The Air Mail Archive: Every weekly issue

Issue No. 79

January 16, 2021

Pomp and Circumspect

Todd S. Purdum reminds us that American presidents have long leaned toward monarchical tendencies—and finds hope in “Amtrak Joe”

Quisling? Moi?

Shawn McCreesh looks at the highly contorted rationalizations outward-bound Trump lickspittles have deployed

Emperor’s Old Clothes?

Aatish Taseer shows that to understand Trump, we need to look at a previous despot, whose motto was “Let him enjoy his corruption, as long as he shows his loyalty!”

Issue No. 78

January 9, 2021

American Carnage

Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley look at this week’s Capitol crimes, and one way we can prevent such mayhem in the future

Fire from the Inside

Todd S. Purdum knows the Capitol’s corridors well, and Wednesday’s Trump-driven rampage saddens him

The Murder Route

One year after Fotis Dulos took his own life—still insisting that he had not killed his wife—Rich Cohen retraces that fatal final day

Issue No. 77

January 2, 2021

The Vanishing

Luisita López Torregrosa reports from Miami, where the party goes on, willfully oblivious to the accelerating catastrophe unfolding outside

Under His Skin

Mark Rozzo reveals the story behind “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” Gay Talese’s Esquire profile that made Ol’ Blue Eyes see red, and why it still resonates

Downward Doggone

Emma Freud follows the small but growing herd of people doing yoga with goats

Issue No. 76

December 26, 2020

Annus Horribilis?

2020 may have seemed like it lacked any rhyme or reason, but David Kamp finds plenty of humor in the past 12 months for one poor soul—and delivers a few needed jabs

Bull Market

Patrick Kidd reports on a mystery that has gripped Spain: What became of the armor of one of its greatest matadors after he was killed in the ring?

The Bare Necessities

Lili Anolik delivers a Q&A about T&A. A very revealing look at how one of Hollywood’s raunchiest bombs became a classic

Issue No. 75

December 19, 2020

Sir Woke-a-lot?

As speculation mounts about podcasters Harry and Meghan creating their own New Year’s Day honors, Stuart Heritage proposes more appropriate awards

Repatriate Games

Milton Esterow details the fascinating story behind the repatriation of art-world masterpieces stolen by the Nazis from Jewish families

Auf Wiedersehen!

Speaking of Nazis: George Kalogerakis reveals that 75 years after the end of World War II, Germany is finally cleaning up its language

Issue No. 74

December 12, 2020

Sick Behavior

Holly Peterson reveals the lengths to which the 1-percenters will go in order to jump the line for a coronavirus vaccine

Scandal

Joseph Bullmore reports from London, where the ex-wife of an oil-and-gas oligarch fights to claim a massive $600 million payout

Royal Loser

Henry Alford wonders what Peter Morgan might come up with if he followed The Crown with The Trump

Issue No. 73

December 5, 2020

Trump Agonistes

It’s not Paraguay, but as Graydon Carter explains, Florida will have to do for the last chapter of the departing president’s tawdry saga

Scandal

Joseph Bullmore details the sordid tale of the American tech guru and multi-millionaire jailed in Spain. Why do U.S. authorities want him extradited?

Mean Girls

Shawn McCreesh explains why women in Trump’s world like to betray each other—and how they find justification in Bill Clinton (naturally)

Issue No. 72

November 28, 2020

The Devils Wear Zara

Alessandra Stanley rues the finale of the catcalls on the glittery Trump runway show

Love, Sex, and Madness

Cazzie David reveals her, well, let’s call it “compare-and-contrast infatuation” with her ex’s new girlfriend

The Importance of Being Mank

Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger unearth the fascinating backstory behind the story of Mank, David Fincher’s Oscar-contending film

Issue No. 71

November 21, 2020

House Arrest

Cazzie David confesses what it’s like to have a roommate (Larry David) who hates keys and has no regard for your personal safety

