Vanity Fair articles from February 2003

Vanity Fair archives from February 2003

An irresistable force.(interview with Salma Hayek)(Interview)(Cover Story)
February 1, 2003... Even as she fought Hollywood stereotypes, Salma Hayek drew on her heritage to produce and star in Frida, the hit biopic about Mexico's iconic artist Frida Kahlo. How did she pull off a movie project that had stymied Madonna and Jennifer Lopez?...

The radical at the Pentagon.(Donald Rumsfeld)(Interview)
February 1, 2003... Donald Rumsfeld has an idea of what the 21st-century Pentagon should look like: very different from the way it does now. With a Princeton grad's sense of duty, a C.E.O.'s ruthlessness, and a navy pilot's daring, the secretary of defense is...

Verdict in Monaco.(Ted Maher trial)
February 1, 2003... As Monaco celebrated La Fete Nationale in honor of an ailing Prince Rainier, Ted Maher finally stood trial for setting the 1999 fire that killed his employer, billionaire banker Edmond Safra, and one of Maher's fellow nurses, Vivian Torrente....

Searching for Mullah Omar.
February 1, 2003... Though Mullah Omar has been among America's "most wanted" since September 11, the Taliban chief has eluded capture. His pursuers haven't even been sure what the camera-phobic Omar looks like. Last year, EDWARD GRAZDA went to Afghanistan,...

Between Picasso and Matisse.(exhibition of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse at the Museum of Modern Art; article includes many prints of the artists' works)(Illustration)
February 1, 2003... Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso were already at loggerheads when Gertrude Stein introduced them in 1906, and their challenge of opposites-played out at Stein's combustible soirees, in studio visits, and through an intriguing exchange of...

Swede surrender: Bruce Weber's Scandinavian journal.(photoessay of male and female Swedish models/residents)(Illustration)
February 1, 2003... Some ask, "Why?" The Swedes ask, "Why not?" Indulging a longtime fascination with Sweden, BRUCE WEBER took his caravan of helpers to a land of beautiful bodies and lovely northern light. Once he started taking pictures, the mysterious "underwear...

Fetal distraction.(the abortion debate 30 years after the Roe v. Wade decision)
February 1, 2003... Three decades after Roe v. Wade, abortion is still the hottest button in American society; scientific advances, from pre-natal testing to stem-cell research, have only raised the temperature. Cold logic, the author argues, requires us to accept...

George Lois's power punch.(advertising and Esquire cover artist)
February 1, 2003... At the pulsing intersection of 60s iconography and iconoclasm stood George Lois, genius adman, who went on to sock it to the nation's eyeballs as Esquire's cover designer. As he publishes a visual memoir, Lois says he has no heirs. He may be...

Uneasy riders.(Hell's Angels and contemporary biker culture)
February 1, 2003... The Hell's Angels mystique has come roaring back, with memoirs by key members now in bookstores, and a big-budget movie in the works. But their roadhouse rule is threatened by the Mongols and other rival clubs looking to make a name for...

Keira Knightley.(Brief Article)(Interview)
February 1, 2003... Byline: Krista Smith age and occupation: 17, actor. provenance: London. you'll get a kick out of her: Knightley co-stars in Bend It Like Beckham-titled for the way soccer star David Beckham can kick a ball and curve it...

Nan Darien; Mad about those resolutions.
February 1, 2003... Byline: Nan Darien A friend of mine, whom I shall call Almondine Barkingprong (although her name is actually Ann Slater), once told me that every month embodies a word, and February's is "apres-ski." Isn't that adorable? I so...

Cindy Adams puts on the dog.(Interview)
February 1, 2003... Byline: George Wayne No one captures the pulse of New York like Cindy Adams, the New York Post gossip columnist who writes in gum-snapping, hard-boiled prose redolent of Sweet Smell of Success, and whose give-and-take with her beloved late...

Ask Dame Edna.
February 1, 2003... Dear Dame Edna, I had my face laser-resurfaced seven weeks ago, and the redness hasn't faded at all. I really wanted to do this without anyone knowing, but I can't keep telling my friends that I've just returned from the Bahamas. Any...

