Town & Country November 2022

1978 KING CHARLES III September 8, 2022, marked a somber close to an extraordinary chapter in history, as the world bid farewell to Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, and greeted a new sovereign, her son Charles (whose coronation will probably be next spring or summer). “There are few more serious authorities on England’s history, economics, and political role,” T&C wrote of the then-prince when we featured him on our cover in 1978. Twenty years later he was on our cover again, this time inviting us to Highgrove, his verdant country estate. It was a visit that offered a hint at the sort of legacy he will now forge as king. “Highgrove is not just a reflection of the prince’s personal taste,” we observed, “but also of his prescience about…

As you open our ninth Philanthropy Issue and prepare for the return of our T&C Philanthropy Summit, remember this: True philanthropy begins with the simple question above. Answers vary. Some respond with a donation so monumental that it fundamentally transforms a place for a community to gather in service to music and art. (Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall opened to widespread excitement—at T&C and beyond—in October after a two-year renovation.) Some reply with family foundations and activism and action in service to children, or social justice, or equal opportunities and access for all. I learned about philanthropy in a place where, yes, some people wrote checks, but most contributed by cooking meals for whoever was sick, or in need, or simply overwhelmed. Where if you had a car you made…

WHERE ARE WE GOING? First, revisit The Phantom of the Opera one last time before Broadway’s longest-running show closes in February after 35 years. Then, how about some quality time with Hollywood’s leading men? Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington star in The Piano Lesson (see page 124), while Jeremy Pope and Paul Bettany are Basquiat and Warhol in The Collaboration (NOVEMBER 29). Opera glasses optional but highly encouraged. WHAT ARE WE WEARING? For thousands of years malachite has been heralded for its protective properties. Employed in Bulgari’s signature Serpenti motif, it feels doubly auspicious. (The snake, after all, is a symbol of rebirth.) And while we’re celebrating legends, consider this an homage to another force of screen and stage: Elizabeth Taylor, a famous fan of the slithering icon,…

The remains of the drunken shrimp had just been cleared, and three couples awaited their dessert at Mr. Chow Beverly Hills when “it got a little tense,” recalls one member of the group, a philanthropist and fifth-generation Angelena. The talk had turned to November’s Los Angeles mayoral six-term Democratic congress-woman Karen Bass and billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso. The philanthropist and her husband are ardent Caruso supporters—he’d had dinner at Caruso’s home earlier in the week—and tempers flared when another member of the party, an old-guard agent, cited supposed sins of Caruso’s, such as having wanted to get rid of the Original Farmers Market when building the Grove in 2002. “You don’t want to say, ‘You’re wrong.’ You want to keep it social,” says the philanthropist.“Also, should everyone be…

Next time you’re on the couch, dutifully working your way through a bag of tortilla chips and a jar of Newman’s Own salsa (I, for one, make no apologies), take a moment to reflect that you are also an indirect participant in a fascinating, and fraught, experiment in the relationship between philanthropic power, private interests, and the public good. Newman’s Own products are a supermarket mainstay—each bears some variant of the announcement “100% Profits to Charity” accompanied by the limpid eyed visage of actor Paul Newman. Newman created the company in 1982. That Christmas he and a friend made a giant batch of an oil and vinegar salad dressing and gave it away to neighbors—including, as a 2015 Vanity Fair article chronicled, “a young caterer named Martha Stewart, who held…

Dazzling the world with lavish expenditure and artfully crafted public image may be a mainstay of our TikTok times, but it is not a new secret to success. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Medici family used extravagant patronage to gain and keep political power. Small wonder, then, that two of this fall’s guiltiest pleasures, the Starz series The Serpent Queen and Maggie O’Farrell’s novel The Marriage Portrait, show Medici women—Catherine de’ Medici, the consort of one 16th-century French king and the mother of three more, and Lucrezia de’ Medici, Duchess of Ferrara, whose husband was thought to have murdered her after their 1558 marriage—living and dying by their family creed of extravagant display. (Catherine also inspired Dior’s spring 2023 runway show in Paris.) Born in 1519 and 1545,…