Innholdsfortegnelse for Apr-14 i Vanity Fair

1 Jim Windolf In previous years, contributing editor Jim Windolf has gone behind the scenes of Star Wars and a homemade version of Indiana Jones. This month, in “The Gathering Storm” (page 132), he chronicles another epic—HBO’s Game of Thrones. To tell the tale of the show’s runaway success, Windolf spoke extensively with the cast and crew, as well as novelist George R.R. Martin, whose books inspired the show. “I felt like I was on a quest,” says Windolf. 2 Nancy Jo Sales In “To Live and Die in America” (page 166), contributing editor Nancy Jo Sales recounts the recent deaths of four Iranian indie rockers, including members of two emerging Brooklyn bands. The surviving bandmates of the Yellow Dogs and the Free Keys had, until now, avoided extended interviews.…

Fear of fashion criticism—we believe the clinical term is notwiththatonphobia—is all too real for many Americans. We cower most before our significant others, whose cri tiques of our fashion blunders hang over us like the Sword of Damocles, but Joan Rivers is a very close second. So while most Americans presumably don’t know where Rivers stands on ascots versus fanny packs, we nevertheless worry about it. Why so insecure? Maybe we’re just not spending enough on our clothes. Almost one in five of us estimated the total value of the outfit we had on at under $10, and nearly half priced our little ensemble between $10 and $50. (Granted, since a quarter of Americans confirm that they “go commando” at least occasionally, the absence of undergarments might be keeping those…

Morocco, the bohemian kingdom filled with mystery, exoticism, and caftans, became a place of refuge for young designer Yves Saint Laurent in the late 1960s. “Its architecture, large avenues, and pillared monuments reminded him of primitive Paris,” explains Florence Müller, a fashion historian and curator of many YSL retrospectives. Saint Laurent drew inspiration from the rich colors that saturated the expanse from Tangier to Marrakech, and they became embodied in his couture collections. In 1980 he purchased the storied Majorelle Garden with the intent of refurbishing it for the people of Marrakech. To this setting, where Saint Laurent felt he could re-invent his youth, friends such as Paul and Talitha Getty, Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger, Loulou de la Falaise, and interior designer Bill Willis frequently flocked to join the designer,…

Biz Stone, the cofounder of Twitter, an unpretentious man, chose for our lunch spot Liverpool Lil’s, an English pub, close to the headquarters he shares with Lucasfilm in the Presidio, San Francisco. “Cheers!” he said over a pint of Stella Artois, looking at home. His taste for the murky, pubby pleasures of the Brits is the outcome of annual visits to Oxford University, where he teaches master classes in business and his quixotic brand of idealism. A college dropout, he looked about 20 years old in his tech mogul’s uniform of T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Yet he was about to turn 40. “I sometimes feel like I’m secretly 80,” he said, and laughed. “Because of the things I like." “Tell me about them,” I said. “I like to go to…

My first job in the music business was in 1969, working part-time for Richard Robinson, who had a syndicated radio show and newspaper music column. Richard, who would become my husband, opened the door and I walked through it to a life in rock and roll. My four-decade “career” wasn’t planned; it was, to paraphrase Keith Richards, “a lucky accident”—it was a time when things just happened. Since the 1970s, I’ve spent countless hours in recording studios, dressing rooms, motels, hotels, backstage and at the side of the stage in little clubs, large arenas, and massive stadiums. I’ve interviewed nearly all the major—and many minor—musicians of the last 40 years, including the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Patti Smith, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, U2, and Eminem. I was always a huge…

When Oprah Winfrey arrived on the set of Lee Daniels’ The Butler, in which she was cast in the role of the butler’s wife, she made her presence known by proclaiming to everyone within earshot, “I’m he-eeeere.” It’s been 30 years since Winfrey first appeared on Chicago television, where daily she kicked off her shoes and pulled up her chair into homes across the heartland, one of the few African-American television personalities to win a massive mainstream following of unquestioning loyalty. Trained on twin stars of equality and empathy, Winfrey built a billion-dollar media empire that’s made her a major player in the culture of the country and the turning of the world. Hers was a winning style, something akin to Sir Lancelot’s cheerful song “C’est moi”: “Impossible deeds should…

