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Colin Powell and the Stars of Precious Convene at the Crosby Street Hotel
6 November 2009 4:00 PM, PST
Sapphire, Lee Daniels, Gabourey Sidibe, General Colin Powell. From PatrickMcMullan.com. "Every time I get to New York I get nervous because of the New Yorkers," joked director Lee Daniels when introducing his new and much buzzed-about film, Precious, at the Cinema Society and Tommy Hilfiger's screening on Thursday evening. He had nothing to fear, however: the movie was a resounding success, with many a viewer—including model Agyness Deyn, nightclub owner Amy Sacco, and Keith Richards spawn Alexandra Richards—leaving the theater drying their eyes. "It wasn't until the movie was done that I realized how daunting it had been," said a beaming and pregnant Paula Patton. "It took me a few months to shake that character loose because of dealing with difficult subject matter day in and day out." Screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher explained his tactic in adapting Sapphire's book Push: "I think this is a perfect novel, »
The Commissioner's Trophy
6 November 2009 2:00 PM, PST
Have a newsworthy cocktail hour with our weekly current-events-inspired concoctions. Today's cocktail was developed by master mixologist Philip Ward of New York City's Mayahuel (304 East Sixth Street; 212-253-5888) in honor of the Yankees' 2009 World Series win. Speaking of which, did you hear about Derek Jeter teaching cycling classes at his 24 Hour Fitness clubs in the off season? The Commissioner's Trophy 2 oz. Flor de Cana 4-year-old rum 1 oz. Flor de Cana 18-year-old rum 3/4 oz. simple syrup made with Demerara sugar 1 oz. lime juice 6 oz. hot strong green tea 1 mint sprig Combine all ingredients and let sit overnight, refrigerated. When ready to serve, strain into glasses and garnish each with a lime wheel and mint sprig. To make simple syrup, combine two parts Demerara sugar and one part water in a small pot. Warm over low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. »
Now We Know Why the Yankees Wear Blue
6 November 2009 1:42 PM, PST
November 4, 2009; November 4, 2008. Getty Images. Forget C.C. Sabathia, Mark Texeira, Derek Jeter, and Alex Rodriguez’s post-‘roids revival. Want to know the real reason the Yankees broke through after a nine-year drought and won the World Series Wedensday night? Take a look at this list of the Yankees’ Series wins since 1960 and see if you can spot the underlying trend: 1961, 1962, 1977, 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2009. Yes, that’s right: since the end of the Eisenhower era, the Yankees have only won championships when a Democrat was in the White House. There were two wins under John Kennedy, another two under Jimmy Carter, a whopping four under Bill Clinton, and now—after a dismal eight-years marked by preemptive war, regressive economic policies, and Red Sox victories—a fresh championship clinched a year to the day after Obama's election. Ironic then that George Steinbrenner was convicted of making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon in 1972. One hopes »
Will PETA Throw Paint at the Duchess of Cornwall?
6 November 2009 1:21 PM, PST
It's hard to say for sure, but animal activists aren't thrilled with Prince Charles's wife, Camilla, and PETA followers have been known to get aggressive when it comes to their anti-fur stance. Camilla, who is accompanying her prince on an official visit to Canada, has opted to keep cozy with fur outerwear. Earlier this week, PETA criticized her decision to wear a rabbit stole when visiting the Canadian province of Newfoundland. Then, while taking a tour of Dundurn Castle (once the home of her great-great-great-grandfather Sir Allan Napier MacNab), the Duchess stepped out in a fur cape inherited from her grandmother. A PETA spokesperson said, "The furs she's dug up out of her grandmother's wardrobe should have been left in peace, much like her grandmother." PETA, please: No matter what your feelings on faux vs. fur, I think we can all agree that nobody's grandmother should be brought into the argument. »
Up in the Air Screening Has New York Elites Pondering Layoffs
6 November 2009 1:11 PM, PST
Jason Reitman, Judah Friedlander. From PatrickMcMullan. On Thursday night Travel & Leisure hosted a viewing of Jason Reitman’s new George Clooney–helmed vehicle Up in the Air, believing that the upcoming Oscar contender captured the woes and blessings of travel that the magazine’s readers know so well. Reitman took the stage before the screening, singling out friends in the audience (Juno actress Olivia Thirlby gave a shy wave in response to his boisterous shoutout, while Billy Crudup seemed delighted to remain under the radar) before introducing his two inspirations: father and co-producer Ivan, as well as Walter Kirn, whose novel provided the movie’s basis. After the film, the crowd convened for supper at Rouge Tomate, though the thought-provoking story remained on the minds of many. Kirn was thrilled with the way that Reitman updated the novel that he had written pre-9/11: “I think the book has been »
