Vanity Fair articles from March 2007

Vanity Fair archives from March 2007

It's a Noir, Noir, Noir World.(Editorial)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Graydon Carter The race is on in Los Angeles and Washington for two of the great brass rings of contemporary American society-the Oscar and the presidency. In this celebrity-crazed culture, it's a toss-up as to which is the most...

Neocon Dreams, American Nightmares.(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... I am appalled by the arrogance of the neocons in David Rose's story "Neo Culpa" [January], who are so certain that we have the right to use our power "for the moral good of the world" and who judge our policies as "noble" and "beneficial" when...

The Cultural Divide March.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... CELEBRATING AN ICON The spectacular exhibition Henri Cartier-Bresson's Scrapbook: Photographs 1932-46, now showing at New York's I.C.P. through April, features 331 original images from early in the photographer's career. (icp.org) ...

Hot Type.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Elissa Schappell What is the key to an artist's creative success? Joan Acocella's rich and brilliantly wrought trove of essays, Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints (Pantheon), proves it's "patience, courage, and the ability to...

HEYDAY! HEYDAY!(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Anne Fulenwider Kurt Andersen's new novel, Heyday, is 620 pages of exuberance over the birth of modernity in a young America. Like his first book, Turn of the Century, Heyday is fueled by manic energy, fanatical research, and a...

Holy Pop Art.(Frances Elizabeth Kent)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Vicky Ward This year marks the 21st anniversary of the death of Frances Elizabeth Kent, more widely known as Sister Corita, the Andy Warhol of Hollywood. Sister Corita was a nun, a member of the West Coast's Sisters of the...

A ROYAL COLLABORATION.(Sarah, Duchess of York, Tea Collection)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Jessica Flint The new candle line Sarah, Duchess of York, Tea Collection, which launches next month, is a joint venture by Sarah Ferguson and home-fragrance king Harry Slatkin. "Among life's pleasures for me is sitting down to a...

Sweet Dreams.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Punch Hutton The story goes that in 1996, after actress Shirley Jones sampled one of the hand-dipped chocolates in the jewel-box-size candy store Edelweiss Chocolates of Beverly Hills, on Canon Drive, she went home and told her...

READY, SET ... PARTY!
March 1, 2007... JAN. 23 5:30 A.M. Oscar nominations are announced in Los Angeles at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater. 10 A.M. Producers, studio heads, publicists, and agents send flowers to nominees. White roses are perennial favorites. Two...

RESERVE THE BEST TABLE.
March 1, 2007... West Hollywood TOWER BAR (Sunset Tower Hotel) 8358 Sunset Blvd. 323-848-6677 IL SOLE 8741 West Sunset Blvd. 310-657-1182 Beverly Hills CUT (Beverly Wilshire hotel) 9500 Wilshire Blvd. 310-276-8500 THE IVY 113 North...

BODY.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Trainer Teddy Bass It's better to work out on an empty stomach in the morning. Efficiency + quality of work = great results. Arms are usually the most visible part of a woman's body when she is wearing a gown-and therefore the most...

FOUR-WEEK WORKOUT.
March 1, 2007... Week One: WORK OUT FIVE DAYS. Half-hour of cardio (mix it up-treadmill, elliptical, bike, etc.). Half-hour of weights-compound, multi-joint movements. Week Two: WORK OUT FIVE DAYS. Do 40 minutes of cardio each day,...

FACE.(spas)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... The Face Place 8701 Santa Monica Blvd. 310-855-1150 Sofia Coppola, Rene Russo, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Tom Cruise go for the hour-and-15-minute facial, which involves intense cleansing finished off with a galvanic treatment in which...

MAKEUP.
March 1, 2007... Tom Pecheux's Tips Preparing skin: Put on Smoothing Veil, by Shiseido the Makeup, between a light moisturizer and your foundation. It will keep your skin smooth and you'll have a satin finish all night. For eyes: Creamy eye shadows don't...

GLAMOROUS GOWNS.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Rachel Zoe There will be a lot of white-white is the new black-and a lot of navy. There will be nudes, skin tones, deep reds, and emerald greens. I am a huge fan of the fishtail, a dress that is super-fitted to the knee, and then the...

VINTAGE DRESSES.
March 1, 2007... I like things that transcend time but don't shout vintage. Demi Moore has been a client since she was 17 years old. The lavender-gray dress from the late 1940s she wore to the 1992 Oscars was among the first vintage dresses ever worn to the...

DAZZLING JEWELS.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Punch Hutton CARTIER What will be the major trend at the 2007 Oscars? Color. Sometimes it is about one specific piece, such as a beautiful brooch in the hair, and other times it is more about a full look. I think we will...

My Desk.
March 1, 2007... Liz Smith files her weekday syndicated column from this desk at her New York office on East 38th Street, where she's been since 1976.

