The Secret Life of Hotels
Before doing the Madeline children’s books and the murals for New York’s Carlyle-hotel bar, Ludwig Bemelmans worked at the Ritz—and kept notes
Pauline Chalamet
Although the star of The Sex Lives of College Girls grew up in a family of actors, writers, and directors, she resisted a life in the arts for years
Hollywood’s Lost Stories Come to Light
Sam Wasson discusses a new oral history of movies, told by the people who made them
A Class Act
The producing artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater pays tribute to his friend James McMullan, a brilliant artist who has designed its posters for nearly four decades
The Power and the Glory
In 1985, G.E. purchased RCA for $6.3 billion in cash, then the largest M&A deal of all time. That G.E. was actually buying back a business it had started 65 years earlier was largely forgotten
Dreams in Progress
A new book celebrates Hollywood’s greatest behind-the-scenes photographer
Crime Pays
He’s written 37 books and sold more than 80 million copies—yet The New York Times still won’t give Michael Connelly’s well-crafted and timely whodunits a proper review
Into the Maelstrom
Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades burns like a fever dream in the hands of Nathalie Stutzman, contralto turned star conductor
Not Your Father’s Ghostwriter
Unfortunately for the royal family, J. R. Moehringer, Prince Harry’s ghostwriter, specializes in damaged father-son relationships
Out of Step
While researching his book about the dance company Ballet Russes, Rupert Christiansen stumbled upon a dance critic’s account of their awkward interview
Bono Still Hasn’t Found What He’s Looking For
The U2 front man’s new memoir is romantic, sincere, and self-effacing. More than an inventory of rock ’n’ roll high jinks, it reveals how deep the trauma of losing his mother at just 14 sits, even today
Mystery Man
Eight Questions with Anthony Horowitz, the man behind Foyle’s War and Agatha Christie’s Poirot, a series of Sherlock Holmes and James Bond novels, and his own mystery TV show
A Seven-Decade Roman Holiday
The diaries of the American art critic, photographer, and Rome transplant Milton Gendel reveal a life spent mingling with artists, royals, and other notables
A Weight on Her Shoulders
The director Nanette Burstein’s new docuseries, Killer Sally, offers a nuanced look at the bodybuilder Sally McNeil’s 1995 murder of her abusive husband
Liz Truss: Even Stranger Than We Thought
On this week’s podcast, Stuart Heritage reports on the very revealing new book about the former P.M.
Everybody’s Talkin’
How a disruptive new technology—sound—brought an end to the silent era and gave rise to the studio system. An exclusive excerpt from Hollywood: The Oral History