Vanity Fair articles from January 2005

Vanity Fair archives from January 2005

BEST PIPES.(singer and pianist Jamie Cullum)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Jamie Cullum, 24, grew up in rural Wiltshire, England, which has never been referred to as the New Orleans of Great Britain, nor even its Hoboken. And yet the singer-pianist has emerged as one of the most promising young crooners...

BEST RECALL.(television programs)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Answer: Last year, the syndicated game show Jeopardy!, much loved by game-show purists turned off by Fear Factor and its ilk, reversed its 20-year policy of limiting champions to five wins, allowing for this likable software...

BEST FINGERS.(pianist Leif Ove Andsnes )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Some pianists are like acrobats who seek to dazzle audiences with their speed, strength, and agility, but here is a different breed of soloist. Leif Ove Andsnes was a shy boy from rural Norway who was born with an exceptional...

BEST MOVES.(Choreographers Paul Taylor)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... In his 1954 production of The Nutcracker, George Balanchine spent $25,000 on a Christmas tree that would grow through the rafters. That same year, a penniless 23-year-old named Paul Taylor choreographed a dance, his first, called...

BEST STROKE.(Olympics swimming champion Mark Spitz)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Leading up to Athens, it seemed as if all anyone spoke about was Michael Phelps's quest to break Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics. Commentators said it would be a disappointment if the 19-year-old...

BEST SCOURGE.(movie director Michael Moore)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Before the rise of Everyman filmmaker and author Michael Moore (second from left), the stereotypical liberal was seen as a granola-munching, Volvo-driving, French-film-watching elitist who meekly accepted being out of step with the...

BEST STEWARDS.
January 1, 2005... From left: Bill Richardson, governor, New Mexico; Brent Blackwelder, president, Friends of the Earth; Bill Wade, former superintendent, National Park Service; Ralph G. Neas, president, People for the American Way Foundation; Kathy Seddon,...

Mr. and Mrs. California; Two powerful myths are fused in the marriage of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver: his "Terminator" invincibility and her Kennedy glamour.(Biography)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Marie Brenner It was roughly three a.m., and the first lady of California was on a private jet hurtling over the red states on her way from New York to Los Angeles, showing not the slightest hint of fatigue. "The very future of the...

Spitzer's Justice; Elected New York State attorney general in 1998, Eliot Spitzer has made his power felt across the U.S. He has targeted unfair practices on Wall Street, polluters in Ohio, a top pharmaceutical company, Internet spammers, and, most recently, the insurance industry.(Biography)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Holly Brubach A few minutes after 11 on the second night of the Democratic National Convention, in Boston, a white Subaru with local plates slows to a stop and the guy riding shotgun rolls down the window. "Eliot Spitzer!" he calls...

Black Sheep, Big Trouble; A botched coup by mercenaries last year against the dictator of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea ensnared Sir Mark Thatcher, son of Britain's former prime minister, whose business dealings have made him controversial before.(Interview)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Vicky Ward It wasn't hard to spot Sir Mark Thatcher in the lobby of the Mount Nelson, an exclusive but now somewhat faded hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, in early October. At 51, with gray hair and piercing blue eyes, he looks...

Image Maker; Photographer John Szarkowski is far less famous than many of the talents he championed, such as Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, and William Eggleston.(Biography)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Ingrid Sischy "I come from long-lived stock, and expect at least forty years after forty to practice what my education will have presumably taught me," wrote the photographer and curator John Szarkowski in a letter to a college...

A Fashion Fairy Tale; Natalia Vodianova's rags-to- glamour rise may be the fastest on record: in less than four years, a dirt-poor Russian teenager became the supermodel wife of British aristocrat Justin Portman.(Biography)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Krista Smith Fashion week in L.A. is still a far cry from those of Milan, Paris, and New York, but at least Natalia Vodianova happens to be in town, having just spent the weekend deep in the California desert posing for...

Art Linkletter; Since his days as host of Art Linkletter's House Party, which aired on CBS from 1952 to 1969, Art Linkletter has captivated audiences with his irresistible humor and canny way of interviewing children.(Brief Article)(Interview)
January 1, 2005... What is your idea of perfect happiness? Being surrounded by my 14 great-grandchildren, eight grandchildren, three children, and my wife of 68 years in a San Diego resort. What is your greatest fear? A stroke that immobilizes me and...

The Shots Seen Round the World.(great old photographers)(Editorial)(Obituary)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Graydon Carter This past year was not a good one for photography, inasmuch as eight of the great old masters of the art died-men whose work went a long way toward capturing in pictures the essence of the last 60 years of the 20th...

Aiming High.
January 1, 2005... Byline: Evgenia Peretz With half the American population burying their heads under the covers at the prospect of Four More Years, it's nice to know that some are still fighting the good fight. In Senator Barack Obama, Annie Leibovitz and...

