Vanity Fair articles from December 2008

Vanity Fair archives from December 2008

The Eight-Year Itch.
December 1, 2008... Byline: GRAYDON CARTER By the time you read this, we will have elected a new president whose predecessor will have left him with one of history's most daunting grab bags of challenges. We're fighting a long and bloody war on two major...

V.F. Classic.(bomber Timothy McVeigh on Vanity Fair online archives)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... In June 2001, Timothy McVeigh was executed after being found guilty of bombing Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, in 1995. The punishment seemed to fit the crime that the media had spun to America: McVeigh was evil and wanted...

Postscript.(feud between Edgar Newbold Smith and his son Lewis du Pont Smith)
December 1, 2008... Byline: JESSICA FLINT In April 1993, VANITY FAIR special correspondent Maureen Orth reported on the feud between Philadelphia social figure Edgar Newbold Smith and his son Lewis du Pont Smith, who had become an acolyte of Lyndon...

Fanfair.(Italian dancer Roberto Bolle)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Byline: PHOTOGRAPH BY BRUCE WEBER DECEMBER 2OO8 31 DAYS IN THE LIFE OF THE CULTURE SUPER BOLLE Italian dancer Roberto Bolle, photographed here in Golden Beach, Florida, made his debut at New York City's American Ballet...

The Cultural Divide: December.(exhibitions, galas, and plays)(Calendar)
December 1, 2008... High in the Sky The architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron put an art museum in a power station (London's Tate Modern) and an arena in what resembles a bird's nest (Beijing National Stadium). Now they've broken ground on their first...

Hot Type.(recommended readings)(Recommended readings)
December 1, 2008... Byline: ELISSA SCHAPPELL Bluebloods behaving badly: Meryl Gordon's Mrs. Astor Regrets (Houghton Mifflin) reveals how high society's most beloved philanthropist allegedly fell prey to lowdown, fortune-drunk family members who robbed her...

The Chronicles Of Lewis.(The Magician's Book )(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Byline: ELISSA SCHAPPELL Reading Laura Miller's The Magician's Book (Little, Brown) is like revisiting the enchanting realm of Narnia on the arm of a local. Not a badger, centaur, or fervent Christian, but an intimate acquaintance of the...

Milk: The Other Castro Revolution.(Movie review)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Byline: A. M. HOMES Harvey Milk was a hero, a politician, a fighter, and the first openly gay man to be elected to a major public office in this country. In Milk, Gus Van Sant's biopic charting the last years of Harvey Milk's life, Sean...

Slumdog Millionaire: Rags To Rupees.(Movie review)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Byline: BRUCE HANDY S lumdog Millionaire is a smashing, sentimental entertainment. Charles Dickens would have loved it, assuming he could have followed the stutters and time-warping pirouettes of contemporary film grammar (or any film...

Best Foote Forward.(Horton Foote's Dividing the Estate)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Byline: LESLIE BENNETTS An octogenarian mother still controls the purse strings, her middle-aged children are fed up, and the prospect of inheritance triggers a classic family conflict in Horton Foote's Dividing the Estate, which opens...

My Desk.(projects of architect Richard Meierbest )(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Richard Meier PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID LEVENTI Award-winning architect Richard Meierbest known for projects such as the acclaimed Getty Center, in Los Angeles; the High Museum of Art, in Atlanta; the Museum of Contemporary Art, in...

The Webster.(Laure Hariard-Dubreuil, Frederic Dechnik, and Milan Vukmirovic)
December 1, 2008... Byline: MEENAL MISTRY Their buying ethos echoes the old Diana Vreeland dictum "Give them what they never knew they wanted." And this month, Laure HA[c]riard-Dubreuil, Frederic Dechnik, and Milan Vukmirovic, the young and stylish trio...

My Stuff.(Mark Ronson's favorite things)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Mark Ronson D.J. and three-time Grammy winner Mark Ronson, who started spinning records in N.Y.C.'s downtown clubs when he was 18, has gone on to gain international acclaim. Named Producer of the Year at last year's Grammy Awards...

Shall We Dance?(Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater golden anniversary)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Byline: DAMIAN WOETZEL AILEY'S COMPANY CELEBRATES ITS GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY The genius of Alvin Ailey lives in the company he created 50 years ago, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, or just Ailey, as it is affectionately known. Since...

Hot Gifts.
December 1, 2008... Byline: PUNCH HUTTON From books and bikes to jewels and fantasy finds, our favorite gifts for the holiday season... HAPPY CAMPER Verdier minibus, $109,000, verdier.ca. NOTORIOUS CINEMA Hitchcock Premiere Collection...

Holiday Beauty.
December 1, 2008... THIS SEASON'S GORGEOUS GIFTS FOR LOOKING PRETTY AND SMELLING SWEET... ESTEE LAUDER Pleasures solid-perfume jeweled spider, $250. (saksfifthavenue.com) YSL Duo Lip Colour Palette from the Bow Collection, $65....

Beauty Benefits.(Olivier Baussan's L'Occitane Foundation supports the shea-butter industry in Burkina Faso)
December 1, 2008... Byline: JOHN ORTVED L'OCCITANE GIVES BACK Olivier Baussan, the founder of L'Occitane en Provence, understands that in terms of aiding the developing world there are few things more effective than educating women. With this in mind,...

Fairground.(Nicky Haslam's NH Design anniversary)
December 1, 2008... Byline: PHOTOGRAPH BY DAFYDD JONES AROUND THE WORLD, ONE PARTY AT A TIME DECEMBER 2OO8 THE COVETED INVITATION Master of ceremonies Nicky Haslam celebrated 25 years of his interior-design house, NH Design, and honored his...