Game of Thrones co-creator David Ben ioff knows how it is when everyone but you is in on some great new show. “I didn’t start watching Breaking Bad until Season Three or Four,” he says. “It was a certain weight of dozens of friends telling you how great it is, and at first you’re like, ‘Yeah, sounds good, I don’t have time.’ Then, finally, enough people say it, and you start feeling like a dipshit for not watching.” When he got into the saga of Walter White at last, he loved it. Now he calls Breaking Bad “probably the most consistently great show in history.” A few million viewers have gone through a similar game of catch-up with the Sunday-night HBO series overseen by Benioff and his fellow executive producer,…

V.F. PORTRAIT I met Alan Cumming when Fred Ebb took me to see him in Cabaret in 1998. I fell in love with him—as an actor, I think! That was the second Broadway revival of Cabaret (the first was in 1987), and it was directed by Sam Mendes, with Rob Marshall doing the choreography. After opening at Henry Miller’s Theatre, the show transferred to Studio 54, which had an echo for me because, well, back in the day I did spend some time there. That was the 70s, when I had the good fortune to play Sally Bowles in Bob Fosse’s movie. Nineteen seventy-two. I loved Fred and John Kander, who wrote the lyrics and music, of course, and I was thrilled when I found out that I had been…

The suburb of Los Altos, dotted with sequoia trees and apricot orchards, resembles most wealthy areas in Northern California’s Silicon Valley, with a main street of shops selling hyperathletic offerings, like fleeces for hiking nearby mountains, and Francophile designs to decorate Provençal-influenced homes (sterling-silver trivets, champagne flutes imported from Paris). But look a bit closer and there’s something different about this particular town. A stone’s throw from the Tesla and McLaren car dealerships of Palo Alto, Los Altos has an inordinate, almost absurd number of services that cater to children. A toy store is stuffed with puffy glitter stickers and neon science proj ects for kid geniuses. A farm-to-fork restaurant includes a nannystaffed room for children so you can enjoy your meal in peace, and a 5,000-square-foot kids’ science center…

The shooter came across the adjoining rooftops, wearing a soft guitar case as a backpack. Inside, there was a gun: a Century Sporter .308-caliber semi-automatic with a 20-round magazine, the same class of rifle he’d learned to use while doing his military service in Iran. It was a chilly night, November 11, 2013, and the moon was shining, half full. He made his way across the outdoor art gallery that the young men living in the building at 318 Maujer Street, in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, had fashioned on their roof. One of the last things he must have seen before beginning his killing spree was the 14-foot mural, by the Iranian artists Icy and Sot, of a girl with a red-white-blue-andyellow peace sign splashed across her accusing face. He climbed…

What is your idea of perfect happiness? I like to spend time with my family, and also relax at my beach house or on my farm. What is your greatest fear? My greatest fear is poverty and injustice. I pay a lot of attention to underprivileged children here in Brazil, and all over the world. Which historical figure do you most identify with? Nelson Mandela. May his soul rest in peace. Which living person do you most admire? Muhammad Ali. I respect him a lot. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? I keep wishing I could still play soccer! What is the trait you most deplore in others? I do not like when people have lack of empathy and treat others with disrespect. What is your greatest…

Few periods continue to have a hold on our consciousness the way the Roman Empire and the Third Reich do—those two extremes of glory and madness. The legacy of the Roman Empire is still quietly embedded in myriad ways in our daily lives: everything from our alphabet to our calendar to our laws and the language we use to explain them. The Third Reich’s legacy is a darker chamber of horrors and a searing reminder of the capacity of man to inflict mindless cruelty. The trauma and terror of Nazi war crimes continue to reverberate, which is why whenever news stories pop up with any sort of link to the Third Reich they get our attention. This certainly was the case last November when a German magazine revealed that a…

The chi ld of devout atheists, Barbara Ehrenreich, scientist, author, and social advocate, recalls in Living with a Wild God (Twelve) how “mystical” occurrences in her teens sparked a life-altering quest for “cosmic knowledge.” Fifty years ago, the Civil Rights Act triggered outrage and a ferocious debate before finally being adopted. V.F. contributing editor Todd S. Purdum relives the drama in An Idea Whose Time Has Come (Henry Holt). Duran Duran faces down Destiny’s Child in Eve Epstein and Leonora Epstein’s love letter, X vs. Y (Abrams Image). Nigerian Teju Cole’s fiction-memoirtravelogue, Every Day Is for the Thief (Random House), is a testament to the country’s power to inspire. Adam Begley’s bio of Updike (Harper), master of the Waspy domestic novel, creates parallels between his personal life and the page.…