Heavy Mehta.(Sonny Mehta)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Byline: Christopher Hitchens When Sonny Mehta took over the house of Knopf from Robert Gottlieb 15 years ago, he moved early to reinstate the office cocktail cabinet, the ashtrays, and the tradition of the bohemian lunch. One afternoon he...

RAY CHARLES; In the fall of 2001, Ray Charles's 1972 recording of "America the Beautiful" seemed to be everywhere, encapsulating all the emotions the country was feeling.(Interview)
February 1, 2003... What is your idea of perfect happiness? A great performance when everything comes together: the music, the audience-the whole thing. It's what makes me want to keep touring and recording. Which historical figure do you most...

Rules of Engagement.(petty authority)(Editorial)
February 1, 2003... Byline: Graydon Carter I'm by and large a law-abiding citizen. I pay my taxes, try not to speed, and always pick up the check when dining with foreign visitors. Like most Americans, I react favorably to authority as long as it is thought...

THE BRAT PACK-THE SEQUEL; L.A. kids and the facts of life; crossed signals at the State Department; the Ripper files; the bitch is back; a soldier's wife's story; Porfirio and the pepper mill; is Seattle really that lame.(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2003... I am a Beverly Hills brat-or so I learned while reading the article by Nancy Jo Sales ["Rich, Jaded, and Lost in L.A.," December] in which she wrote about me and my friends, mocking our lifestyles. The truth is, Nancy Jo paid the bill at every...

Gilliam's Wake.(Lost in La Mancha)(Movie Review)
February 1, 2003... Byline: Bruce Handy Lost in La Mancha was supposed to be a "making of" documentary about The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Terry Gilliam's stylized take on Cervantes with the French actor Jean Rochefort as Quixote and Johnny Depp as a...

A Horror Unbound.(Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives)(Movie Review)
February 1, 2003... Byline: Michael Hogan During the Great Depression, the Federal Writers Project, New Deal enterprises, scored a major point for history by sending a group of interviewers to the Deep South to collect more than 2,000 personal accounts of...

Rio Grande.(City of God)(Movie Review)
February 1, 2003... Byline: Anderson Tepper City of God is almost too good to be true-a heart-pounding roller-coaster ride of a film set against a gritty, funkified Brazilian backdrop that just gets more fascinating by the frame. Yet it is true-all too true,...

Drama Queen.(Marchesa Luisa Casati)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Byline: Laura Jacobs In 1909 the immensely wealthy Marchesa Luisa Casati burst upon the world in a Boldini portrait that is a masterpiece. She is swathed in Belle Epoque black by Paul Poiret, a dress that seems to pitch around her as if...

Divine Inspiration.(Adolf Wolfli)(Brief Article)(Biography)
February 1, 2003... Byline: A. M. Homes His drawings are maps to an unknown world, labyrinths crafted from memory and imagination, a grand personal utopia filled with archetypal images, extremes of order and chaos. This spring New York's American...

King of Strain.(Super Slow)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Byline: Henry Alford If vague but all-powerful forces are keeping you from getting to the gym, consider these six honeyed words: once a week, for 20 minutes. Super Slow, the slow strength-training system, outlines just such a time...

Mustang Rally.(Ford Mustang)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Byline: Anne Fulenwider Ever since Steve McQueen raced a Ford Mustang through the streets of San Francisco in Bullitt in 1968, the man and the car have blurred into one national archetype: the car chase. But the car was a phenomenon well...

Southern Light.(Dana Glover)(Biography)
February 1, 2003... Byline: Kevin Sessums A famous director, now deceased, once offered an aside to me at a Hollywood party bustling with starlets: "You know what I find sexy about a woman?" he asked. "Not her body, but her body of work. Nothing arouses...

Heavy Artillery.(The A.R.E. Weapons)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Byline: Brian Thomas Gallagher The A.R.E. Weapons are a downtown band, but the New York City of their songs is a strange realm somewhere between Grease and Blade Runner, with teenage love, apocalyptic street gangs, and knife fights. "I got...

VANITY FAIR NOMINATES SEVERN CULLIS-SUZUKI.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Byline: Daisy Ho Because at the ripe age of 9 this Vancouver-born kid founded eco (the Environmental Children's Organization), then, at 12, attended the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, an unprecedented U.N. conference addressing the...