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Issue No. 66

The View from Here

The impassioned debate over The New York Times’s 1619 Project may seem like it’s about race, but it’s also about the race to replace the paper’s executive editor, Dean Baquet…

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Africa Rising Harvard? Yale? Princeton? A nonprofit program is recruiting Kenya’s top high-school students and connecting them with America’s most competitive universities

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Holy Terror The cardinal in charge of vetting saints is fired over charges that he embezzled Vatican funds meant for the poor

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New York’s Hottest “It Girl”? Hunter Biden Nothing gets the Cool Kids’ respect like some topless, cracked-out photos

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Did You Hear About … ? Quirky news about these rather curious days

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The Art of the Deal in the U.K. In London, Trump angles for a 999-year lease

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A Smooth Blend In this week’s podcast, the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, brings Ashley and Mike some comforting (and tasty) ideas

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Hollywood Heartbreak In which the star of My Best Friend’s Wedding forgets a dinner with Joan Collins and loses a “giant” role, all while trying to revive his career

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Style

Did a Russian Oligarch Get Snookered by a Rothschild Banker? Sergey Bogdanchikov ran one of the world’s biggest oil companies. Then he fell under the spell of the Rothschild name

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Bruce Wagner’s Woke Universe After his publisher balked at his use of a certain word, Hollywood’s master of satire posts his new novel online for free

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Plastic-Eating “Super-Enzyme” Spawned in Lab!

Will nature be able to clean up our mess?
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Small Talk

Second-Wives Club Armie Hammer, Lily James, and Kristin Scott Thomas remake the Hitchcock classic Rebecca

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For a Good Time in Paris, Call Her “Madame Claude” supplied high-end prostitutes to J.F.K., the Shah of Iran, Frank Sinatra, and others. Was she a feminist icon or a thug?

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Basquiat’s Ballad

What Jean-Michel Basquiat knew—what he paid attention to—frequently surprised me. In 1977, I was in public high school with Jean at the somewhat experimental City-As-School, in Brooklyn. Hanging out with him at his father’s house, I picked up an issue of Newsweek and pointed to a photo of Mikhail Baryshnikov, who was considered, I told him, the world’s greatest male dancer. “I thought it was Nureyev,” Jean said. READ ON

The large-scale Anthony Clarke, 1985, included in “Writing the Future: Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation,” on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, starting October 18.

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Discover

Barbara Amiel in 1988 with her then suitor, book publisher George Weidenfeld. In her new memoir, which André Leon Talley reviewed for AIR MAIL’s October 3 issue, Amiel more than hints at why they never married: “He was … very short, plump, and with eyes that could protrude rather alarmingly.”
Small Talk
“What are you passionate about besides vaping?”

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One for the Books Heywood Hill, among the world’s most revered bookshops, is launching a somewhat unique literary prize

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Click here to visit

Don’t Miss

Arlo Parks The London-based singer-songwriter captures the agony and ecstasy of Gen Z

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Small Talk

Kind Hearts and a Baronet? What happens when an eccentric 74-year-old British aristocrat looks for someone to pay him $23,000 to live with him?

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Best

Georgia on His Mind

Who cares about an opera company’s business model? Tomer Zvulun, the visionary general and artistic director of the Atlanta Opera, for one. “Don’t hire this guy,” Gallup warned the board of directors in 2013. “He’s not prepared.” Well, look at him now. In place of the conservative-leaning season originally announced, Zvulun has cooked up a whole new one, tailored to the pandemic. His “Big Tent” series, beginning next week, offers six experimental, open-air boutique operas for boutique audiences. Expect videos of the shows in short order. READ ON

Rain or shine: under the direction of Tomer Zvulun, the Atlanta Opera begins its fall season outdoors, with circus-themed performances of Pagliacci and The Kaiser of Atlantis.

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Discover
Small Talk
“Now for your stress test.”
Books

What Becomes a Legend Most

by Philip Gefter
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The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans—A Story of Love and War

by Catherine Grace Katz
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Dark Words Why did Eleanor Roosevelt stand by the offensive term she used in her long-celebrated autobiography?

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Into Thin Air Buddhist and bon vivant Ang Rita Sherpa—known as “the Snow Leopard”—led first-class expeditions (and an elusive life)

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Nathan Gelgud’s Sketchbook
Is Edited By

Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley

Deputy Editors

Chris Garrett Michael Hainey Nathan King

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Angela Panichi

Chief Technology Officer

John Tornow

Books Editor

Jim Kelly

Arts Intel Report Editor

Laura Jacobs

Style Editor

Ashley Baker

Features Editor

Ash Carter

Senior Editor

Julia Vitale

Visiting Editor

Peter Stevenson

Photo Director

Ann Schneider

Associate Editors

Elena Clavarino Clementine Ford Alex Oliveira Elinor Schneider

Columnists

Cazzie David Emma Freud Walter Isaacson
Pico Iyer Rachel Johnson John Lahr
Douglas McGrath Richard David Story James Wolcott

Writers at Large

Lili Anolik Joseph Bullmore William D. Cohan Rich Cohen Stuart Heritage George Kalogerakis Sam Kashner Alexandra Marshall

International Editor

Isabelle Harvie-Watt

London Editor

Bridget Arsenault

Communications Director

Anna Bradlee

Cartoon Editor

Bob Mankoff

Music Supervisor

Randall Poster

Copy Editor

Adam Nadler

Photo Editor

Emine Gozde Sevim

Production Editor

H. Scott Jolley

Interns

Roxy Solis Gasper Tringale-White

Chief Operating Officer

Bill Keenan

Chief Marketing Officer

Emily Davis

Brand Partnerships

Anjali Lewis

Sales Director

Michael Pescuma

Financial & Business Operations

Marc Leyer

Integrated Marketing Manager

Madeline Spates

Issue No. 66
October 17, 2020
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Issue No. 66
October 17, 2020

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