The Gospel According To Joni.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... Thank you, Elvis Costello, for giving us a great interview with Joni Mitchell ["Joni's Last Waltz?," November]. Any glimpse into this artistic treasure is a treat. The first time I heard Joni was at a friend's house in the early 70s, and...

Hot Type.(books)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Elissa Schappell Are you living in a fact-based reality? Sucker. See how the other side lives. Conversational felines and Hegel-spouting whores roam metaphysical master Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore (Knopf), which sets...

Shaken, Not Stirred.(music albums)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Aaron Gell Don't let the fizz fool you. The music of Pink Martini, the 12-piece cocktail-pop ensemble based in Portland, Oregon, is a potent brew. While Hang on Little Tomato, the band's enthralling new album, certainly qualifies...

Burning Bright.(musical group)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Frank Digiacomo When 24-year-old Conor Oberst and the band he calls Bright Eyes opened the Vote for Change concert at Cleveland's Gund Arena this past October, you could almost hear the Grim Reaper of Rock sharpening his scythe. To...

Lucky Charms.(bracelets)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Punch Hutton With all things vintage now en vogue, it's no wonder charm bracelets have become de rigueur for anyone longing for a more romantic era. If Grandmother didn't leave you any Sotheby's-worthy baubles, you can create your...

Zissou's Sea Odyssey.(Movie Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Bruce Handy We already knew that Wes Anderson was a droll, stylish filmmaker with a sure hand for the comedy of depression and a brilliant ear for soundtrack music. But his new film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, reveals him...

Makeover Madness; In the expanding universe of TV makeover shows-The Swan, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, In a Fix, Nanny 911, etc.
January 1, 2005... Byline: James Wolcott Look at yourself. Take a good, hard look. Admit it, you're a mess. An unstately blob. Your hair looks as if it lost faith in itself and threw in the towel. You could at least pin it up or braid it or comb it or...

The Devil and Miss Regan; Is Judith Regan (a) the smartest executive in book publishing, (b) a victimized single mother in a sexist world, or (c) a foulmouthed tyrant.(Biography)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Judith Newman The room is clammy and the food pap at the 2004 PEN annual gala, at the Pierre hotel in New York, which makes it easier to concentrate on the real purpose of the evening: gauging one's place in the literati pecking...

Kelli Garner.(actor)(Brief Article)(Interview)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Krista Smith AGE AND OCCUPATION: 20, actor. PROVENANCE: Bakersfield, California. HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? Garner may be the only actress to owe her career to excellent limbo skills. "I got discovered [by a manager] at a ...

Nan Darien; Mad about the primate.(Column)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Nan Darien From the moment I first laid eyes on the phrase "service monkey" (the New York Post ran articles last summer about a supposedly disabled man's little helper-a macaque-who bit a child in a Brooklyn grocery store) I knew I...

BEST ROOKIE.(senator Barack Obama)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Is his the face of a future president? Plenty of people have thought so, ever since he crushed his competitors in a seven-way primary last March and began his inexorable march toward a seat as the junior U.S. senator from Illinois....

BEST "IT GIRL".(movie actor Scarlett Johansson)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... "For older women, death happens inside. What comes with that death is a kind of liberation." No, that's not Camille Paglia. That was 18-year-old Scarlett Johansson, now 20, who has proven you don't need to be in a princess movie to...

BEST ANCHOR.(talk show host Jon Stewart)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... In an age in which the frothing of Ann Coulter and the quoting of press releases pass for reporting the news, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has become the go-to program for people seeking not just laughs but the truth. Stewart...

BEST SWINGER.(achievments of tennis player Roger Federer)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The number that got most everyone's attention is three, as in the three tennis majors Roger Federer won in 2004: the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. No one had won three grand-slam tournaments in a calendar...

BEST PROVIDER.(John Mackey took his company's name to the Fortune 500 list)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The founder of Whole Foods Market may be just the man to heal the divide between red and blue America: a Ronald Reagan-loving, Adam Smith-quoting, Wall Street Journal- op-ed-page-reading libertarian who makes his living selling ...

BEST CRUSADERS.(World Trade Center victims' wives)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... History will record the efforts of (from left) Kristen Breitweiser, Patty Casazza, Lorie Van Auken, and Mindy Kleinberg, four moms from the New Jersey suburbs who refused to let the government off the hook after their husbands were...

BEST SCOOP.(Seymour Hersh, reporter)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Seymour Hersh is exactly what a reporter should be: inquisitive, dogged, skeptical, fearless, and cranky as hell. At 67, he's ahead of the pack of American pack journalists. In a time when too many reporters are content to squabble...