Vanity Fair articles from February 2004

Vanity Fair archives from February 2004

John Ashcroft's PATRIOT GAMES.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Judy Bachrach In the summer of 2001, John Ashcroft, George W. Bush's new attorney general, was holding one of his early-morning prayer meetings in his office. It was a gathering of 12-many of them Justice Department employees who...

> THE FLYING TYCOON; Martin Scorsese's next film, The Aviator, stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes, the famously phobic billionaire who cut a swath through Hollywood's leading ladies in the 1930s and 40s, broke airspeed records, and pursued the dream of transatlantic flight.(Movie Review)
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Jim Windolf Unless something goes horribly wrong, next year's Oscar talk is likely to center on The Aviator, an old-fashioned, unapologetically big-budgeted ($110 million is the official figure) telling of the life and times of...

Gauguin's Last Testament.(Paul Gauguin)
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: John Richardson After breaking records for attendance at the Grand Palais in Paris, the most comprehensive exhibition ever held of the paintings, sculpture, and other works that Paul Gauguin, the Paris stockbroker turned noble...

titlehere; In the late 70s, a group of mostly Oxford University students formed the Dangerous Sports Club, dedicated to formal dress, abundant champagne, and such imaginatively insane stunts as sending a grand piano down the slopes of Saint-Moritz and skateboarding with the bulls in Pamplona.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Brett Martin Hidden among the cow pastures and rolling meadows of Somerset, in the Southwest of England, Middlemoor Water Park features a muddy man-made waterskiing pond, a go-kart track, and a shack selling beer and snacks. But on...

Palm Beach Exclusive.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Bob Colacello "A thousand in help, and here I am picking the runner grass out," says Terry Allen Kramer as she bends down and plucks a weed from the otherwise impeccable lawn of her four-acre, ocean-to-lake estate on Palm Beach's...

Sir Michael Caine; From humble beginnings in London's Bermondsey neighborhood, the former Maurice Micklewhite gained international fame in Alfie.(Interview)
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: What is your idea of perfect happiness? Being at home, in England. I have a house in the country there, and that's where I'm always happiest. What is your greatest fear? As I was born very poor, I suppose going...

Breaking the Law in Michael Bloomberg's New York.(Editorial)
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Graydon Carter They say there are eight million stories in the Naked City. And according to my math, in Mayor Michael Bloomberg's New York, I must be 1.5 percent or 120,000 of them. Of 200 summonses handed out for so-called...

Too wild for Washington; The Smithsonian's new show-pandering; the straight dope on gay TV; Mr.(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Censorship is alive and well and flourishing at the Smithsonian. I felt sick after reading Ingrid Sischy's "The Smithsonian's Big Chill" [December] regarding the suppression of Subhankar Banerjee's photographs of the Arctic...

Metalheads.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Michael Hogan Making an album can be murder. Just ask Metallica, the subject of a morbidly fascinating new film by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, the documentarians behind Brother's Keeper and Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at...

Revolutionary Lore.(Loving Che)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Henry Alford Ana Menendez's first novel bears more than a little resemblance to a certain kind of college dorm room: it is filled with pictures of Che Guevara. Out from Atlantic Monthly Press, Loving Che is the story of a young...

Hot Tracks.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Lisa Robinson What's new? A survey of the previously unknown and undiscovered has revealed the following musical delights: On the sexy, worldly Amour Amer, Joel Virgel-who's been influenced by Brazilian music and sang...

Paradise Found.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Punch Hutton The 21-mile stretch of soft, white-sand beaches along Mexico's Los Cabos corridor is capped, at the southernmost tip of Baja California, by the exclusive, lush enclave Palmilla. In 1956, Don Abelardo Rodriguez, the son...

SWEET TEMPTATIONS.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Greenwich Village's Blue Hill restaurant serves golden waffle wedges with warm maple syrup and rich hot-chocolate mousse (75 Washington Place).... Champagne truffles from N.Y.C.'s Teuscher tingle your tongue (620 Fifth Avenue).......

Fashion Flair.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Evgenia Peretz To designer Stacey Bendet there are two current fashion nightmares-Ugg boots and high-waisted, pegged pants. "They make your butt flatter, your hips bigger, and your legs shorter," says Bendet, a 25-year-old blonde...

Custom Cachet.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: L'Artisan Parfumeur of Paris has introduced a whole new dimension to customized gifts. In its line Le Comptoir du Sur Mesure, available at Bergdorf Goodman in New York, it infuses a special trinket with fragrance, wraps it in the...

A Natural Classic.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Laura Kang In 1647, New Amsterdam's Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant, planted on his farm a pear tree that he had brought over from Holland. The spot was known as Pear Tree Corner until two horse-drawn carriages collided and mowed...

I Fought the Law; To protest the petty ordinances of Mayor Bloomberg's New York, the author went on a one-man crime spree: taking his feet off his bike pedals, feeding pigeons, and sitting on a milk crate, among other offenses.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Christopher Hitchens Many and various are the New York tales that are told of professor Sidney Morgenbesser. During a conference of linguistic philosophers at Columbia University, he interrupted the pompous J. L. Austin, who was...

An Expensive Divorce; In early 2000, with his 18-year marriage to novelist Cathleen Schine breaking up and the Internet bubble bursting, critic David Denby announced in The New Yorker that he intended to make a million dollars in the stock market.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: James Wolcott Sometime in early January 2000, I became aware that I was jabbering... speaking as breathlessly as a cattle auctioneer in full cry. -David Denby, American Sucker. Money, money, money, ...

Banned in Monte Carlo.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Dominick Dunne Michael Skakel's new attorneys, Hope Seeley and Hubert Santos, have filed an appeal to overturn his murder conviction on multiple grounds. In June 2002, Skakel, an heir to a carbon fortune and a nephew of Ethel...

VANITY FAIR NOMINATES PAUL KELLOGG.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Michael Hogan Because he joined the fledgling Glimmerglass Opera, in Cooperstown, New York, in 1979 and transformed it into the most successful small opera company in the country. because he spearheaded the construction of...

CILLIAN MURPHY.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Krista Smith age and occupation: 29, actor. provenance: Cork, Ireland. a monster hit: Murphy starred in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, a surprise hit last summer. oh danny boy: "I was thrilled to be working with Danny....

New Slogans for America.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: -jim Windolf The good old U.S. of A. has lately developed a "bum rap" in the world at large. Well, what could be more American than improving our image abroad-as well as boosting our self-esteem here at home-with a catchy slogan or...

Gwyneth in Love.
February 1, 2004... BYLINE: Krista Smith The first time I meet Gwyneth Paltrow, it's the day after her prime-time interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC. She comes breezing into Manhattan's Soho House wearing a crisp white blazer, jeans, and high heels, looking...