HOME, SWEET HOME For this year’s American Songbook Gala, David Rockwell designed the set to mirror the Manhattan living room of the evening’s honoree, Bryan Lourd. Clients and friends performed onstage at Alice Tully Hall, at N.Y.C.’s Lincoln Center, for a special tribute directed by Joe Mantello. Hollywood’s A-list, media powerhouses, Juilliard students, and beloved friends sang along in tribute to the CAA managing director. TRÈS CHIC A fashionable crowd gathered at the Beatrice Inn, in N.Y.C., to raise a glass in honor of Antoine Arnault’s first Berluti maison on Madison Avenue.…

As if writing itself weren’t taxing enough on mind, morale, and tailbone, novice byliners who have yet to earn their aviator wings are advised by teachers and mentors to fashion a brand—to entrepreneurialize a persona that will distinguish them from all the other content providers out there trying to hurl themselves over a transom that no longer exists. In some college communication and writing courses, playing social media like a harp is considered as integral to future success as teaching your paragraphs how to roll over and fetch. I’m just glad I came along when the writing game was mostly a matter of fighting your way up Pork Chop Hill with long naps in the foxhole and didn’t require daily, hourly upkeep and depend upon the kindness of mouse clicks.…

Exclusively from the Vanity Fair Archive World-renowned photographers such as Cecil Beaton, Anton Bruehl, and Edward Steichen helped to define our culture through their celebrity photography in Vanity Fair. Collect timeless and exquisite portraits of five of the most notable talents of their age–Louis Armstrong, Louise Brooks, George Gershwin, Katharine Hepburn, and Leslie Howard–available now as a collectible set from the Vanity Fair Archive. OWN THE COLLECTION: VISIT CONDENASTSTORE.COM/VFLIMITED E-MAIL CNCOLLECTION@CONDENAST.COM This special portfolio is assembled in a custom linen box that may be displayed flat on a coffee table or bookshelf, or the individual prints can be framed for wall display, as shown above. Frames not included.…

AGE: 23. PROVENANCE: Aberdeen, Scotland. HIGHLAND GIRL: The acting bug struck Clark early. “When I ask my parents, it’s incredibly obvious I was going to have a creative career at an early age. I’ve been forever telling stories, since I was very young.” SCOT-FREE: Clark moved to Manhattan at 17, where she took classes at the New York Film Academy. “I ended up moving in with this nutty artist in a reformed factory loft on the Lower East Side, and got there in the middle of the night. It was completely bizarre and so far removed from my shiny Scottish upbringing.” THE BIG PICTURE: The actress has earned critical acclaim for her role in Stephen Frears’s Philomena, playing the younger version of Judi Dench’s title character. Upon meeting Dame Judi,…

Spotlight When you are Andie Mac-Dowell, the thinking man’s ingénue of the 80s and 90s, and you are trying to raise three children out of the spotlight, a sprawling ranch in Missoula, Montana, is probably a pretty fair bet. “That was a really idyllic place to grow up,” says Rainey Qualley, 24. She’s the middle of three children MacDowell shares with former model Paul Qualley. “We didn’t have TV or anything.” When Rainey, her younger sister, Margaret, and their older brother, Justin, were still young, MacDowell relocated them to a place slightly more urban. “It was kind of a culture shock moving to North Carolina,” Rainey, who is quick with a joke, says, laughing. “We had neighbors! We were just used to being wilderness children.” But despite their distance from…

Fashion is its own galaxy with its own planets and weather systems, its clusters of stars with gravitational pull. And even some Big Bangs, such as Nicolas Ghesquière, a designer who has the capacity to genuinely move people with his work. That’s when fashion becomes about more than just fads, getting dressed, or emptying wallets. There’s an anticipation, the sense of something bigger—such as the hullabaloo that greeted last fall’s announcement that following Marc Jacobs’s exit as creative director of Louis Vuitton to focus on his own brand, Ghesquière was to step in, launching his first collection for the house on March 5, in Paris. The appointment had become official a full year after Ghesquière’s tenure ended at Balenciaga, which had put the 96-year-old house back on the map. The…

