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April 20, 2024
The Best
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No. 249
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In This Week’s Issue
MALICE IN WONDERLAND

Spike Carter reveals how Scott Thorson’s relationship with Liberace in his teens led to his involvement in the infamous, crack-cocaine-laced Laurel Canyon murders …

COME ONE, COME ALL!

AIR MAIL’s just opened newsstand in Manhattan’s West Village offers exclusive merchandise, strong coffee, and a curated selection of books and magazines …

Laying It Bare

In an interview with Stuart Heritage, Larry David discusses wig-wearers, the viability of beards, and why a receding mane might not be such a bad thing after all …

WOE IS ME

To Buzz Bissinger’s chagrin, modern men have given up on honest expression—and confrontation—in place of self-victimization, a trend most evident in the crybaby tendencies of Donald Trump …

BAD BLOOD

Taylor Swift’s songbook has thrown shade at bygone love affairs with the likes of John Mayer and Jake Gyllenhaal. Her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, adds actor Joe Alwyn to the hit list …

Rushdie’s Riposte

In his new memoir, Salman Rushdie does the unfathomably difficult work of trying to see the world from the perspective of the man who tried to kill him, says James Kirchick …

FRESH PAINT

Former New York magazine editor Adam Moss talks to Jim Kelly about his new book, The Work of Art, featuring everyone from The Wire creator David Simon to the writer George Saunders …

BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

Linda Wells investigates the men’s-hair-dye fad … Who’s actually voting for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? … Michael Korda revives World War I’s soldier-poets … the nine young painters revolutionizing Paris’s art scene … a new book goes inside the dog-show circuit … Cast your vote in this week’s Attention-Whore Index Poll!

But First …
Issue No. 249

The View from Here Extra! Extra! AIR MAIL opens a newsstand in New York’s West Village

By Nathan King
Read On
Barry Blitt’s Sketchbook
Cold Case in a Warm Climate

The Zelig of Awful Meet Scott Thorson: Liberace’s ex. Witness in the notorious Wonderland murders. Televangelist. Drug runner for the Mob

By Spike Carter
Read On
Air Supply

Empire State of Mind

In honor of Manhattan’s 45th anniversary, AIR SUPPLY celebrates the best of the Big Apple, from sartorial staples by downtown’s finest designers to the gift that will make anyone feel like a true New Yorker
Shop
Photo: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images (Madonna)
Guest Edit

My Favorite Things Known for championing under-the-radar creatives, the Cultured editor shares her must-have discoveries across art, furniture, and fashion

By Sarah Harrelson
Shop
Photo: Jojo Korsh (Harrelson)
Naked Truths

Cool-Head Larry In an interview, Larry David covers all things baldness—transplants, Russian leaders, beards—and reveals the one thing he enjoys about having no hair

By Stuart Heritage
Read On
Beauty and Wellness

Eye of the Beholder These days, more and more silver foxes are looking for magic in a bottle. Our beauty-and-wellness guru investigates the good, the bad, and the fugly of hair dye

By Linda Wells
Photo Illustration by Chop Choppish Shop
Read On
Small Talk
Attorney-at-play.
Attorney-at-play.
T.G.I.S.

The Attention-Whore Index Harry and Meghan are on display, Donald Trump is nodding off, and Elon Musk is always (far) right. Plus, the most peculiar news from around the world

Read On
Department of Complaints

Let Them Eat Worms! Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Buzz Bissinger is fed up with the moaners, the whiners, and the worm eaters

By Buzz Bissinger
Read On
Small Talk
“It’s a coming-of-middle-age story.”
“It’s a coming-of-middle-age story.”
The Tortured Ex

Joe Alwyn Breaks the Internet Thanks to the Swifties, the singer’s guarded and fiercely private British ex is about to become the most hated man in America

By Megan Agnew
Read On
Small Talk

The Eternal Flameout A closer look at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s coalition

By John Ficarra
Read On
Eight Questions

Arts and Drafts Five years after leaving New York magazine, Adam Moss discusses the state of media today, how he fills his days, and his new book about art

By Jim Kelly
Read On
Best
CARRY Prada Prada launched its structured, top-handle Galleria bag in 2007, and it quickly became one of the house’s classics. Named after the… Read H Is for Hope Elizabeth Kolbert is bringing some much-needed clarity to today’s environmental crisis. In 26 short essays, one for each letter of… SIP oHHo Tired of hangovers? Looking for a good time? Don’t want to gain weight? Look no further than oHHo’s THC Seltzers.… SERVE Brunello Cucinelli How’s your forehand? A work in progress? You’ll be forgiven for using style to compensate. And on that note, there’s no better… DINE abcV Once again, we can expect crowds to be hanging around the Mark Hotel later this spring—this time not so much for the… READ The Algebra of Wealth We’re going to break custom and talk about money, because, according to Scott Galloway,… CARRY Prada Prada launched its structured, top-handle Galleria bag in 2007, and it quickly became one of the house’s classics. Named after the… Read H Is for Hope Elizabeth Kolbert is bringing some much-needed clarity to today’s environmental crisis. In 26 short essays, one for each letter of… SIP oHHo Tired of hangovers? Looking for a good time? Don’t want to gain weight? Look no further than oHHo’s THC Seltzers.… SERVE Brunello Cucinelli How’s your forehand? A work in progress? You’ll be forgiven for using style to compensate. And on that note, there’s no better… DINE abcV Once again, we can expect crowds to be hanging around the Mark Hotel later this spring—this time not so much for the… READ The Algebra of Wealth We’re going to break custom and talk about money, because, according to Scott Galloway,…
Elements of Style

