Vanity Fair articles from September 2007

Vanity Fair archives from September 2007

Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse.(Arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence of the Bush Administration)(Editorial)
September 1, 2007... Byline: Graydon Carter Arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence. Not a pretty cocktail of personality traits in the best of situations. No sirree. Not a pretty cocktail in an office-mate and not a pretty cocktail in a head of state. In fact,...

Africa Revisited.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... Thank you for the brilliant Africa issue [July]. As a recent college graduate, I can honestly tell you that I have learned more about Africa and global awareness from this one magazine edition than in my entire education. As a humanitarianism...

The Cultural Divide September.
September 1, 2007... 06 The entertainment community says good-bye to summer and heads north to the Toronto International Film Festival, where more than 200 films will screen. Among them are favorites from this year's Cannes and Berlin festivals. (9/6-9/15) 14...

Hot Type.(book of politics)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... Byline: Elissa Schappell Hey, kids! Bored? In a jam? Want to impress your pals? Scholastic's swell "How to Be the Best at Everything" handbooks The Boys' Book and The Girls' Book teach children skills any future world leader might need,...

CURIOUS GEORGE.(he Braindead Megaphone (Riverhead))(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... Byline: Elissa Schappell Now hear this. Even though MacArthur-Foundation-100-Percent-Certified-Grade-A Genius George Saunders's first nonfiction collection, The Braindead Megaphone (Riverhead), is more rooted in the cultural terra firma of...

Under the Tuscan Sun.
September 1, 2007... Byline: Matt Tyrnauer A year ago, sheep were still living in the 1930s farmhouse in the southern Tuscan Val D'Orcia that John Voigtmann, a former Sony BMG record executive, recently transformed into a minimum-chic hotel. La Bandita (the...

IT'S ALL ADDING UP.(Aaron's adding machines)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Byline: Edward Helmore With Wall Street bonus season approaching again, it's hard to imagine a more satisfying way for a private-equity manager to calculate the magnitude of this year's wealth accumulation than by adding it all up on one...

READING, WRITING, AARGH!(American writer Dave Eggers)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Byline: Lindsey Keenan Dave Eggers rose quickly to literary stardom with his 2001 national best-seller, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. He parlayed that success the following year into a tutoring workshop for students, supported...

Social Services.
September 1, 2007... Byline: Punch Hutton If you've ever strolled Park Avenue in Manhattan, you've probably noticed the beautiful Christian Science church on the corner of 63rd Street-it's the one that suddenly got everyone talking. A year and a half ago, the...

Essence of Time.
September 1, 2007... Byline: Leslie Bennetts Ever the sorceress of style, she chose haunting scents from all over the world-jasmine and lush pink May roses from the medieval Provencal town of Grasse, creamy yellow ylang-ylang blossoms from the Comoro...

Design for Living.(National Stadium for the Beijing Olympics)(Jim Schatz obsession of eggs)(Pro-Ject Debut III turntable has the air of retro, Eastern-bloc chic)
September 1, 2007... Byline: Matt Tyrnauer Nest of Dreams There are some buildings which capture the imagination of an age (think TWA terminal at J.F.K., Sydney Opera House, Guggenheim Bilbao). Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron's National Stadium, for...

Hot Tracks.
September 1, 2007... Byline: Lisa Robinson Funky but chic? The news that the terrific Beth Ditto, lead singer of Gossip, is planning a clothing line adds to the often unfortunate, extremely crowded field of musicians who moonlight-with varying degrees of...

Private Lives.(Annie Morris)
September 1, 2007... Byline: Krista Smith Artist Annie Morris, 29, has two solo shows on exhibit this September-one at the Allsopp Contemporary, in London, and the other at New York City's Jeannie Freilich Fine Art. Born and raised in London, Morris had her...

TEN GIANT STEPS.(In the Shadow of the Moon)(Movie review)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Byline: Bruce Handy It has been almost 35 years since astronauts last set foot on the moon, which can make the endeavor feel as dated as a NIXON'S THE ONE bumper sticker and, yet, maybe even more unreal and science-fictiony than it seemed...

TOOTS SHOR.('Toots', a documentary on proprietor Toots Shor)(Movie review)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Byline: Bruce Handy Toots Shor, the thinking man's big lug, was the gold-standard New York saloonkeeper, running an eponymous restaurant from 1939 to 1971, first on West 51st Street, then around the corner on West 52nd. It was the Elaine's...

Money Matters.('Fierce People')(Movie review)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Byline: A. M. Homes Fierce People is a sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying coming-of-age film that's set in an insular ueber-wealthy landscape where social climbing is a blood sport. It's directed by Griffin Dunne with a screenplay by...

Fall's Golden Palette.
September 1, 2007... 1. Mish New York Hana bamboo wide-hinged cuff in 18-karat gold with hand-carved tigereye stones and cognac-colored diamond accents, $33,600. 2. Agas & Tamar pink Russian rose-cut-stone necklace with a unique clasp in 18-karat gold, $600. 3....

