Vanity Fair articles from November 2008

Vanity Fair archives from November 2008

American Political Idol--Mutually-Assured-Destruction Edition.(Christopher Buckley's Supreme Courtship)(Editorial)
November 1, 2008... Byline: --GRAYDON CARTER In Supreme Courtship, Christopher Buckley's crisp, knowing, recently published Washington satire, Donald Vanderdamp is a frustrated first-term president. His two candidates for an opening on the Supreme Court have...

Day Of The Tyrant.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... Letter from a Zimbabwean; viva Carla!; Ellen Burstyn clears the air; the super six; in Texas not everybody's wallet is bigger; and more 'Day of the Crocodile," by Peter Godwin [September], is well written, and his insight into what has...

V.F. Classic.(Vanity Fair's Marjorie Williams)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Marjorie Williams was a fearless political profiler who crafted acid-tipped essays about Washington power figures. But in 2001 the 43-year-old VANITY FAIR contributing editor received cataclysmal news: a lump she had found in her abdomen was...

More From The V.F. Mailbag.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... 'Where have you been all my life?" Right here! Sifting through the mail! Who are you? Donna Davisson of North Ridge-ville, Ohio, apparently. And discovering the actual object of her affection ("your wonderful September issue") has quickly...

Postscript.
November 1, 2008... Byline: --JESSICA FLINT In January 2002, VANITY FAIR contributing editor Michael Shnayerson investigated the shocking murder of Ted Ammon, one of East Hampton's wealthiest residents, who had been brutally killed months before ("Murder in...

Fanfair.
November 1, 2008... Byline: PHOTOGRAPH BY GUY RITCHIE NOVEMBER 2008 30 DAYS IN THE LIFE OF THE CULTURE CAPTION(S): LIAR'S POKER Toby Kebbell, Tom Wilkinson, and Mark Strong, photographed in London, star in Guy Ritchie's latest film, RocknRolla,...

The Cultural Divide: November.(art exhibitions and new stores)
November 1, 2008... 1. All That Glitters On November 1, Tiffany & Co. unveils its newest gem, a completely redesigned flagship store in Tokyo. With a sleek glass-paneled exterior designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, the building glistens like an...

Hot Type.(new books)
November 1, 2008... Byline: ELISSA SCHAPPELL In 1988 investigative journalist and V.F. special correspondent Bryan Burrough and John Helyar let loose Barbarians at the Gate (CollinsBusiness), an expose of the bloodiest takeover in Wall Street history. Now the...

Outward Bound.(Outliers)(Brief article)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... Byline: --ELISSA SCHAPPELL On an eternal quest to explain us to ourselves, Malcolm Gladwell once again turns his intellectual divining rod toward a common yet mysterious cultural phenomenon--in this case, the lives of Outliers (Little,...

Quick Takes.
November 1, 2008... Peter Ackroyd dives into the Thames (Doubleday). Jonathan Brent steals Inside the Stalin Archives (Atlas & Co.). The late William F. Buckley Jr . reminisces on The Reagan I Knew (Basic Books). Roy Blount Jr. squeezes Alphabet Juice (Sarah...

The Look Book.(Milton Greene's But That's Another Story)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Byline: --LESLIE BENNETTS MILTON GREENE'S FLAWLESS EYE The lush curve of her waist tantalizingly bare, Marilyn Monroe is half-dressed in an unzipped white gown. Sammy Davis Jr. and Gene Kelly are thrillingly airborne, caught midflight...

The Sweet Life.
November 1, 2008... Byline: --OLIVIA STRAND A MINI-MOGUL SAVORS SUCCESS K atrina Markoff, the C.E.O. of the eco-friendly, organic-luxury-chocolate house Vosges Haut-Chocolat, likes to tell stories of her global wanderings through truffles flavored with...

My Desk.(Martha Stewart)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Martha Stewart PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUGLAS FRIEDMAN Although the headquarters for Martha Stewart's Omnimedia corporation are located in New York City, the lifestyle entrepreneur spends most of her time working at this desk in her Bedford,...

Criminal Intent.(RocknRolla)(Movie review)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Byline: --JULIAN SANCTON GUY RITCHIE'S LATEST THRILL RIDE G uy Ritchie's London gangland is every bit as segmented and hierarchical as the city itself. His criminal-class system is made up of old-school bigwigs, bumbling nitwits,...