Spotlight As The Lion King (and Legally Blonde the Musical) taught us, movie remakes on Broadway can either soar or sink. Perhaps the winning ingredients are: a dash of nostalgia, a classic tale, and a soundtrack of familiar melodies. All of these bode well for the upcoming Aladdin musical (Disney’s eighth since launching its theatrical division, in 1993), which begins on Broadway this month. Everyone’s favorite street urchin, the hero of the 1992 animated film, will now be singing and dancing in the flesh. He’ll also be wooing Princess Jasmine on a facsimile magic carpet, which Casey Nicholaw, the show’s Tony-winning director and choreographer, promises “won’t be a mattress on a stick!” If Nicholaw—whose most recent project was the R-rated Book of Mormon—is now in family-entertainment rehab, he couldn’t be…

It Girl Something unexpected has happened in the world of disc jockeying over the past decade: vinyl records went out and stilettos came in. Female D.J.’s have laid claim to the previously male-dominated arena of live soundtracking—and don’t they look fabulous doing it? “I don’t think I’ve ever D.J.’d without wearing something Chanel,” says Leigh Lezark, 29, a raven-haired stunner who has been a go-to spinner for fashion events for a dozen years now. “And I’ve never worn flats to D.J. Ever.” Easy for Leigh to say. She was anointed as a Chanel ambassador in 2009, which is similar to a gig held by Harley Viera-Newton, 26, who was made a Dior Beauty ambassador in 2008. Rounding out the top five of New York’s chic-est spinners are Chelsea Leyland, 26,…

Was it really necessary to style the very talented Jimmy Fallon with two swimsuit models on the V.F. cover [“Heeeeere’s Jimmy!,” by David Kamp, February]? Only to be followed by a spread with more swimsuit models? For a moment, I thought I was looking at Maxim! Not only is it a boring visual cliché but it’s a dangerous one, too. At a time when women are so outrageously marginalized and are obviously far from having a major foothold in government or corporate leadership, and are especially missing from comedy, your February cover was even more disgraceful, demeaning, and discouraging. Late-night comedy was and is still dominated by white men: Carson, Leno, Letterman, O’Brien, Kimmel, Stewart, et al., to what, one Chelsea Handler and an Amy Schumer? Will that ever change…

LISA EISNER Fashion maven, photographer, style icon, muse, and craftswoman Lisa Eisner launches her eponymous jewelry line—a collection of handmade bronze pieces encrusted with details ranging from stones such as turquoise and black jade to ocean ephemera, including pyritized ammonite and malachite. The line, which debuts at Colette in Paris, was inspired by Big Sur, California, and by the laid-back 1970s hippie lifestyle that Eisner embodies. INSPIRATIONS Favorite discovery Harlem. Who inspires you I’m inspired by subcultures. Whether it’s rodeo queens, Shriners, rockabilly kids, or Native Americans, I love anyone who takes their look seriously, especially if that look has nothing to do with what’s in fashion and everything to do with self-expression. Necessary extravagances Tom Ford eyeliner and a real girdle. Not any of that Spanx shit. The real…

What You Should Know About If anyone understands the importance of detail, it’s Wes Anderson. From The Royal Tenenbaums to Moonrise Kingdom to his new release, The Grand Budapest Hotel, each of his films showcases instantly recognizable, intricate diorama worlds, often stocked with preciously arranged camping tents, Crayola-colored portable record players, and pleasingly worn copies of National Geographic. Everything about his work signifies a man who likes things just so. All of which practically obliges one to wonder whether Anderson’s own life resembles a painstakingly curated vintage store. Below, one of America’s great and most idiosyncratic film auteurs gives us a glimpse into his world. THE HOUSTON-BORN creator of Moonrise Kingdom’s Khaki Scouts was a Boy Scout dud: “I think I only got through a couple of meetings. I didn’t…

An Englishman and a Frenchman are discussing the definition of the expression “savoir faire.” “Well,” says the Englishman, “as I see it, savoir faire is when you come home from work early, walk in on your best friend humping your wife, and have the presence of mind to say, ‘Sorry—do carry on.’” “Mais non,” replies the Frenchman. “That is a very Anglo-Saxon attitude. That is not savoir faire—that is your politeness. Savoir faire is husband comes home from work early, walks in on best friend on top of wife, and says, ‘Sorry—do carry on.’ The savoir faire part is being able to carry on.” Maintenant, France looks like it’s losing its savoir faire—its adroitness, that innate je ne sais quoi understanding to do just the right thing in just the…

