Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2016 i Vanity Fair

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…

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…

Sports fans, heavy hitters, and friends gathered on the eve of Super Bowl 50 to celebrate the Super Bowl 50 Host Committee and the 50 Fund. Hosted by Graydon Carter and Jon Bon Jovi, with support from Lands’ End and special thanks to Haig Club, the cocktail party, which was held at 345 Montgomery Street, in San Francisco, buzzed with excitement and anticipation about the kickoff. Twenty-four hours later, fans would be celebrating the Denver Broncos’ game-day championship.…

“In 1961, I was with Jean Shrimpton. We stayed at my mother’s house, as the plumbing had gone in our flat. The photograph was taken in the hallway and marks the transition from the East End streets to the corridors of Vogue.” Want the backstories behind other unexpected images? Go to VF.com/unexpected. Brought to you by the all-new 2016 Chevrolet Malibu.…

Among the many happy narratives tied to Netflix’s release last year of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt—Tina Fey and Robert Carlock have done it again! Ellie Kemper’s finally playing the lead! Carol Kane’s back!—perhaps none was more joyous than the breakout stardom of Tituss Burgess. A jobbing Broadway trouper who’d put in his time in the aughts as Nicely-Nicely in Guys and Dolls and as Sebastian the crab in the original stage version of The Little Mermaid, Burgess first endeared himself to Fey and Carlock by playing the swishy hairdresser D’Fwan on their previous sitcom, 30 Rock—a one-line role that grew into a four-episode role—which prompted them to create a character named Titus Andromedon, Kimmy’s frustrated-actor roommate. Despite being one s and several degrees of delusion removed from TV Titus, Burgess shone…

Considering the long, grueling hours of practice, rehearsal, and concertizing it takes to be a professional musician, it’s no surprise that musicians often hook up with other musicians: Robert and Clara Schumann, Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya, Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge, Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale. The most glamorous recent additions to this list are Andris Nelsons, the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and his wife, Kristine Opolais, the ravishing soprano. It was Puccini who brought them together. Back in their native Latvia he was down in the pit conducting La Bohème; she was onstage as the consumptive Mimi. Beautiful music ensued, both onstage and off. Last August, the couple—he’s 37, she’s 36—were exhausted but radiant after a rare joint appearance at Tanglewood, the B.S.O.’s magical summer…

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…

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…

AGE: 20. PROVENANCE: Warwickshire, England. THE COUNTRY GIRL: “I grew up in a small village in the heart of England. No pub, just a windmill and a church. It was all about the animals. My two older brothers and I were the only kids, so I developed an imagination.” AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION: In traditional British fashion, the annual Christmas pantomime inspired Turner to join the local youth theater. “I loved being onstage—it always seemed so dangerous.” LADY OF WINTERFELL: This passion turned professional in 2009 when Game of Thrones held a nationwide talent search to cast the role of Sansa Stark. “I was 13, and they came to my school, and I had about five callbacks. I would cry every night when I was on holiday because I knew the decision…

Named in honor of William S. Paley, the late founder of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), and his divine wife, Babe, the gorgeous new restaurant Paley, in one of Hollywood’s landmark buildings, opens this month. Midcentury-modern design juxtaposed with contemporary features, such as concrete columns and several of Dustin Yellin’s Psychogeographies, evokes old-world glamour with a vibrant twist. The menu offers California cuisine, the wine list is a mile long, the elegant bar is just what it should be, and there’s an updated version of the chairman’s favorite cocktail, the Paley oldfashioned. Cheers. (Paley, 6115 Sunset Boulevard; paleyhollywood.com)…

Republicans are from Mars, Democrats are from Venus” goes an adage much beloved by pundits always looking for a convenient platitude to rest their elbows on. (Or chins.) Caricatured another way, Republicans are cast as the Daddy Party (jaw-jutting, decisive, disciplinarian, financially prudent, militarily assertive: meat), Democrats are the Mommy Party (huggy, permissive, socially concerned, globally cooperative: veggies). Such gender stereotypes may have outlived whatever hinky usefulness they ever had, as stereotypes are wont to do, but beneath the sexual cosplay of Republican executive blue suits versus Democratic mom jeans (which President Obama was accused of fancying by no less a fashion arbiter than Sarah Palin) is a forked dynamic deeper than any policy differences or identity politics. Republicans are driven by anger; Democrats, riven by anxiety. Anger stokes Republicans…