Emotional Rescue.(The Soloist)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Byline: --GRAHAM FULLER INSPIRATIONAL NOTES FROM A HOMELESS MUSICAL PRODIGY R obert Downey Jr. is hardly known for exercising his protective instincts on-screen, so it will be fascinating to watch him portray a grounded guardian angel...

Bahamas Bliss.
November 1, 2008... Byline: --PUNCH HUTTON Daydreaming about swimming and snorkeling in one of the world's largest barrier reefs? What about catching fish for dinner, shopping at high-end boutiques for embroidered caftans, curling up on a chaise and watching...

My Stuff.(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Ashley Olsen A shley Olsen, pictured here, and her sister Mary-Kate Olsen, both designers, actresses, and entrepreneurs, publish their first coffee-table book, Influence (Penguin), this month. It's a compendium of personal...

Beach Reading.
November 1, 2008... Byline: --CLAIRE HOWORTH Miami, the city of vice and Versace, conjures images of bookies rather than books, but this month the city hosts its 25th annual Miami Book Fair International, considered one of the premier literary festivals in...

Night-Table Reading.(Kenneth, Brian and Jim Lehrer)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Brian Lehrer HOST, THE BRIAN LEHRER SHOW (WNYC) THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO, BY JUNOT DIAZ (RIVERHEAD)*****Diaz writes with ecstatic (and profane) abandon, about being Dominican, American, and, most of all, male. He confronts our...

Bougie Nights.(Ramdane Touhami of Cire Trudon)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Byline: --OLIVIA STRAND RAMDANE WAXES NOSTALGIC Many companies want a piece of Ramdane Touhami . But when the jack-of-all-trades--who went from designing best-selling T-shirts while at boarding school in Switzerland to launching a...

Hot Looks.
November 1, 2008... Byline: --LAURA KATZENBERG With signature ingredient Pitera, SK-II's Signs Wrinkles Serum will decrease lines and improve skin texture in less than an hour.... Cle de Peau Beaute has enhanced its cult favorite Concealer with...

Fragrant Temple.(Aedes de Venustas)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Byline: --JOHN ORTVED Even the sophisticates who regularly shop the West Village have trouble pronouncing Aedes de Venustas, the sensuous Christopher Street boutique specializing in hard-to-find fragrances, such as Alora and Hierbes di...

Fairground.(International Best-Dressed List)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Byline: PHOTOGRAPHS BY HANNAH THOMSON AROUND THE WORLD, ONE PARTY AT A TIME NOVEMBER 2OO8 IMPECCABLE TASTE VANITY FAIR carries on the tradition of honoring the International Best-Dressed List, which was started 69 years ago by...

The News Blues.(bad news)(Essay)
November 1, 2008... Byline: ILLUSTRATIONS BY BARRY BLITT The author has lived through a lot of hair-raising times--nuclear standoffs, assassinations, 9/11, financial meltdown--but now he's sure the world is going to hell in a handbasket. And, God knows, the...

VANITY FAIR Nominates Gary Jobson.
November 1, 2008... Byline: SUSAN RASCO PHOTOGRAPH BY GASPER TRINGALE Because as national chairman of the Leukemia Cup Regatta since 1994, the champion sailor, commentator, and lymphoma survivor, 58, has raised more than $26 million for cancer research. As the...

Reversal Of Fortune.(United States financial crisis)(Essay)
November 1, 2008... Byline: BY JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ Describing how ideology, special-interest pressure, populist politics, and sheer incompetence have left the U.S. economy on life support, the author puts forth a clear, commonsense plan to reverse the Bush-era...

Cherie Bomb.
November 1, 2008... Byline: BY LESLIE BENNETTS PHOTOGRAPH BY WAYNE MASER STYLED BY SARAJANE HOARE Capping her tenure as the most controversial prime minister's wife in recent memory, Cherie Blair has written a best-selling memoir, Speaking for Myself, due out...

Quantum Physique.(Gemma Arterton)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Byline: KRISTA SMITH PHOTOGRAPH BY MILES ALDRIDGE * STYLED BY SARAJANE HOARE Gemma Arterton, 22, is the latest in a long line of beauties to make her international debut as a Bond Girl--in Quantum of Solace, out this month. Born and raised...