Greetings from the Rancho Riyadh, Part 3
6 November 2009 1:00 PM, PST
I was very lucky to get a tour of the Saudi Aramco Museum. Aramco is Saudi Arabia’s national petroleum company. After seeing the surreal promotional film (which required 3-D glasses), with an oddly intense,voice over called “Energy To The World,” the nice lady gave my host and I a tour of the place. I had a lot of questions and she was very informative. Damn, there’s a lot to know about how gasoline gets from kilometers below the surface to your gas pump and was all pretty damn interesting and terrifying to me. The intensity of the innovation involved; the sheer size of the machinery and scale of the operations that locates, extracts, filters, separates, and transports petroleum products and natural gas all over the world is completely staggering. It’s as large as life itself. By golly, no wonder illegal wars are started over the acquisition of crude. »
Michael Hainey's "Less Human/More Being"
6 November 2009 12:50 PM, PST
Michael Hainey’s Nebraska I and To the Horizon. Photographs courtesy of the artist. New York City–based Michael Hainey, the deputy editor of GQ magazine, has a hard-to-understand love for the Midwestern grasslands. For that solitude. Those wide, flat horizons. “My father was from Nebraska, and I feel that my heart ranges back and forth in that wide open empty space of the Midwest, searching,” says Hainey, who himself hails from Illinois. Those vast expanses of land are what inspired him to paint. He started as a poet, but there came a moment about 10 years ago when, in his mind, he kept seeing a poem he had written as incomplete. “I kept saying to myself, This isn’t a poem—it’s a painting,” he says. “I had never painted. Yet, I had this vision of it as a poem. And I couldn’t deny the vision.” That poem »
The House that Koch Rebuilt
6 November 2009 11:40 AM, PST
Lincoln Center’s massive face-lift continues. Following the unveiling of a rejuvenated Alice Tulley Hall for the opening of the Lincoln Center Film Festival, on September 25, a new and greatly improved State Theater was presented last night by means of a Dom Perignon-drenched reception, a gala performance in the auditorium, and a dinner and dance to conclude the evening. The changes in Alice Tulley Hall had been immediately evident—who could miss the vast new glass entrance foyer that looms over Broadway? The changes in the State Theater, which was designed in 1964 by Philip Johnson to house the New York City Ballet and the New York City Opera, are not visible from the outside, but are enormously satisfying and long overdue. Most significantly, two aisles now slice the orchestra into three parts. Previously, with the old Continental-seating plan, if you had a choice seat in the center of row M, »
Galleon Scandal: Shocked, Shocked by Insider Trading
6 November 2009 10:52 AM, PST
How is it that we get a major insider trading scandal every two decades or so? The last big one, which ultimately ensnarled Michael Milken, the legendary junk bond king, happened in the late eighties. The current one, with a mass of arrests yesterday, threatens the hedge fund industry. It seems reasonable to assume from the intermittent decades of prosecution that this particular sort of financial larceny is quite a rare bird and when it rears its head the Feds pounce. And yet, as reasonably, we know the trading of information, the imperative to have such market-moving information, has only grown more fundamental to the financial business since the Milken scandal. So, either: A.) Traders, in the last two decades, have become more scrupulous in their behavior or more clever in their deceits. Or, B.) Prosecutors haven’t been too interested in insider trading, which is actually quite a complicated crime to prove. »
Q&A: Don't You Dare Call Mad Men's John Slattery a "Silver Fox"
5 November 2009 8:50 PM, PST
Roger Sterling (John Slattery) ducks out of the Sterling Cooper offices for a hotel-room romp with Jane Siegel (Peyton List), for whom he eventually divorces his wife in Season Two of Mad MenJohn Slattery gets paid to do all those terrible, unhealthy things that the rest of us can only dream about. Chain-smoke in public buildings. Drink bourbon at the office. Have extramarital affairs with busty secretaries. Eat too many raw oysters and then vomit on his clients. Ask Sarah Jessica Parker to pee on him. Okay, maybe just some of the things the rest of us dream about. There was a time when having a fictional urine fetish—which he did so memorably on Sex & The City, playing Carrie Bradshaw’s dirty, dirty politician boyfriend—looked like it may be the best and only legacy for the 46-year-old actor. Prior to his near-golden shower TV debut, Slattery was known »
Was Nidal Malik Hasan Taking Lariam?
