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April 13, 2024
The Best
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Abroad
No. 248
Weekend
Edition
Saturdays

at 6:00 AM
In This Week’s Issue
TOXIC ACCUSATIONS

Alex Goldfarb explains why he was awarded $25 million for being wrongly accused by Vladimir Putin of poisoning Alexander Litvinenko, a onetime K.G.B. spy and defector …

A NEW ENLIGHTENMENT

Documentary king Errol Morris considers the search for truth, the importance of reading, and how Christopher Hitchens’s writing inspired his work …

CLASS CLOWN

How St. George’s—the New England prep school whose alumni include Astors and Vanderbilts—came to blows with alumnus Tucker Carlson …

IMITATION INTERIORS

Dan Rubinstein goes inside the world of high-end home design, an industry where knockoffs abound, and reveals the company behind Kim Kardashian’s Donald Judd dupes …

ACADEMY ANGUISH

Sixty years on from his days at a British boarding school, the novelist Louis de Bernières reflects on the bullying and sexual abuse he suffered there—experiences that haunt him to this day …

VOCAL POLITICS

There may be few things that Republicans and Democrats can agree on these days, but Elton John is, apparently, one of them …

SNAPSHOT CITY

Graydon Carter pays tribute to the extraordinary photography of Dafydd Jones, the British party-scene fixture who crosses the pond for his latest book, on 1990s New York …

BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

An ode to La Latteria, the Milanese restaurant loved by everyone from Keith Haring to Barack Obama … AIR MAIL hosts a book party for Salman Rushdie … Jean Cocteau gets the Peggy Guggenheim treatment … Whatever happened to Venice’s Hotel Bauer? … David E. Sanger’s latest book is a master class in the rise of Russia and China … Who is this week’s biggest Attention Whore?

But First …
Issue No. 248

The View from Here A qualified defense of other people

By Errol Morris
Read On
Barry Blitt’s Sketchbook
Anatomy of a Murder

Beating Putin’s Propaganda Alex Goldfarb was falsely accused by Russian state media of poisoning his friend Alexander Litvinenko. His long fight for truth finally ended this week

By Alex Goldfarb
Photo Illustration by Chop Choppish Shop
Read On
Air Supply

Organic Matter

As Earth Day approaches, dig into our handpicked bounty of sustainable delights, from clean cosmetics to upcycled clothing and housewares made to last a lifetime
Shop
Photo: Philippe Le Tellier/Paris Match/Getty Images (Fonda)
School for Scandal

St. George’s and the Fire-Breather When Tucker Carlson offered to speak at his WASP-y alma mater, he was not greeted with open arms

By Jack Sullivan
Photo illustration by Chop Choppish Shop
Read On
guest edit

My Favorite Things Ahead of his solo show at Pace Gallery, the conceptual artist spotlights his essentials, including the perfect pants and the book he keeps both at home and in his studio

By Adam Pendleton
Shop
Photo: Matthew Septimus (Pendleton)
Landing Gear

The Tale of the Tape A voice recorder that transcribes—and could fit in your wallet! A pop-up desk to help you keep your chin up! The world’s handsomest exercise bike! And more …

By Jonathan Margolis
Read On
Small Talk
To Catch a Fake

Amicus Thief Some interior designers are known for knocking off museum-quality furnishings—often without consequences. Will a recent lawsuit by the Donald Judd Foundation change all that?

By Dan Rubinstein
Read On
After Hours

A Night to Remember with Salman Rushdie Gay Talese, Lisa Taddeo, Marlon James, Tony Danza, and others gathered at the Waverly Inn for a rousing book party in celebration of the writer’s new memoir

By Jensen Davis
Photographs by Daniel Paik
12
Top, Gay Talese and Salman Rushdie; above, Kaitlan Collins and Tony Danza.
Top, Graydon and Anna Carter; above, Marlon James.
Top, Jordan Roth, Richie Jackson, and Salman Rushdie; above, Andrew Wylie.
Top, Honor Cargill-Martin, Harry Lambert, and Alessandra Stanley; above, Lucian St Aubyn.
Top, Gwenda-lin Grewal and Walton Ford; above, Bruce Wagner and Salman Rushdie.
Top, Lisa Taddeo and Tony Danza; above, Rupert Friend.
Top, George Hahn, Richie Jackson, Andrew Zucker, and Molly Jong-Fast; above, Bill Buford.
Top, Sam Kashner and Michael Hainey; above, Sloane Crosley and Reggie Nadelson.
Top, James Fenton and Reggie Nadelson; above, Kim Heirston and Richie Jackson.
Top, Ash Carter and Basil Walter; above, Karah Preiss.
Top, Antonia Hitchens and Joan Juliet Buck; above, Laurie Anderson.
Top, Dana Brown, Josh Duboff, and Anna Carter; above, Salman Rushdie.
Read On
Small Talk
“He does the youth market.”
“He does the youth market.”
T.G.I.S.