TABLE-HOPPING.
March 1, 2007... WHO YOU NEED TO KNOW TO GET IN: The owners: actor Andy Fiscella; film producer Beau Flynn; GQ's Chris Huvane; Tsubi's Dan Single, George Gorrow, and Greg Chait; and film producer Matt Alvarez. WHO INSPIRED THE NAME: Fiscella's chocolate Lab,...

Fashion Forward.
March 1, 2007... Shop America, out next month from Taschen, captures the optimism, opulence, and commercialism of midcentury America by showcasing a compendium of storefront designs from 1938 to 1950. The illustrations are "reminders of a time when stores were...

Boho Renaissance.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Paul Goldberger What strikes you first about the Bowery Hotel isn't what it looks like, but what it's called. Eric Goode and Sean MacPherson, the entrepreneurs behind New York City's Maritime Hotel and the Park restaurant, didn't...

Hot Tracks.(Video recording review)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Lisa Robinson Consider this: none of these movie songs-"Superfly," "Love Me Tender," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "A Hard Day's Night," "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," and "Staying Alive"-were nominated for Oscars. With...

Early Modern.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... The Hishou model airplane, from Yoshida, in Japan, looks like a Pentagon drone but is, in fact, a design that dates from the first years of aeronautics. The prototype of this A-shaped balsa-wood plane first flew in 1911, when it made a test...

One for the Roadster.
March 1, 2007... The American Roadster, in profile, looks like a classic racer from the 1930s. Examine it more closely, however, and you discover that there are only three wheels. The tri-wheel design allowed the Roadster's creator, John S. Greene, to get the...

Time Out.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Suunto invented the modern compass. Today the company makes a watch it calls a "wristop computer," the X9i, equipped with a compass, chronograph, altimeter, barometer, and, most important, G.P.S., which can interface with Google Earth. This...

Lapo of Luxury.(Lapo Elkann )(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... An heir to the Fiat fortune-and to many Caraceni suits once owned by his grandfather Gianni Agnelli-Lapo Elkann has started his own fashion brand. Italia Independent (I-I for short) debuts with carbon-framed sunglasses whose design, Lapo says,...

Big Marc Up.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Matt Tyrnauer Marc Newson trained as a jeweler and sculptor, "to raise silver teapots a la Georg Jensen," he says. In 2006 his riveted aluminum Lockheed Lounge chair-created in 1986-sold for $968,000 at Sotheby's in New York, the...

Private Lives.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Bob Colacello San Francisco grande dame Denise Hale remembers Trevor Traina at age 14, coming up to her at a party of his mother's and saying, "Mrs. Hale, those are the most beautiful ruby earrings I've seen in all my life." As...

Country Chic.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Punch Hutton Step inside the Brentwood Country Mart, built in 1948, and you're instantly transported to a time when a post office, barbershop, cobbler, and pub made for a town. The original long red barn, replete with white trim...

Mapping It Out.
March 1, 2007... 1. Country Mart Shoe Repair 2. Selima et Benjamin Optique 3. James Perse 4. Jigsaw 5. Jigsaw Junior 6. Marie Mason Apothecary 7. Brentwood General Store 8. Mart Coffee & Juice 9. Edelweiss Chocolates ...

Lauder's Heritage.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Alexa Brazilian For those who were deprived of a grandmother's vanity, stocked with gold-encased lipsticks and proper metal compacts that snap with an old-fashioned, satisfying click, comes Estee Lauder's limited-edition Heritage...

Hot Looks.
March 1, 2007... 1. Rock the red carpet wearing Revlon's new Luxurious Color Eyeliner.... 2. Ted Gibson's Goodnite Replenish Hair Repair Treatment, an elixir made from wild-orchid extract, improves the health of your hair.... 3. Asprey's citrusy Purple Water...

Q&A with Barbie.
March 1, 2007... Q. You're an ageless beauty, but how old are you? A. I am forever a teenager! Q. Most people think of you as a style icon. How does that make you feel? A. Being stylish is a fabulous reputation to have, so thank you, but more than...

An Unforgettable Face.(Movie review)
March 1, 2007... Byline: James Wolcott Made during the middle slumbers of the Eisenhower era, Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd marks its 50th birthday in 2007 and retains its status as one of the most provocative, unplaceable vagrants-or is it mongrels?-of...

The Trouble With Judith; For years, Judith Regan's tabloid sensibility (a deal with O. J. Simpson, for example) and outrageous behavior made her a star in the Murdoch empire.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Michael Wolff Somehow Judith Regan-the most famous book publisher of her generation, and the would-be Nancy Drew ready to finally close the O. J. Simpson case-has always gotten away with her obscene, grotesque, often funny,...

The Queen and I.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Dominick Dunne Recently, while going through an old file cabinet, I came across the introduction to a coffee-table book about Elizabeth Taylor's jewels that was published in 2002. Elizabeth and my friend Michael Korda, the editor...

My Lunch With Harvey; The author's stint as a top sex-crimes prosecutor helped inspire Law & Order: SVU and launched her writing career.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Linda Fairstein As much as I wanted to tell my good friends about how close I was to clinching a movie deal with Harvey Weinstein, I decided not to say anything at all. It's not as though we had hammered out terms or drawn up a...