5 November 2009 6:29 PM, PST
Tonight, the nation mourns the tragedy that unfolded at Fort Hood today, where Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist with the U.S. Army, went on a shooting spree that left 12 of his fellow soldiers dead and 31 others wounded. Sadly, this isn’t the first time violence by a U.S. soldier has shattered the calm on an American base. In December 2002, months before the Iraq war had even begun, contributing editor Maureen Orth wrote an article for Vanity Fair titled “Fort Bragg’s Deadly Summer.” That summer, three soldiers stationed at the North Carolina base had murdered their wives, and some blamed the side effects of an Army-administered drug. Wrote Orth: Another vocal group consists of those who believe that the anti-malaria drug mefloquine, also known as Lariam, which is routinely given to soldiers going to areas such as Afghanistan where malaria might strike, can cause serious psychotic effects »
Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, and Louis C.K. Stand up for Heroes
5 November 2009 3:08 PM, PST
Photograph by Stefan Radtke. At one point during last night’s Stand Up For Heroes benefit in New York City, a video screen bore the message that the evening’s proceedings weren’t about the war in Iraq or Afghanistan—they were about the warriors who had fought in them. And the front rows of Town Hall were filled with those warriors, a number of whom bore sobering scars and heinous wounds from their tours of duty. Watching many of those men and women file into the hall, some of them staring stoically from wheelchairs, some lurching unsteadily on canes and crutches, I asked NBC Nightly News Anchor Brian Williams, who emceed the evening, if seeing the state of those men and women who’d given so much for their country ever tested his journalistic detachment. ” Well, I just landed from Kabul Sunday night, and the entire time I’m there, »
Which Dutch Royal Raised Eyebrows with Foul Language?
5 November 2009 1:42 PM, PST
England's Princess Beatrice was a shining example to us all last night. Literally sparkling in a festive gold sequined dress and ruffled black blazer, the Princess was a beacon of good sense when she played designated driver for her boyfriend, Dave Clark. The well-dressed couple enjoyed an event hosted by London jeweler Garrard and Co., and then topped off the evening with dinner at Nobu. At the end of the night, the Princess drove her boyfriend home in her BMW, a 17th-birthday gift from her father, Prince Andrew, Duke of York. Meanwhile, Zara Phillips, a fellow granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, has been living it up in Melbourne, Australia. Earlier this week, she wowed crowds at the Melbourne Cup (Australia's version of England's Royal Ascot), looking chic in a royal-blue shift dress and festive black feather fascinator. After the day's festivities, the royal apparently headed to the Melbourne night club »
Q&A: Mark Bowden Talks About "A Crime of Shadows"
5 November 2009 1:07 PM, PST
Vanity Fair Contributing Editor Mark Bowden delves into the darkest, most disturbing corners of the Internet this month in “A Crime of Shadows.” Bowden examines the case of J, a convicted sex offender who served a year in prison after a Philadelphia police detective engaged him in Internet sex talk about children. J, who never committed, nor, he insists, intended to commit, any actual molestation, is guilty of airing his perverse fantasies (many unfit to print) to an undercover cop. But the real crime? It’s not clear there ever was one. Bowden spoke to Vf Daily about the legal and moral complexities of the case. Claire Howorth: For people who associate you with Black Hawk Down and Killing Pablo, this will seem like a very different subject for you. Mark Bowden: The truth is, if you were to look at a sampling of my magazine work, over the last 25 years, »
Buy It, Steal It, Skip It: Music Releases for the Week of November 3
5 November 2009 12:00 PM, PST
Nirvana Bleach Deluxe Edition (Sub Pop) Critics often wonder if Nirvana’s music would resonate as powerfully had Kurt Cobain not killed himself. If the band’s Unplugged in New York got people who thought he was just some drug addict with a deafening amp to take his songwriting talent seriously, the 20th anniversary reissue of Nirvana’s debut album, Bleach, should permanently silence the doubters. In addition to the remastered record, there’s a previously unreleased Portland live show from 1990 that showcases the band’s sublimely unhinged stage presence. The reissue might make some fans feel old, but this is a pretty raucous birthday party. Verdict: Buy it »