The Attention-Whore Index Elon Musk is conspiring, Donald Trump is venting, and Marjorie Taylor Greene is doomsaying. Plus, the strangest news from around the world

Read On
The Restaurant Life

Long Live La Latteria Over six decades, the couple behind this quaint Milanese spot served spaghetti al limone to Kennedys, Agnellis, artists, and locals alike

By Elena Clavarino
Photographs by DANIEL PAIK
14
Arturo and Maria Maggi in front of their Milan restaurant.
Hundreds of paintings of roses, La Latteria’s symbol, adorn the walls of the restaurant.
Arturo and Maria, opposite the entrance to the kitchen. The restaurant looks the same as it always has, minus the white tablecloths.
Top, the dining room on an evening before the restaurant closed; above, the ceramic-tiled bar.
A grandfather clock presides over the dining area.
Arturo in the kitchen he cooked in for 58 years.
A portrait of Maria and Arturo in Renaissance garb, which also graced the covers of the restaurant’s menus.
Top, Maria in the bar area; above, a stencil of Arturo and Maria in the dining room.
A photograph of the couple from an early newspaper article on La Latteria.
Arturo holding the plate Keith Haring gave to the Maggis when he visited the restaurant, in 1988.
Maria’s teacup collection, in the apartment she and Arturo share, above the restaurant.
A fondant tribute to Arturo, Maria, and their son Marco, given to them by a client after they announced they’d be closing up shop.
Top, a plaque on the restaurant doorway that translates to: “In 1998, the tradition of cooking in silver pots started here”; above, a portrait of the couple in their living room.
The restaurant’s signature rose, spray-painted by a client onto La Latteria’s shutter last year.
Read On
Food Fight

Eat, Pray, Leave When a British chef ghosted his pregnant wife and young child, she turned to Facebook to track him down

By Seren Hughes
Read On
Domestic Harmony

“Bipartisan Karaoke” Night There is one thing that can still bring a divided Washington together: the music of Elton John

By James Kirchick
Read On
Class Warfare

Bullied, Beaten, and Buggered The award-winning author recounts the physical, sexual, and psychological abuse he received at his posh English boarding school

By Louis de Bernières
Read On
The Hotel World

Death in Venice For decades, the Hotel Bauer was a home away from home for the international glitterati. Now it’s a cautionary tale

By Mark Ellwood
Read On
Photography

High Life, Low Life In his new book, the photographer Dafydd Jones captures a bygone New York, an era of new and old money, La Grenouille and Le Cirque

By Graydon Carter
Photographs by Dafydd Jones
8
Top, Iris Love’s and Brooke Astor’s dachshunds fighting over canapés at a party in Manhattan, 1990; above, a guest arriving at Webster Hall, 1992.
Ships in New York Harbor on July 4, 1992.
Top, Anna Wintour and André Leon Talley at a Calvin Klein show, 1990; above, Kate Moss and Johnny Depp at a book party in her honor, 1995.
Talley spray-painting John Galliano’s hair, 1993.
Top, Gianni Versace, Claudia Schiffer, and Karl Lagerfeld at the Met Gala, 1995; above, Marla Maples, Donald Trump, and Imelda Marcos at a party for Joey Adams, 1990.
Leona Helmsley at a party at the Helmsley Palace Hotel, 1991.
Top, Cindy Adams at a demonstration in support of the New York Post, 1993; above, Robert Mapplethorpe’s birthday party, 1988.
Candace Bushnell at the Dada Ball at Webster Hall, 1994.
Read On
Travel

Rest Easy Until recently, New Orleans’s hotel scene was no match for its nightlife. Several stylish new hotels have changed that

By Steve Garbarino
Read On
Best
WEAR Cubitts Most of the best-looking glasses seen on Londoners come from Cubitts. The brand, named after the street that… STAY Villa Copenhagen The Hotel Sanders has long been the gold standard in Copenhagen accommodations, but a recent stay at the newish Villa Copenhagen… LISTEN “To Fall in Love with You” Most songwriters have unreleased music. Sometimes there’s a good reason for that. But other… WATCH Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande Every so often a documentary comes along that leaves one wondering: How have I never… LOOK Luncheons on the Grass Modern art introduced herself to the world on May 15, 1863, when Édouard Manet showcased his… READ Friends in Napa In Sheila Yasmin Marikar’s work as a journalist—for AIR MAIL as well as for The New York Times, The New Yorker, and… WEAR Cubitts Most of the best-looking glasses seen on Londoners come from Cubitts. The brand, named after the street that… STAY Villa Copenhagen The Hotel Sanders has long been the gold standard in Copenhagen accommodations, but a recent stay at the newish Villa Copenhagen… LISTEN “To Fall in Love with You” Most songwriters have unreleased music. Sometimes there’s a good reason for that. But other… WATCH Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande Every so often a documentary comes along that leaves one wondering: How have I never… LOOK Luncheons on the Grass Modern art introduced herself to the world on May 15, 1863, when Édouard Manet showcased his… READ Friends in Napa In Sheila Yasmin Marikar’s work as a journalist—for AIR MAIL as well as for The New York Times, The New Yorker, and…
Small Talk
Listen

Kim Kardashian Gets Sued over Her (Alleged) Fakes On this week’s podcast, Dan Rubinstein reveals why the influencer finds herself the subject of a strange lawsuit

Read On
Books
Theodore Bunzel On

New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West

by David E. Sanger
Read On
Thomas Beller On

Negative Space

by Gillian Linden
Read On
Close-up

Aindrea Emelife One of the Venice Biennale’s youngest-ever curators is bringing Nigerian art to the masses

By Elena Clavarino
Read On
Highlight
A drawing and poetry from one of Jean Cocteau’s journals, 1960.

The 20th Century’s Enfant Terrible

When the madcap American heiress and audacious art collector Peggy Guggenheim founded her first gallery, Guggenheim Jeune, in London, her adviser Marcel Duchamp proposed she inaugurate the space with a Jean Cocteau show. To make the necessary arrangements, Guggenheim visited the protean artist in Paris, where he received her in bed in an opium haze. READ ON

Read On
Small Talk
“For God’s sake, Mr. Danvers, work with me here!”
“For God’s sake, Mr. Danvers, work with me here!”
The Imperfect Ending

Nicholson Baker

The award-winning author, who’s written about everything from actual secret government programs to imagined inter-dimensional sex fantasias, reveals a few of his least favorite things
Read On
Risko’s Sketchbook
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Issue No. 248
April 13, 2024
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Issue No. 248
April 13, 2024
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