Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2016 i Vanity Fair

HENRY PORTER For “The War for Europe,” on page 86, Henry Porter, Vanity Fair’s longtime London Editor, reports from Paris, Brussels, and Lesbos on the terror and migration crises threatening to de-stabilize Europe. “The deep and lasting impact of this migration will change Europe in untold ways,” says Porter, who cites the fall of the Berlin Wall as the last such event of this magnitude. Porter, a former political columnist for The Observer, is the author of six novels, including Brandenburg Gate (2005). GEORGE STEVENS JR. “Being a theatrical clown is quite unique for our time,” says George Stevens Jr. of Bill Irwin, the shape-shifting subject of this month’s V.F. Portrait, on page 98. “There aren’t many, and he has mastered the art.” Stevens is a filmmaker, playwright, and co-chairman…

EIZA GONZALEZ AGE: 26. PROVENANCE: Mexico City. CREATIVE OUTLET: After her father died, when she was 12, Gonzalez turned to acting classes as a distraction. “It worked as therapy.” CHILD’S PLAY: Upon turning 13, she declared to her mother, “I want to be an actress; this is what I want to do.” TEENAGE DREAM: Gonzalez starred in the teen-musical telenovela telenovela Lola, Érase una Vez (“Lola, Once upon a Time”)—a modern-day Cinderella story, in which she played Lola, a nanny in a rock band. (Think: Hispanic Hannah Montana.) MAKING MOVES: Following Lola, Gonzalez studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in New York. Her big international break came when she was cast as the vampire Santanico Pandemonium—the role was originally played by Salma Hayek in the 1996 feature…

Chic and perfectly understated, handbag designer Clare Vivier has married classic shapes with modern detail and Parisian charm. A member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America since 2014, Vivier introduces her spring/summer collection this month. She will open her fifth and sixth boutiques, in Brooklyn, New York, and Newport Beach, California, this spring. Herewith, her favorite things … CLOTHES Jeans Acne. Undergarments Cosabella. T-shirts Clare V., striped Oui T-shirt. Day bags Clare V., Claude bags. Favorite accessory Heather Taylor Home scarf. Favorite designers Phoebe Philo and Miuccia Prada. Shopping mecca Steven Alan. Boots Saint Laurent. Flats Church’s. Sneakers Brooks Ghost. BEAUTY PRODUCTS Lipstick Nars Lana. Mascara Chanel Le Volume de Chanel. Concealer RMS Beauty Living Luminizer. Foundation Laura Mercier Illuminating Tinted Moisturizer . Shampoo Kérastase. Moisturizer Dr. Dennis…

CREATIVE VISIONARIES Gucci presented lacma’s fifth annual Art + Film Gala, which honored artist James Turrell and filmmaker Alejandro G. Inarritu. Co-chairs Eva Chow and Leonardo DiCaprio—with Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele, who served as the gala hostcommittee chair, and lacma C.E.O. Michael Govan—put together an evening that celebrated the global impact of art and movies. Proceeds benefited the museum’s initiative to make film a bigger part of its curatorial programming.…

In last month’s column, I squeezed America’s heart with a poignant account of how there’s just too much good TV to keep up with these days. No matter how hard one grips the arms of the speeding treadmill, the view queue just keeps growing and, oh, the futility. And now I have a similar lament to unbosom, if that image doesn’t make you shriek: the equal overwhelmingness of the podcast explosion, all those iTunes subscriptions extending unto death. It seemed only a few wispy years ago that in the future everybody of relative sentience would have their own blog, a personal soapbox or public diary dotting the information superhighway. (This was back in those optimistic days before the superhighway became a garbage run.) Blogs bubbled out of the tar pits…

I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but I liken myself to the robber barons.” So says Martin Shkreli, the 32-year-old hedge-fund manager turned pharmaceutical-company C.E.O., who achieved instantaneous notoriety last fall when he acquired the U.S. rights to a lifesaving drug and promptly boosted its price over 5,000 percent, from $13.50 a tablet to $750. The tsunami of rage (the BBC asked if Shkreli was “the most hated man in America”) only got worse when Shkreli said he would lower the price—and then didn’t. An anonymous user on the Web site Reddit summed up the sentiment bluntly: “Just fucking die will you?” “The attempt to public shame is interesting,” says Shkreli. “Because everything we’ve done is legal. [Standard Oil tycoon John D.] Rockefeller made no attempt to apologize as long…

What is your idea of perfect happiness? Walking along the beach in a Givenchy vinyl jumpsuit while being photographed by Annie Leibovitz. What is your greatest fear? Being torn apart by a werewolf. Or wrinkles. Which historical figure do you most identify with? Olaf from Frozen. Which living person do you most admire? That guy who played Stephen Hawking!! … Oh, and the real one, too, I guess. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? My inability to turn left. What is the trait you most deplore in others? What is your obsession with “-plore”s? What is your greatest extravagance? Botox for my toes. It’s called “Toetox”—it’s really big in Korea. What is your favorite journey? Easy— “Don’t Stop Believin’.” What do you consider the most overrated virtue?…

It’s interesting that Donald Trump’s “Silent Majority”—the adherents to his vision of the American future— have put their shoulders behind the loudest of loudmouths in a field of loudmouths. Nothing, it seems, is beyond his disdain or ridicule. He is the Nelson Muntz of presidential hopefuls—“Ha, ha, you’re lame!” If your eight-year-old made fun of the disadvantaged child in his classroom, or went around boasting about his brains or his success or his money, I know what you’d do: you’d give him a good talking-to. To Trump’s followers, I would offer advice similar to the old expression that says you shouldn’t shop for food when you’re hungry: Don’t vote for a presidential candidate when you’re frightened. Americans who don’t buy into his act are coming to realize what New Yorkers…