The Girl in the Pink Kimono
5 November 2009 10:01 AM, PST
Rosson Crow at the New York opening of "Stages." From PatrickMcMullan.com. Clicking through pictures of last weekend’s opening party for the “Stages” exhibition, in New York City, we were struck by a girl in a splashy print kimono. Our who-what-why antennae led us to Rosson Crow, a featured artist of the evening, who was wearing a one-of-a-kind Zac Posen dress from the designer’s spring 2010 collection. It turns out that Crow, a recent New York City transplant from Dallas by way of Los Angeles, was an inspiration for Posen’s latest season. “I could see my work in about 60 percent of the collection,” the artist said from her apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, during a telephone interview earlier this week. “With Zac, it’s always incredibly glamorous and about fantasy—just show up and look sexy.” »
Jonathan Safran Foer Reads from Eating Animals
5 November 2009 9:24 AM, PST
In his first work of nonfiction, author Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) takes a critical look at America’s animal agriculture system. Eating Animals, out this week from Little, Brown and Company, explores all facets of meat production and consumption—from the environmental effects and worker rights issues, to the genetic modification of animals and harrowing factory practices. In this exclusive audio excerpt, Foer examines today’s factory farm pig breeds, which have been so genetically modified that they can no longer survive in the natural world, but instead live in climate-controlled buildings, cut off from the sun and seasons. Listen to the podcast after the jump. »
Rupert Murdoch Is Mad but Cute
5 November 2009 9:21 AM, PST
The Wall Street Journal was a great paper. It is still a pretty great paper but it is not the great Wall Street Journal. That former paper, with its particular look and feel and characteristically myopic focus on business and finance, has departed the stage, replaced by a vigorous, strong-minded paper focused on equal parts business, politics and public policy, and great events of the day. To that, its owner for almost two years now, Rupert Murdoch, is now adding a specifically New York focus. Murdoch is a singular fellow and a simple one. When he bought the Journal he said his plan was to compete with the New York Times. Many people thought that this was a battle cry or market view. He wanted the Journal to take readers and advertisers from the Times. Almost nobody thought he wanted the Journal to be the New York Times. It is curious, »
Valentino Continues to Draw an A-List Crowd
5 November 2009 9:18 AM, PST
Terence Koh and Daphne Guinness. Photograph by Todd Eberle. Tuesday night saw another party at the top of New York City's Standard Hotel, with another celebration for the DVD release of Vanity Fair special correspondent Matt Tyrnauer's documentary about fashion designer Valentino Garavani. As usual, the stars flocked to pay tribute to one of the gods of the red carpet, with heavyweights such as Madonna, Hugh Jackman, and Adrien Brody stopping by. Of course, no party would be complete without a slew of Pretty Young Things, and they turned out in force, with Mischa Barton, Byrdie Bell, Genevieve Jones, and Harley Viera-Newton leading the charge. Madonna's boy toy, Jesus Luz, took to the decks to play the spot's signature loud techno, and gallerists Larry Gagosian and Mary Boone mingled, admiring the view. Designer Thakoon Panichgul stepped into the smoking nook with some trepidation. "This seems like the Amazing Race, »
Bob Colacello on Carlo Caracciolo
4 November 2009 9:00 PM, PST
A year ago, the funeral of Carlo Caracciolo—Prince of Castagneto, Duke of Melito, and co-founder of L'Espresso and La Repubblica—brought together his extended clan, a social elite of Agnellis, Borgheses, Viscontis, and Pasolinis. But the revelation that his body—the prime source of DNA—had been cremated by order of his adopted daughter, Jacaranda, began a scandal that could tear his family apart. Exploring Caracciolo's racy life and the claims of two other alleged offspring, the author tackles the question the entire Italian aristocracy is asking: How many heirs did Carlo have? »
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