Spotlight My life constantly surprises me,” says Lily Cole, actress (Snow White and the Huntsman), cover model (Vogue, Playboy), and brand ambassador (the Body Shop). But the 26-year-old Brit’s tear sheets these days look less ripped out of a glossy than torn from an Albert Schweitzer playbook. Far from cluttering the Web with yet another vanity lifestyle site, Cole has instead launched a commerce-free online community called impossible.com, predicated on what she calls a “gift economy”; the only accepted currency is a “Thank you.” Users—in the U.K. and, starting this month, the U.S.—post simple wishes, which can easily be granted by other users, without expectation of anything in return. For example, William, a Chinese man in Manchester, posted a wish to improve his spoken English, and Cole herself answered his…

Is there, in the history of New York City dining, a more improbable pair than April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman? Bloomfield, from Birmingham, England, had only narrowly avoided becoming a policewoman before backing into professional kitchens as a Plan B, while Friedman, a Los Angeles native and 24-year veteran of the music industry, had no experience as a restaurateur and was in no way qualified to venture into the most demanding, fickle, merciless, and competitive business of feeding and liquoring New Yorkers. Who in the New York of 2004 needed a “gastropub” anyway? What sector of potential customers was yearning for “British” food? Who cared that Fatboy Slim, Michael Stipe, and Jay Z were on board as partners for this knuckleheaded venture called the Spotted Pig? Apparently, we did. For…

Late last fall, at the start of the dry season in the new country called South Sudan, a soldier of fortune named Pierre Booyse led a de-mining team westward from the capital city, Juba, intending to spend weeks unarmed in the remote and dangerous bush. Booyse, 49, is an easygoing Afrikaner and ordnance expert who was once the youngest colonel in the South African Army. He has a full gray beard that makes him look quite unlike a military man. After leaving the army he opened a bedding store in Cape Town, where he became the leading Sealy Posturepedic dealer, then opened a sports bar too, before selling both businesses in order to salvage his marriage and provide a better environment for his young daughter. The daughter flourished, the marriage…

Spotlight I am the proud owner of Aquarius, a Hinckley Sou’wester 52 sloop, launched in 1998 and sailed... well, not nearly enough, which is akin to admitting I keep a fine Stradivarius in its case, or an exquisite Château Latour forever in the wine cellar. It’s a crime against art and craftsmanship to keep something so perfect from fulfilling its purpose. In his book, Hinckley Yachts: An American Icon (out this month from Rizzoli), Nick Voulgaris III celebrates this authentic American classic as only a lifelong aficionado could, taking readers as close to the Hinckley experience as you can get without actually being on the water. The photographs he uses depict the pure grace and simple beauty of the Hinckley design and the impeccable quality of the craftsmanship that goes…

The year is 2014, and thanks to technology’s relentless progress—which has lately brought into being, among other things, an app that tells you what song is playing, refrigerators with Wi-Fi, and make-believe currency—the world is truly becoming a more advanced place, and one full of possibilities beyond the wildest imaginings of our forebears. Just ask Jen Selter, who launched to Instagram fame (where cats with strong personalities, toddlers with off-the-runway style, and midwestern cheerleaders have also found their place in the cultural conversation of the Internet) for her #belfies—er, that is, her butt selfies. Selter’s derrière extraordinaire has made her a member of a rapidly rising subset of Instagram stars: young women unafraid to share their deeply bronzed, sculpted figures in neon spandex, who want to share their #fitsperation thanks…

At about nine P.M. on September 22, 2010, the high-speed train from Zurich to Munich passed the Lindau border, and Bavarian customs officers came aboard for a routine check of passengers. A lot of “black” money—off-the-books cash—is taken back and forth at this crossing by Germans with Swiss bank accounts, and officers are trained to be on the lookout for suspicious travelers. As reported by the German newsweekly Der Spiegel, while making his way down the aisle, one of the officers came upon a frail, well-dressed, white-haired man traveling alone and asked for his papers. The old man produced an Austrian passport that said he was Rolf Nikolaus Cornelius Gurlitt, born in Hamburg in 1932. He reportedly told the officer that the purpose of his trip was for business, at…