Fashion Victim

Mark Ellwood tracks the darkened runway at Moda Operandi

Collapsing Real Estate

Joseph Bullmore gleefully details how the mansions of London’s rich are falling down—thanks to their slightly insane multi-level basement add-ons

Issue No. 70

November 14, 2020

Sore Loser

Christopher Buckley imagines the concession speech Donald Trump might—might—give

Needle Park

Walter Isaacson details what it is like to be a guinea pig for a coronavirus vaccine—and why he decided to do it

Diana vs. Charles

As The Crown officially enters the Princess of Wales years, Hilary Rose recalls those little-known, all-too-painful early years of Diana’s marriage to Charles

Issue No. 69

November 7, 2020

Cancel Culture

The end of the Apprentice-in-Chief

The Firm

Megan Agnew gives a sneak peek inside the new season of The Crown, which features the arrival of Diana, Margaret Thatcher, and the real Queen’s annus horribilis

Depp Charge and Then Some

Stuart Heritage reports on the ruling in the sordid Johnny Depp–Amber Heard trial, where there are no real winners

Issue No. 68

October 31, 2020

What, We Worry?

Graydon Carter makes it easy for the supporters of Trump and his gang that can’t shoot straight

The Grifters

Before WeWork flushed $2 billion down the toilet, Adam Neumann financed a film starring his wife. Reeves Wiedeman uncovers the bizarre, unseen footage

BBC-U-Later?

Max Hastings questions why Boris Johnson wants to diminish the great British cultural institution that brought us Fleabag, Fawlty Towers, and Blue Planet

Issue No. 67

October 24, 2020

Media Meltdown

William D. Cohan asks how Rupert Murdoch and other Hollywood bigwigs got played by Shane Smith and Vice Media

Cashtaways

Laura Neilson reports on the newest indulgence of 1-percenters: riding out the pandemic by renting a private island

The Firm

Rachel Johnson reminds us what the Queen Mother can teach Meghan and Harry

Issue No. 66

October 17, 2020

Heavy-Handed Editing?

Sam Wasson catches up with novelist-provocateur Bruce Wagner, and hears why his new novel got canceled by the wokerati

Vice Squad

Hunter Biden gets Giuliani hot under the collar, but according to Shawn McCreesh, for the New York Cool Kids, he’s even hotter

Ina Garten of Eden

On AIR MAIL’s new podcast, Morning Meeting, the acclaimed chef and cookbook author discusses her favorite comfort food and more

Issue No. 65

October 10, 2020

Patient Zero

As the ’roid-raging, Super-Spreader-in-Chief returns to the Oval Office, Graydon Carter considers Donald Trump’s endgame

Keeping Up With the Sussexes

Stuart Heritage offers a speculative peek at the script for Harry and Meghan’s rumored reality show for Netflix

Power Play

In Italy, Mario Calvo-Platero catches up with Gianni Agnelli’s grandson John Elkann, as he seeks to build a 21st-century publishing empire

Issue No. 64

October 3, 2020

The Peasants are Revolting

Alexandra Marshall visits the Royalist-loving, not-to-be-believed French theme park that’s a cross between Disneyland and a Feydeau farce

She Puts the Court in Royal Court

Stuart Heritage offers a look into Meghan Markle’s legal strategy as she goes into the messy part of her London libel trial

Willkommen and Bienvenue

Elena Clavarino reports from Europe, where New York’s young elite dodge the travel ban to live (and party) like it’s 1929

Issue No. 63

September 26, 2020

Not Ready for Prime Time

David Cameron’s cheesy habits. Boris Johnson’s loneliness. Rachel Johnson examines the blast radius from the tell-all rocking U.K. politics

Suits Meets Sussexession?

Meghan Markle fires Johnny Depp’s lawyer and hires J. K. Rowling’s, as she prepares for round two of her defamation suit

Je T’aime … Moi, Non Plus

Why do the French now see Serge Gainsbourg as their own Harvey Weinstein?

