Vanity Fair April 2016

FLAWED DESIGN A towering figure in American architecture, young Philip Johnson flirted rapturously with Nazi ideology and iconography. An adaptation from a new book by Marc Wortman reveals the master builder’s Fascist visions for his art and country, and his later attempts to escape it. V.F. GOES TO WASHINGTON This month marks the final White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner of the Obama administration. VF.com looks back at two terms of star-studded after-parties, where the worlds of tech, entertainment, and politics converge. AUSTEN REDUX Read an exclusive adaptation from the new novel Eligible, a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice, where Curtis Sittenfeld tackles gender, class, and courtship in the age of CrossFit and reality TV. END OF AN IDOL After 15 seasons, 11 judges, and one Ryan Seacrest, American Idol…

By edna st. vincent millay • alexander woollcott • f. scott fitzgerald sherwood anderson • clarence darrow • theodore dreiser langston hughes • ford madox ford • stephen leacock • bertrand russell walter winchell • robert sherwood • p. g. wodehouse walter lippmann • dorothy parker • william saroyan • gertrude stein carl sandburg • robert benchley • dalton trumbo • noël coward d. h. lawrence • e. e. cummings • jean cocteau • aldous huxley • janet flanner djuna barnes • paul gallico • thomas mann • a. a. milne • thomas wolfe colette • t. s. eliot . . . and many more “Impressively prescient. . . . A book as a box of chocolates.” —associated press “Fantastic.” —publishers weekly “Delightful.” —booklist now in Paperback…

SUZANNA ANDREWS For “Al Sharpton, Revisited,” on page 116, Contributing Editor Suzanna Andrews profiles the civil-rights activist, Democratic power broker, Obama ally, MSNBC host, and onetime presidential candidate, whose outsize presence on the political scene she attributes to his “relentless drive to be the leader.” “I think he’s struggled over the years with his own ‘Hillary problem,’ ” says Andrews. “Even when he’s being authentic, he has trouble coming across as authentic. But he is fascinating to spend time with.” WILLIAM D. COHAN “All they had to do was stay below the radar,” says Contributing Editor William D. Cohan of Manuela Herzer and Sydney Holland—the former companions of Sumner Redstone, the ailing and recently retired 92-year-old head of CBS and Viacom—who went on the record for Cohan and Vanity Fair…

The now commonly accepted fact that Republican strongman Donald Trump is “short-fingered” began as nothing more than a juvenile description ginned up decades ago by a satiricalmagazine editor desperately rooting around for a clever epithet. That it has taken on such a vibrant role in the presidential circus is more worrisome than it is gratifying. The full epithet back then was “short-fingered vulgarian.” Trump has made a valiant, if unsuccessful, effort to counter the first part of that description. But even he knows that he doesn’t stand a chance of reversing the now global realization that he is a vulgarian. It’s a word that aptly describes his outlook, his taste, his appearance, his vocabulary, and his hate-fueling rallies. This is the word that should stick. There is a school of…

The robots are coming! The robots are coming! But what, exactly, are they coming to do? Despite the apocalyptic vision of blockbusters such as I, Robot and The Terminator, they may be coming in peace. In fact, the future of artificial intelligence may look downright mundane. Who couldn’t use some extra help with the chores? That said, we can foresee the day when robots, elbow deep in dirty laundry, revolt against their masters. Maybe that’s why most of us agree that an Off button might come in handy. Is there a chance that computers will one day be able to tell right from wrong? (It would be nice if human beings could. Most of us are more wary of smart people than smart machines.) And what if robots try to…

Hollywood focuses on the glamour of its women, often forgetting that the power in the performance hinges on honesty, not styling. How moving it is when someone gets it right, as Annie Leibovitz and her subjects have done so astonishingly in this year’s Hollywood Issue [“The 2016 Hollywood Portfolio”]. The incredible power portrayed by these amazing women— Viola, Lupita, Jane, Helen, and Charlotte, in particular— rocked me to tears and speechlessness. These portraits got right what the movies so often completely miss. DIANNE SHENK Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania I just received my Hollywood Issue. As always, I first flip through and then begin reading after the household settles and I have a Cabernet. I enjoyed seeing the lovely, softer faces of those who, like me, have been lucky enough to live a…