Levine In Winter.
November 1, 2008... Byline: BY DAVID MARGOLICK PHOTOGRAPHS BY GASPER TRINGALE For four decades, David Levine's acid-tipped portraits of everyone from Castro to Cheney gave The New York Review of Books its visual punch. Now that the greatest caricaturist of the...

Vanities: All Is Vanities ... Nothing Is Fair.(Sally Hawkins)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Byline: KRISTA SMITH PHOTOGRAPH BY WAYNE MASER * STYLED BY SARAJANE HOARE NOVEMBER 2008 Sally Hawkins AGE: 32. PROVENANCE: London. MISCHIEVOUS MUSE TO THE BEARDED BARD OF SOCIAL REALISM: Hawkins stars as a preternaturally cheerful...

My Mii.(wii avatars)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... IN WHICH THE STARS DESIGN THEIR OWN wii AVATARS This month: Saturday Night Live' s Fred Armisen, Andy Samberg, and Jason Sudeikis make Miis not only of themselves, but of the entire S.N.L. cast Bobby Moynihan* *New cast member....

No Cure For Anger.(Denis Leary)(Interview)
November 1, 2008... Denis Leary EXPOUNDS ON HIS FAVORITE NUN, REN%E ZELLWEGER, AND RACISM "D.L. has mastered the art of 'the D.L.'--the down low. He's one of those perfectly astute showbiz folk who know how to provoke the Zeitgeist and then disappear below...

Some Ench Anted Amy.
November 1, 2008... Byline: PHOTOGRAPHS BY MERT ALAS AND MARCUS PIGGOTT * STYLED BY MICHAEL ROBERTS An Oscar-nominated role in Junebug, a singing-dancing hit with Enchanted, a part opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep in next month's Doubt, then...

Inside Colombia's Hostage War.
November 1, 2008... Byline: PORTRAITS BY JONAS KARLSSON Upon Ingrid Betancourt's liberation, last July, the world was eager for her story: the patrician politician held hostage in Colombia's rain-forest jungle for six often brutal years by the revolutionary...

Will's Cup Of Tea.(Kate Middleton)
November 1, 2008... For more than four years, Kate Middleton has navigated the perilous waters of being Prince William's girlfriend, handling the snobbery, sniping, and spotlight without official support or guidance. As Britain's odds-makers bet on a wedding,...

Searching For Robert Johnson.
November 1, 2008... In the seven decades since his mysterious death, bluesman Robert Johnson's legend has grown--the tragically short life, the "crossroads" tale of supernatural talent, the genuine gift that inspired Dylan, Clapton, and other greats--but his image...

Who Is Wall Street's Queen B.?
November 1, 2008... Byline: PORTRAITS BY MARTIN SCHOELLER Bankruptcies... fire sales... banks on the brink: these are dark days for Wall Street. But, for CNBC and Maria Bartiromo, things couldn't be better. At 41, Bartiromo is a star, the Barbara Walters of...

Pop To The People.
November 1, 2008... Byline: INGRID SISCHY PHOTOGRAPH BY ANNIE LEIBOVITZ In 1989, not long before AIDS cut his life short, at the age of 31, Keith Haring jotted this down in his journal: "When I die there is nobody to take my place." Fact. But one small...

Dr. Nicholas And Mr. Hyde.(Company overview)
November 1, 2008... Henry Nicholas isn't just another tech-boom billionaire charged with backdating stock options. All the drive, arrogance, and aggression he poured into building microchip-maker Broadcom--one of the major success stories of the Internet...

Credits.
November 1, 2008... FASHION COVER: AMY ADAMS'S OSCAR DE LA RENTA slip from Oscar de la Renta boutiques nationwide; VALENTINO shoes from Valentino, N.Y.C., or call 212-772-6969; for HARRY WINSTO n rings, call 800-988-4100, or go to harrywinston.com. PAGE 40:...

Tom Jones.(Interview)
November 1, 2008... Byline: ILLUSTRATION BY RISKO As timeless as he is infectious, the Welsh crooner releases his latest album, 24 Hours, this month. The veteran Lothario pauses to reflect on his hair, his dirty mouth, and what he looks like in the shower ...