Kitty Confidential; Despite her renown as a To Tell the Truth celebrity panelist, Kitty Carlisle Hart doesn't spill all her best stories in her sellout nightclub act.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Michael Feinstein Every morning, Kitty Carlisle Hart gazes at herself in her dressing-room mirror and says, "I forgive you for whatever you did yesterday." She is 96, and this is part of her system for survival. "You have to...

Pirates of the Multiplex; Under U.S. pressure, Swedish authorities are going after the popular Pirate Bay Web site for illegal distribution of video files.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Steven Daly "Steve TV" I was a reluctant convert, to say the least. When I got the call from my old friend Richard back in late 2005, he sounded far too enthusiastic about the latest Internet gimmick that was going to "change...

Stardust Memoirist.(Walter Mortimer Mirisch)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Bruce Feirstein When you walk into Walter Mirisch's office at Universal, the phone rings incessantly as he describes the new project he's producing for Disney. But what stops the conversation cold is something that catches your...

From the Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Iraq; The same neocon ideologues behind the Iraq war have been using the same tactics-alliances with shady exiles, dubious intelligence on W.M.D.-to push for the bombing of Iran.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Craig Unger In the weeks leading up to George W. Bush's January 10 speech on the war in Iraq, there was a brief but heady moment when it seemed that the president might finally accept the failure of his Middle East policy and try...

The Most Happening Fella; Hollywood loves Brett Ratner.(Interview)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Nancy Jo Sales There's a party at Brett Ratner's house. Not downstairs, in the disco, where producer Allan Carr (Grease) built a gold lame playpen for 70s Hollywood, and Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan have lately been known to...

Taking On Guantanamo; Assigned to defend a Guantanamo detainee, JAG lawyer Charles Swift joined up with legal scholar Neal Katyal and sued the president and secretary of defense over the new military-tribunal system.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Marie Brenner The whole purpose of setting up Guantanamo Bay is for torture. Why do this? Because you want to escape the rule of law. There is only one thing that you want to escape the rule of law to do, and that is to question...

Washington's $8 Billion Shadow; Mega-contractors such as Halliburton and Bechtel supply the government with brawn.(Company overview)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele One of the great staples of the modern Washington movie is the dark and ruthless corporation whose power extends into every cranny around the globe, whose technological expertise is without peer,...

Masters of Photography Herb Ritts.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Ingrid Sischy The last time I saw Herb Ritts we spent a few hours chatting about his next photo book, which he was then planning. I had pitched in as an editor and writer on a couple of his earlier volumes, and he'd come by to...

A Politician Oscar Could Love.(Jack Valenti)(Interview)
March 1, 2007... Byline: George Wayne Jack Valenti, 85, a former aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson, pioneered the Motion Picture Association of America and served as its chairman and C.E.O. for nearly four decades. He retired in 2004, but his presence...

Killers Kill, Dead Men Die.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Nathaniel Rich, Jim Windolf, Bruce Handy "KILLERS KILL, DEAD MEN DIE" STARRING AMY ADAMS........................as The Society Girl BEN AFFLECK.........................as The Shamus JESSICA ALBA...

Day Into Noir; Between the Great Depression and the start of the Cold War, Hollywood went noir, reflecting the worldly, weary, wised-up undercurrent of midcentury America.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Ann Douglas It's only real when it's dark. -Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). I belong to the last movie-centric generation; my family didn't own a television until I was eight. It was not on the small screen but in...

Pat Dollard's War on Hollywood; In 2004, having made his name as Steven Soderbergh's agent, Pat Dollard was the stereotypical Hollywood operator: coked-up, Armani-sheathed, separated from his fourth wife, and rapidly self-destructing.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Evan Wright The day before Thanksgiving 2004, Pat Dollard, a Hollywood agent who represented Steven Soderbergh, sent an e-mail to just about everyone he knew containing one word: "Later." Friends worried it was a suicide note....

LOS ANGELES.
March 1, 2007... What Family and friends celebrate Kirk Douglas on his 90th birthday at L'Orangerie, the bastion of old-world glamour that recently closed its doors. When December 9, 2006. Who Betsy Bloomingdale, Daniel Melnick, George...

LOS ANGELES.
March 1, 2007... What Dolce & Gabbana honor Penelope Cruz for her performance in Volver and raise awareness for the Art of Elysium, a charity benefiting critically ill children, in the penthouse at the Chateau Marmont. When December 13, 2006. ...

Ellen DeGeneres; When Johnny Carson asked Ellen DeGeneres over to the couch after her first appearance on The Tonight Show, his intuition couldn't have been more spot-on.
March 1, 2007... What is your idea of perfect happiness? I don't know how happiness could get any more perfect, but I think it would involve more puppies. What is your greatest fear? Finding a panther in my bathroom. Which historical figure do...