Haute Damn! The latest trend in French design? Ceramics, pottery, and home accessories decorated with colorful language

By Katia Kulawick-Assante
Read On
Books
Jane Stern On

Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show

by Tommy Tomlinson
Read On
James Kirchick On

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

by Salman Rushdie
Read On
Listen

Beyond the Candelabra On this week’s podcast, Spike Carter tells us about “the Zelig of Awful” and his ties to one of L.A.’s most infamous murders

Read On
Small Talk
“Now that the kids are gone, do you want to remodel the kitchen or get a divorce?”
“Now that the kids are gone, do you want to remodel the kitchen or get a divorce?”
Past is Prologue

From Anthem to Elegy Six gifted young poets signed up to fight in World War I. In their disillusionment, Michael Korda sees a cautionary tale for our time

By Lea Carpenter
Photo Illustration by Chop Choppish Shop
Read On
Photography

Apocalypse Now As Earth Day approaches, Edward Burtynsky’s haunting aerial photographs confront the stark reality of humankind’s industrial impact on the planet

3
Top, salt pans in Cádiz, Spain, 2013; above, an Uralkali potash mine in Berezniki, Russia, 2017.
Top, the Thjórs River, in Iceland, 2012; above, nickel tailings in Sudbury, Ontario, 1996.
Top, a tailings pond in the Wesselton Diamond Mine, near Kimberley, in the Northern Cape of South Africa, 2018; above, oil bunkering in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, 2016.
Read On
Listen

Lunch with Colin Jost The S.N.L. staff writer and “Weekend Update” co-anchor joins host Bruce Bozzi on this week’s episode of Table for Two to discuss his Staten Island Ferry dreams, his unchanged childhood bedroom, and more …

Read On
Inside Story

The Concert of a Lifetime A recording of America’s 1975 Hollywood Bowl performance, directed by Beatles producer George Martin, sees the light

By Gerry Beckley
Photographs by Henry Diltz
Read On
Highlight

From Camera to Canvas

Paintings by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who filmed the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and the Who at their peak, go on display in upstate New York
By Harry Seymour
Read On
Close-up

Krissy Jones The founder of Sky Ting yoga—New York’s coolest workout studio—is opening a massive new space with everything from an infrared sauna to facials

By Clara Molot
Read On
Highlight
The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1610.

Death Becomes Him

Death stalks the work of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Here was an artist drawn irresistibly to executions and corpses, dismemberment and putrefaction. He painted one gruesome martyrdom after another. Saint Matthew, run through by a sword at his own church altar. Saint Peter, nailed to an upside-down crucifix. Saint Lucy, buried on the site where a soldier cut her throat. Decapitation was a Caravaggio speciality, hence his paintings of John the Baptist and Salome, the Gorgon Medusa, Judith and Holofernes, David and Goliath. READ ON

Read On
The Paris School

Art Nouveau Meet the nine young painters at the center of Paris’s artistic boom

By Jeanne Malle
Read On
Small Talk
“Now, we wait.”
“Now, we wait.”
The Imperfect Ending

Michael Stuhlbarg

The Boardwalk Empire actor, who stars in Peter Morgan’s new Broadway play, Patriots, reveals his least favorite things
Read On
Drew Friedman’s Sketchbook
John Waters, the living legend of cult cinema from Baltimore once dubbed the “Pope of Trash,” turns 78 next week. Many of his raw, raucous early films, including Mondo Trasho, Pink Flamingos, and Female Trouble, and his later movies, such as the (somewhat) more mainstream Polyester and Hairspray, featured his friend and fellow Baltimorean Glenn Milstead, also known as “Divine,” whom Waters called “the most beautiful woman in the world, almost.”
Is Edited By

Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley

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Angela Panichi

Deputy Editors

Ashley Baker Ash Carter Chris Garrett Nathan King Julia Vitale

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Jim Kelly

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Carolina de Armas Lucy Horowitz Jeanne Malle Clara Molot Paulina Prosnitz Jack Sullivan

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Writers at Large

Lili Anolik Johanna Berkman Joseph Bullmore Vassi Chamberlain William D. Cohan Rich Cohen Michael Hainey Stuart Heritage George Kalogerakis Sam Kashner James Kirchick Alexander Lobrano Alexandra Marshall Daphne Merkin Sam Wasson

Contributing Artists

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Technology

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Intern

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OUR CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AND CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER ARE

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In Memoriam

Peter Bogdanovich Duncan Hannah Douglas McGrath Richard David Story André Leon Talley

Issue No. 249
April 20, 2024
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Issue No. 249
April 20, 2024
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