iraq war.(Interview)
December 1, 2006... What is your idea of perfect happiness? Good health. What is your greatest fear? I fear for the future of our country because of the direction this administration is taking us in with the debacles in Iraq. We've lost our...

The President's Delicate Condition.(George W. Bush)(Editorial)
December 1, 2006... Byline: Graydon Carter Given the complete cock-up the president has made of his job during the past six years, I wouldn't be surprised if Bush in Rehab were the title of the next volume in Bob Woodward's topsy-turvy history of this...