Mise-en-Scent.
September 1, 2007... Byline: Jessica Flint There's a new scent in the city Sarah Jessica Parker's Covet. Parker wanted to concoct a perfume that was more whimsical than her first fragrance, Lovely. She partnered with Coty Prestige to create a new eau de...

The Couture Collection of Fall's Scent-sational New Fragrances.(Buyers guide)
September 1, 2007... Gwen Stefani's L, her first fragrance for L.A.M.B., is a floral bouquet of rose and muguet with a base note of sensual musk. $70. Missoni acqua weaves bright bergamot, blue freesia, and Tuscan iris to create a fragrance that smells like a beach...

God Bless Me, It's a Best-Seller!
September 1, 2007... Byline: Christopher Hitchens One of America's most seminal books is William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience, in which he argues that the subjective experience of the divine can be understood only by the believer. I have just...

Murdoch's Private Game; Behind the howls of outrage that greeted Rupert Murdoch's bid for The Wall Street Journal were two assumptions: Murdoch is evil.
September 1, 2007... Byline: Michael Wolff There isn't anyone, except his family (Kennedy-esque in its familial fierceness), and people on his payroll (which has come to include a fair percentage of the media world-my own daughter, a reporter at the New York...

Cheating on Phil (With Paris); Covering Phil Spector's murder trial, with its roller-coaster testimony and cross-examination, is the author's top priority.
September 1, 2007... Byline: Dominick Dunne I wanted a castle... and there aren't many left. -Phil Spector, in an interview with Mick Brown that appeared in the Telegraph magazine in London on February 1, 2003, two days before the shooting death of Lana...

Arthur Miller's Missing Act.
September 1, 2007... Byline: Suzanna Andrews No photograph of him has ever been published, but those who know Daniel Miller say that he resembles his father. Some say it's the nose, others the mischievous glimmer in the eyes when he smiles, but the most...

"I'm With <ital>Her!</ital>"; For a happening guy with a clothing line or a music career, hooking up with a starlet like Paris, Nicole, or Lindsay takes fame to a whole new level.
September 1, 2007... Byline: Nancy Jo Sales Lindsay dances, perched on a banquette, a hand held behind her head, eyes cast down as if in awe of her own amazing, undulating, ultra-famous 20-year-old bod. "Taint-ed lo-ove!" Soft Cell blares across the dance...

Giuliani's Princess Bride; Judith Giuliani always dreamed big, which got her out of small-town Pennsylvania, through two marriages, and into the arms of Rudy Giuliani.
September 1, 2007... Byline: Judy Bachrach It was the first anniversary of 9/11 at Ground Zero, an occasion when the names of the dead were read aloud. The first reader was to be Rudy Giuliani, New York's mayor at the time of the disaster, whose actions during...

The Boys With the Buzz.
September 1, 2007... Byline: Evgenia Peretz You haven't heard of them yet, but if scores of hysterical teenage girls in chat rooms are a gauge of the future, you're looking at the next Brad, Heath, Jake, and Ewan. A former Bruce Weber model and still a singer...

2007 Best-Dressed Women.
September 1, 2007... Charlotte Gainsbourg Because we're caught in Charlotte's web. OCCUPATION: Actress. RESIDENCE: Paris. age: 36. FAVORITE ENSEMBLE OF 2007: Balenciaga black dress (pre-collection summer 2007), worn to the Venice Film Festival. FAVORITE BALL...

2007 Best-Dressed Men.
September 1, 2007... Tiki Barber Because he's a style Giant. OCCUPATION: Broadcaster, NBC; former New York Giants running back. RESIDENCE: New York City. AGE: 32. TAILOR: Ermenegildo Zegna. FAVORITE SHOES: Bruno Magli. WATCH: Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, rubber....

2007 Best-Dressed Couples.
September 1, 2007... Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Because they're on a magic (red) carpet ride. RESIDENCE: All over the world. HIS OCCUPATION: Actor and film producer. HER OCCUPATION: Actress and U.N. goodwill ambassador. HIS AGE: 43. HER AGE: 32. HIS WATCH: Tag...

2007 Best-Dressed Fashion Professionals.
September 1, 2007... Jefferson Hack Because he's Another best-dressed fashion professional. OCCUPATION: Editorial director, Dazed Group, and co-founder of Dazed & Confused magazine and Another Magazine. RESIDENCES: London and Antwerp. AGE: 36. FAVORITE FASHION...

2007 Best-Dressed Hall of Fame.
September 1, 2007... Jemima Khan OCCUPATION: Fashion designer and charity worker. RESIDENCE: London. AGE: 32. FAVORITE ENSEMBLES OF 2007: Vintage Herve Leger dress, to the Vanity Fair party in Cannes in May, and a black vintage Herve Leger, worn to the London...