Issue No. 62

September 19, 2020

C.S.I.: Hollywood

On the 30th anniversary of Goodfellas, Douglas McGrath sees just what Nick Pileggi will finally cop to about the making of the classic

The Awful Truth

David Kaufman reveals the dark side of social influencers and their shadowy role in international money-laundering

Bedfellows and Broomsticks

Stuart Heritage asks what will happen to the politician’s wife who aired the prime minister’s dirty laundry

Issue No. 61

September 12, 2020

Combat Experience

Sheila Weller asks Shoshana Johnson, the first Black female P.O.W. in U.S. history, what Trump can learn about duty and sacrifice

Blueprint for Humanity

Craig Brown imagines just what the thinking could be behind Meghan and Harry’s blockbuster Netflix deal

Hot and Heavy

Hannah Evans reveals how talking dirty on the telephone has become the new sexting

Issue No. 60

September 5, 2020

Trümplandia, The Sequel

Richard M. Cohen imagines how a post-election Trump coup would unfold

Thy Minister’s Wife

George Kalogerakis examines the swinging, sexual-healing ministry of Jerry Falwell Jr. and his frisky better half, Becki

She Persisted—and Won!

Sheila Weller meets the Erin Brockovich of East Africa

Issue No. 59

August 29, 2020

Hollywood Babylon and Gone

Richard Rushfield asks just how Charlotte Kirk, a 28-year-old C-list actress, has brought down some of the town’s most powerful men

“Megsplaining” for Dummies

Craig Brown translates Meghan Markle’s unique talent for issuing toothless verities in a virtuous tone

“Bunga Bunga” Redux

Joseph Bullmore wonders just how it is that Italy’s former prime minister and forever womanizer Silvio Berlusconi may be poised to retake power

Issue No. 58

August 22, 2020

Hotel California

Stuart Heritage looks at the troubling past of Meghan and Harry’s $14 million money pit (complete with stripper pole?), bought from a shady Russian oligarch

Cheers?

Laura Neilson takes a gimlet-eyed look at a sobering trend: the rise in alcohol-free “drinking”

Hard Times

In Part II, Eric Spitznagel shows how Ron Jeremy’s dreams of Hollywood stardom dissolved and he joined the 1970s porn scene

Issue No. 57

August 15, 2020

#MeToo, Part Two

Ash Carter sits down with Leon Wieseltier as he prepares his comeback in magazines—and answers his accusers

Too Fast, Many Furious

Joseph Bullmore reveals how an heir to the Red Bull fortune has avoided murder charges. Until now

Breeding Discontent

David Kaufman explains why Anderson Cooper, Elton John, and other gay dads create anxiety among like-minded men

Issue No. 56

August 8, 2020

Another Juan Bites the Dust

Joseph Bullmore recounts the corrupt and depraved reign—and fall—of Spain’s King Juan Carlos

Suits and Scandal

Stuart Heritage reveals why an ex-girlfriend of Prince Andrew’s is suing Barclays for $2 billion

What Lies Beneath

Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger on the Scandi mystery of the young female reporter and the eccentric Danish inventor

Issue No. 55

August 1, 2020

Epstein

Vassi Chamberlain reveals the rarely seen side of her sometimes friend, Ghislaine Maxwell

Days of Whine and Roses

Stuart Heritage on Meghan and Harry’s latest salvos against his family

Italians, Doing It Better

Elena Clavarino dishes on Italy’s super-chic, super-secretive, and super-low-key seaside retreat

Issue No. 54

July 25, 2020

Viral Thinking

Bernard-Henri Lévy takes on the pandemic appeasers

Off the Depp End

Stuart Heritage recaps this summer’s most twisted soap opera: the Johnny Depp–Amber Heard trial unfolding in London

Counting His Marbles

Henry Alford reveals a new “very hard” cognitive test Trump might “ace”

Issue No. 53

July 18, 2020

The 153

Ash Carter connects with Thomas Chatterton Williams on the subject of the Harper’s letter

Odd Bedfellows

Rosie Kinchen explains just what Bill Clinton got out of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein

Hands-On Intel