A TWIT’S TWEETS A continuing series As dutifully transcribed by CRAIG BROWN Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump · 6m They call it the Great Wall. It’s a crumbling wreck, no plumbing, no electricity, not one apartment, totally useless. You call that Great? Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump · 9m Now they’re telling me Mao is dead. C’mon! Believe that, you’ll believe anything. Why do we let these guys fool us?!! Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump · 11m OK, so Mao’s no Jap he’s a Chinaman. Same difference. #trump2016 Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump · 13m You want the Japs to cream us? Is that what you want? Chairman Mao shifty-looking, untrustworthy.…

By the time Whitney Cummings was 28, the Ivy League– educated comedian had two shows on network television—Whitney, the NBC sitcom in which she also starred, and 2 Broke Girls, the CBS series she co-created, now in its fifth season. Despite this impressive stat, and the fact that the Georgetown, D.C.–born brunette put herself through the University of Pennsylvania in three years, graduating magna cum laude in communications, she is quick to note that her rise from the Comedy Central Roast ranks was the product of “workaholic fear.” With her latest HBO stand-up special, I’m Your Girlfriend, airing January 23, the successful wit cracks wise about her life, comedy, and compulsions. SHE CREDITS her “tumultuous” childhood with helping shape her career path. (Parents Patti, who worked in public relations for…

When Vanity Fair contributor Christopher Hitchens became an American citizen, a few years before he died, in 2011, he did so for a number of reasons. One was “to escape the British royal family.” He pretty much failed in that one. Shared fascination with Britain’s royal family is what holds the special relationship together. (That, plus McVitie’s chocolatecovered digestive biscuits.) His second reason was that “it was much easier to be an independent writer in a country that had a written constitution and a codified Bill of Rights.” No doubt that’s true. America has a 200-year-old written constitution and a Bill of Rights. In the crunch, even Richard Nixon didn’t have the nerve to defy a Supreme Court ruling that he had to turn over the Watergate tapes. A few…

We go to the theater to be surprised, and for 40 years Bill Irwin has been on a steady quest to surprise us. Strangers rarely stop this chameleon-like artist on the street, because his own persona is so well disguised within his extraordinary gallery of characters. Irwin studied at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College before turning to the stage. We often discover him wearing extremely baggy pants, black horn-rimmed glasses, and an item from his storehouse of bizarre hats on his head. His training and versatility gave him tools to enchant us in offerings ranging from Fool Moon and Old Hats, with his fellow clown David Shiner, to Waiting for Godot, with Steve Martin and Robin Williams, and King Lear, playing the Fool, a performance New…

Nothing lasts forever. Wait, does that mean us? That’s fine, because for most Americans a little immortality will take the sting out of our ineluctable disappearing act. Many more of us would rather be remembered by history than actually live forever—no surprise, given what’s been happening to real-estate prices. And Americans, particularly poorer Americans, are better prepared for death than for retirement. Regarding death, we’re somewhat curious to know What Happens, but we’re essentially just as interested in learning the Meaning of Life. Maybe that’s because we figure we’ll eventually find out what happens after death anyway: nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that people have glimpsed the afterlife. (If it’s immortality you’re after, let’s face it, a little afterlife can’t hurt.) Immortality and the afterlife aside, there are indications that…

Sublime Extract In celebration of their 10-year anniversary, Chanel Sublimage creams have been remastered with a unique key ingredient, Éphémères de Planifolia, taken from Vanilla planifolia, a species of orchid cultivated in a shaded environment owned by Chanel in Ambanja, Madagascar. Each flower is pollinated by hand, harvested within a two-month period, and then shipped to the Chanel Research and Technology Center, in Pantin, France. When the flowers arrive, a patented extracting process called Chrono-Extraction takes place, producing the new, special Éphémères de Planifolia. Combined with anti-aging molecules of camellia and jojoba oils, along with shea butter, the creams are woven into three different textures reminiscent of fabric: fine (light silk), cream (medium jersey), and supreme (rich velvet), each of which will regenerate your skin’s vitality and radiance. ($400 each;…

Cecily Strong, whose hilarious invention of logorrheic selfignorance, “The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation with at a Party,” has made her a breakout star of Saturday Night Live, met me for lunch at Trattoria Dell’Arte, opposite Carnegie Hall in Midtown Manhattan, close to where she lives. It became clear from the start that the vivacious Ms. Strong cannot be anticipated in anything she says. We had scarcely met when mention of pasta compelled her to confide with transparent candor, “I was just in Rome. I’m having an Italian love affair. I first met him in Seville, Spain, before I broke my foot in Ibiza.” “What does the lucky guy do?” “He’s studying to be a diplomat, which is nice. It’s all very new. So who knows if…

Children of the 90s may remember James Badge Dale from Harry Hook’s adaptation of William Golding’s classic Lord of the Flies, in which he played Simon, the moral compass of the island saga. But after four months shooting in the wild jungles of Jamaica, and a realization that this acting job was, in fact, a job, Dale opted to just be a kid instead. A little more than a dozen years would pass before he appeared on the big screen again. Dale, now 37, is an actor’s actor. He disappears into every role he chooses, collaborates with top-tier directors (Martin Scorsese, Steve McQueen, and Robert Zemeckis, to name just three), and has worked in theater, television (memorably in Rubicon, The Pacific, and 24), and film. The epitome of a New…