Despite what viewers may have thought after the 58th annual Grammy Awards, soloists Leon Bridges and Andra Day (who were both up for best R&B album) did not materialize out of nowhere. Since the release of their debut albums, last summer—Coming Home and Cheers to the Fall, respectively—Bridges, 26, and Day, 31, have taken their electrifying acts from local dive bars to international headlining tours. Their ascent has been a noble feat for emerging artists with such a well-rounded and intensely nostalgic vibe, reminiscent of the bygone legends they so deftly borrow from. “I want to go back to the roots, to where it all started,” says Bridges, listing idols such as Arthur Alexander and Sam Cooke. “I want to honor and keep my heritage alive in whatever way I…

Two years after Neighbors, his wildly successful collegiate comedy, director Nicholas Stoller returns with Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, the highly anticipated laugh-out-loud sequel, which follows what happens when a parent’s will goes head-to-head with the bonds of sisterhood. Fed up with their school’s sexist Greek system, the ragtag ladies of Braxton University decide to found an unaffiliated house where they can throw reckless parties whenever the hell they want. The movie’s trailer highlights Nora (Beanie Feldstein, 22), an outlandish millennial hopped up on painkillers who flies through a windshield and lives to assert a triumphant war cry, setting the tone with delicious slapstick—all of it, perfection. “I don’t really view any of us as proper pledges, and yet we’re all members of Kappa Nu,” says Clara Mamet, 21, who plays…

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…

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…

‘i was so scared and insecure and thought it was over for me,” says Gwen Stefani about being unable to write songs at the end of her 13-year marriage to British rock musician Gavin Rossdale. “I think the hardest thing I did,” she adds, “was to get out of bed and go to the studio”—where she recorded her hit “Used to Love You.” Now, 20 years after the debut of Stefani’s band No Doubt and a successful solo career, the singer-songwriter has released her third solo album—This Is What the Truth Feels Like. She is also a judge on The Voice, and has a new love (country star and Voice colleague Blake Shelton). Here, she talks with Lisa Robinson about music, family, and love. LISA ROBINSON: Reportedly, after you found…

GOLDEN GLORY The night belonged to Leo. This year’s Academy Award for best actor went to Leonardo DiCaprio, who received a standing ovation as he glided to the stage to accept the gold statue for his performance in Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s epic adventure, The Revenant. The energy and excitement of the ceremony pervaded the 22nd annual Vanity Fair Oscar party, hosted by editor Graydon Carter at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts and the landmarked Beverly Hills City Hall. Spirits ran high at the most glamorous party of the year, where movie stars, moguls, Grammy winners, supermodels, all-star athletes, billionaires, and tech innovators gathered to celebrate Hollywood and the world of entertainment. —PUNCH HUTTON…

One of my favorite novels is Memento Mori, by Muriel Spark, published in 1959. Evelyn Waugh, no less, called it a “singularly gruesome achievement.” It’s about a group of aging intellectuals in London who keep getting anonymous phone calls with the message “Remember, you must die.” “Remember, you must die” is good advice, but the situation is even worse than the words suggest. Not only are you going to die, but in all probability you’re going to be forgotten. Members of the baby-boom genera-tion don’t warm to this idea. For going on 60 years, they have been competing with one another for a succession of Good Things. First it was toys and grades and schools. Then it was sex and jobs and vacations and possessions. Right now the competition has…

What is your idea of perfect happiness? Walking in my garden in England with my wife. What is your greatest fear? That I would lose her. Which living person do you most admire? My dear friend Bernard Lloyd. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Impatience. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Prejudice. What is your greatest extravagance? Art. What is your favorite journey? The last few miles to my house in the Yorkshire Dales. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Modesty. On what occasion do you lie? Enhancing personal anecdotes. What do you dislike most about your appearance? My uneven shoulders. Which living person do you most despise? “Despise” is too strong, but close contenders would be Prime Minister David Cameron and…