2007 Best-Dressed Originals.
September 1, 2007... Lisa Eisner Because she's a vixen in vintage. OCCUPATION: Publisher and photographer. RESIDENCE: Los Angeles. AGE: 50. FAVORITE ENSEMBLE OF 2007: I'm sure it involved a lot of accessories and probably some feathers. FAVORITE BALL GOWN OF 2007:...

The Shape of Thighs to Come; Those ripped six-pack abs.
September 1, 2007... Byline: Amy Fine Collins At the gala opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's New Greek and Roman Galleries, last spring, the cynosure in the skylit atrium was neither a society starlet in borrowed couture nor one of her 2,000-year-old...

Alexa Davalos.(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Byline: Krista Smith AGE: 25. PROVENANCE: Paris (though she's part American, on her mother's side). FROM ONE KIND OF ACTION TO ANOTHER: Best known till now as Vin Diesel's sidekick in The Chronicles of Riddick, Davalos is part of the...

True Lies.
September 1, 2007... Byline: Bruce Feirstein PART ONE: The Interview We were sitting un the lobby of the Chateau Marmont... I was as nervous as a high-school geek. I'm sorry I'm late. I hope I didn't inconvenience you. She wasn't like a...

Blame it on Brazil; With its trillion-dollar economy, stupendous resources, and habit of throwing a world-class party at the drop of a buriti, Brazil is the 21st-century giant no one worries about and everybody loves.
September 1, 2007... Byline: A. A. Gill There are many ways of bisecting the world, of making binary distinctions between north and south, haves/have-nots, wheat/rice, Baywatch/Al Jazeera, shirt in/shirt out. But what is most interesting, most telling, is the...

American Dreamer; Not since Walt Disney has one man persuaded so many to buy into his personal fantasy.
September 1, 2007... Byline: Paul Goldberger There is no irony to Ralph Lauren. That may be the most important thing to know about him. As Lauren enters his fifth decade in business, it is increasingly clear that he makes those beautiful clothes and perfect...

Two for the Mode.(Giorgio Armani and Calvin Klein)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Byline: Michael Roberts He looks a bit girlie with his long, flowing piratical locks, Johnny Depp pout, and ring through his nose. She seems a bit of a lad with her spiky, peroxided shag-carpet hair, punk-princess persona, and Beatles-y...

Crazy for Lake Como; Lake Como was the province of a few noble families, visited by artists, royalty, world leaders, and the cream of Old Hollywood.
September 1, 2007... Byline: Janine Di Giovanni Shortly after losing his prime-ministership in the July 1945 elections, Winston Churchill, stunned by the defeat and feeling a strain in his home life, left for an extended painting holiday on the shores of Lake...

The Spirit of '76.(Out, by Bob Colacello)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... Byline: Ingrid Sischy Excerpted from Out, by Bob Colacello, to be published this month by Edition 7L. All Out photographs (c) by Bob Colacello and Interview, Inc.; used by permission. "Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in...

From Hermes to Eternity; Almost two centuries ago, a royal coronation might be delayed until the arrival of its exquisitely stitched Hermes carriage fittings, just as today even the richest women must wait for an exquisitely stitched Hermes Birkin bag.(Company overview)
September 1, 2007... Byline: Laura Jacobs "The world is divided into two: those who know how to use tools, and those who do not." "We are an industrial company with 12 divisions, which designs, makes, and retails its products. We aren't a holding...

Final Blow; In the end, it seemed, Isabella Blow loved fashion more than the fashion world loved her back.
September 1, 2007... Byline: Edward Helmore Soon after three p.m. on Tuesday, May 15, six bay horses, each with a plumage of black ostrich feathers, trotted toward Gloucester Cathedral drawing a Victorian funeral carriage, its cargo bedecked with white...

LONDON.
September 1, 2007... What Dinner at Ivor Braka's in celebration of a gallery at the Tate Modern dedicated to works from the Jean Pigozzi collection of Kinshasa painters. Who Louis and Gabrielle Bacon, Guy and Andrea Dellal, H.R.H. Prince Kyril of...

NEW YORK.
September 1, 2007... What Net-a-Porter's Natalie Massenet is the guest of honor at a luncheon hosted by the C.F.D.A. at the new Diane von Furstenberg Studio in Manhattan's West Village. Who Stan Herman, Ruth La Ferla, John Bartlett, Fern Mallis, Gilles Mendel,...

NEW YORK.
September 1, 2007... What Friends gather at the home of Kathy and Tom Freston to celebrate David Steinberg's The Book of David. Who Sir Howard Stringer, Bill Roedy, Regis and Joy Philbin, Matthew Perry, David Rosenthal and Carolyn Reidy, Rip Torn, Jean Doumanian,...

Sonny Rollins; Before reaching 21, Sonny Rollins played with Thelonious Monk-a sign of the saxophone colossus he would become.(Interview)
September 1, 2007... What is your idea of perfect happiness? Perfect happiness is something which doesn't exist in this life. The goal is to never be too happy or never be too sad. What is your greatest fear? Not getting close enough to my aspirations....