Wall Street Lays Another Egg.
December 1, 2008... Byline: BY NIALL FERGUSON Not so long ago, the dollar stood for a sum of gold, and bankers knew the people they lent to. The author charts the emergence of an abstract, even absurd worldcall it Planet Financewhere mathematical models...

Bloomberg Without Bloomberg.(Company overview)
December 1, 2008... Byline: BY SETH MNOOKIN PHOTOGRAPHS BY NIGEL PARRY The industry may be retrenching, but Bloomberg News is expanding, bringing in big shots such as former Time Inc. chief Norman Pearlstine. As it looks to become the 21st century's top news...

From Mayfair To Dubai.(Richard Caring's international dining establishments)
December 1, 2008... Byline: BY EVGENIA PERETZ After buying up London's most exclusive dining establishments, Richard Caring wants to create a luxury-restaurant empireimagine Annabel's and Le Caprice in Dubai. To food snobs and snob snobs, it's a death...

VANITY FAIR Nominates Dawn Russell.
December 1, 2008... Byline: AMY FINE COLLINS PHOTOGRAPH BY PAMELA HANSON Because she helps girls get comfortable in their own skin. Dawn, Lady Russellwho grew up in Oregon, Mexico, Paris, Massachusetts, and Manhattanhas in her time been a prepster, an...

House Of War.
December 1, 2008... Byline: BY WILLIAM LANGEWIESCHE PHOTOGRAPHS BY JONAS KARLSSON After Ramush Haradinaj led Kosovo's bloody fight for independence from Serbia, becoming provisional prime minister, he was tried for war crimes by the U.N. tribunal in The...

The Mansion Trap.(Veronica Hearst's debt from purchasing a mansion)
December 1, 2008... Byline: BY VICKY WARD Everyone from her society pals to her stepdaughters was stunned to learn that Veronica Hearst, the high-flying widow of media scion Randolph Hearst, had $45 million in debts. Her undoing was the purchase of her...

All Is Vanities . . . Nothing Is Fair: Vanities.(Teresa Palmer)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Byline: KRISTA SMITH PHOTOGRAPH BY JASON BELL DECEMBER 2008 Teresa Palmer AGE: 22. PROVENANCE: Adelaide, Australia. FROM RETAIL TO INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS... As a teen, she left her job at a local clothing store to make the...

In Character.(Greg Kinnear's acting skills)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Byline: WRITTEN, DIRECTED, AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY HOWARD SCHATZ ... STARRING GREG KINNEAR You're a rookie cop whose sergeant is telling you that the boy you just killed was holding a cell phone, not a gun. You're a city kid using a...

Henry Alford's: This Or That.(popular culture test)
December 1, 2008... A POP QUIZ OF CULTURAL PHENOMENA Is it a whole grain... or is it a dance craze? Hucklebuck Quinoa Frik Teff Urkel Is it a Bond girl... or is it high-end luggage? Tiffany Case Sahora Brights ...

Isn't She Deneuvely?
December 1, 2008... Byline: PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEVEN MEISEL STYLED BY JESSICA DIEHL Two years ago, at 31, Kate Winslet became the youngest actress ever to earn five Oscar nominations. This go-round, either of her two new movies Revolutionary Road, which...

One Knight At Birdland.(jazz musician Sir George Shearing)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Byline: PHOTOGRAPH BY BRUCE WEBER Dean and I went to see Shearing at Birdland in the midst of the long, mad weekend.... Shearing began to play his chords; they rolled out of the piano in great rich showers.... They rolled and rolled like...

The Twilight Zone.(portrayal of vampires in pop culture)
December 1, 2008... Byline: PHOTOGRAPHS BY PEGGY SIROTA For all Buffy's efforts, vampires have been sinking their teeth ever deeper into Generation W's pop culture. To a spate of hugely profitable books and HBO's True Blood, add this month's Twilight, a...

Voice Of America.(A Mercy)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Byline: DIANE JOHNSON PHOTOGRAPH BY TIMOTHY GREENFIELD-SANDERS What does a girl from Lorain, Ohio, know of the world of the Virginia colonies of 1682? Toni Morrison is by definition our greatest writer, the one living American Nobelist in...

The New York Times'S Lonely War.
December 1, 2008... In 2003, even small daily papers rushed to send embeds to Iraq, the "starter war" that could make a rookie reporter's reputation. Today, The New York Times is the only U.S. news organization that hasn't significantly cut back its presence,...

Franco Cum Laude.(James Franco on his graduate studies)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Byline: DAVID KAMP PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUG INGLISH James Franco has tired eyes, set deep in dark hollows. They've served him well in the movies, projecting moody broodiness in the TV biopic James Dean (his breakthrough, in 2001), stoner...

The Monarchs Of Motown.(musicians and singers)
December 1, 2008... Headlined by the tight-as-ever duo of Berry Gordy Jr. and Smokey Robinson, whose friendship has spanned more than five decades, an even dozen of the men and women who launched Motown into music history pose for ANNIE LEIBOVITZ, marking a...

Credits.
December 1, 2008... ON THE COVER FASHION COVER: KATE WINSLET'S YVES SAINT LAURENT trench coat from Yves Saint Laurent, Beverly Hills and N.Y.C., or go to ysl.com; Yves Saint Laurent shoes from Neiman Marcus stores nationwide; STEPHEN RUSSELL bracelet...

Roger Moore.(Interview)
December 1, 2008... Byline: ILLUSTRATION BY RISKO The longest-tenured leading man of the 007 franchise has excited the envy and stirred (not shaken) the hearts of generations of Bond fans. Here, the 81-year-old author of the new memoir My Word Is My Bond...