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May 4, 2024
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No. 251
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In This Week’s Issue
STAGE FRIGHT

With this year’s Eurovision Song Contest set to host an Israeli contestant in a city with a large Palestinian population, some worry that the traditionally kitschy, good-humored event could turn ugly …

TECH AND BALANCES

On the eve of two landmark Supreme Court cases, Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner argues that Big Tech companies should be treated like the publishers they are …

LONG AND WINDING ROAD

The director of the original Brideshead Revisited and The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus reveals the true story behind the Beatles’ long-lost, final concert film …

FAMILY MISFORTUNES

Anthony D. Marshall’s life ended with a stint in prison for elder abuse against his own mother, the New York socialite Brooke Astor. In his erratic, posthumous memoir, Marshall is out for blood …

SEXY ELVES, FAIRIES, AND HOT WEREWOLVES, OH MY!

For those unacquainted with the best-selling “romantasy” genre and its indisputable queen, Sarah J. Maas, AIR MAIL has put together a handy guide to the publishing phenomenon …

ALL THE RIGHT MOVES

Daphne Guinness—onetime neighbor of Salvador Dalí’s, muse to Alexander McQueen, and friend of David Bowie’s—reveals her expertly curated travel routine …

DREAD THE BOARDS

John Lahr reviews the new West End adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s autobiographical masterpiece Long Day’s Journey into Night, starring Brian Cox and Patricia Clarkson …

BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

Sofia Coppola talks “Coppolacore” … Is the Internet ruining fiction? … how Hacks came to be … Kristi Noem’s puppy snafu … Theodore Roosevelt’s hidden love … Baby Reindeer is revolutionizing comedy—and true crime … Ian McEwan’s Atonement gets the ballet treatment … Who was this week’s biggest Attention Whore?

But First …
Issue No. 251

The View from Here For too long, Big Tech has enjoyed freedom without responsibility

By Jann Wenner
Read On
Barry Blitt’s Sketchbook
Facing the Music

Eurovision Gets Serious For decades, the international pop contest was a source of harmless fun for millions. This year, people are bracing for violence

By Jonathan Margolis
Read On
Fab Four Confidential

Paul, John, George, Ringo, and Me My movie Let It Be chronicled the Beatles’ last concert—and got lost in the wake of their breakup. Now it’s returning to screens

By Michael Lindsay-Hogg
Photo Illustration by Chop Choppish Shop
Read On
Air Supply

Mom’s the Word

Whether you opt for a tiny token of appreciation or an heirloom-worthy indulgence this Mother’s Day, AIR SUPPLY has all of your gift-giving needs covered. Just don’t forget a card
Shop
Photo: Richard Swift/WWD/Penske Media/Getty Images (Bacall and Bogart)
Guest Edit

Simone Bodmer-Turner’s Favorite Things Ceramicist and furniture designer Simone Bodmer-Turner likes Aesop room spray, Noguchi lamps and Laura Manoogian pants at home

Shop
Photo: William Jess Laird (Bodmer-Turner)
Beauty and Wellness

Eye of the Beholder In Marie Antoinette, Lost in Translation, and Priscilla, Sofia Coppola relies on beauty—bouffants, lipsticks, lashes—to create her characters. Now she brings her makeup obsession to reality

By Linda Wells
Read On
Small Talk
“When life gives you lemons, shoot them.”
“When life gives you lemons, shoot them.”
T.G.I.S.

The Attention-Whore Index Harry and Meghan are back in the spotlight, Kristi Noem shoots a puppy, and Donald Trump is discontented in court. Plus, the strangest news from around the world

Read On
Society

The Fall of the House of Astor (Revisited) A posthumous memoir from the son of New York society’s departed queen offers a self-serving perspective on an infamous scandal

By Michael Gross
Read On
Listen

Lunch with Jeff Goldblum The actor and jazz musician extols the virtues of having a life outside of Hollywood and praises good luck on this week’s episode of Table for Two

Read On
West End Story

Morphine, Booze, and Roaring Brian Cox, Succession’s raging paterfamilias, takes on a Eugene O’Neill classic alongside a dazzling Patricia Clarkson

By John Lahr
Read On
Best
VISIT Van Cleef & Arpels The glass, polished-brass, and granite storefronts on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue just became a lot more colorful with Van Cleef &… LOOK Our First 100 Years Founded in Stoke-on-Trent 100 years ago by a father-and-son-in-law duo determined to craft the perfect waxed-leather jackets for… LIGHT Diptyque Verlet, the French coffee company headquartered on the Rue Saint-Honoré, has been churning out delicately roasted beans… SHOP Sense of Lake At AIR MAIL, we tend to enjoy top-notch hotel gift shops more than, well, the hotels themselves. This is especially true of… READ Vivienne Westwood A to Z Before becoming a pioneer of punk fashion, Vivienne Westwood spent a few years working as a primary-… WEAR Connolly A few years ago, I bought a classic Mackintosh jacket, and it was almost completely perfect—from its length to its color to its… VISIT Van Cleef & Arpels The glass, polished-brass, and granite storefronts on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue just became a lot more colorful with Van Cleef &… LOOK Our First 100 Years Founded in Stoke-on-Trent 100 years ago by a father-and-son-in-law duo determined to craft the perfect waxed-leather jackets for… LIGHT Diptyque Verlet, the French coffee company headquartered on the Rue Saint-Honoré, has been churning out delicately roasted beans… SHOP Sense of Lake At AIR MAIL, we tend to enjoy top-notch hotel gift shops more than, well, the hotels themselves. This is especially true of… READ Vivienne Westwood A to Z Before becoming a pioneer of punk fashion, Vivienne Westwood spent a few years working as a primary-… WEAR Connolly A few years ago, I bought a classic Mackintosh jacket, and it was almost completely perfect—from its length to its color to its…
Frisky Business

Fifty Shades of Romantasy How a genre fusing romance and fantasy—replete with kinky elves—took over best-seller lists and women’s nightstands everywhere

By Paulina Prosnitz
Read On
Television

Taking Orders Nothing prepared a Hacks co-creator for Hollywood quite like working as a waitress

By Lucia Aniello
Read On
The Publishing World

Who’s Afraid of the Internet Novel? The latest wave of fictions attempting to capture life online is more damaged and dissociative than ever before

By Erin Somers
Read On
Comedic Relief

Baby Reindeer Games The hit Netflix show about stalking has bled into real life as social-media sleuths hound—and threaten—the actual people the story is based on

By Vanessa Thorpe
Read On
Small Talk

Noem Chompski Other potential Trump vice-presidential picks now that Kristi Noem has shot herself in the foot

By John Ficarra
Photo illustration by Chop Choppish Shop
Read On
Books
Jenny McPhee On

This Strange Eventful History

by Claire Messud
Read On
Inside Story

The Wife That History Forgot A new discovery sheds fresh light on Alice Hathaway Lee, Theodore Roosevelt’s first love, who was largely written off as inconsequential in the president’s life

By Edward F. O'Keefe
Read On
Photography

The Secret Life of Jimmy Nelson A new book collects the former advertising executive turned intrepid photographer’s shots of Indigenous peoples from Siberia to Nepal to Kenya

12
A child of the Longhorn Miao tribe, photographed by Jimmy Nelson in Liupanshui, China, in 2016.
A member of the Maasai people in the Serengeti in Tanzania, 2010.
A Marquesan girl in Atuona, on the island of Hiva Oa, French Polynesia, 2016.
A Nenets reindeer herder from the Yamal Peninsula, in the Ural Mountains of Siberia, 2011.
Gogine boys in Goroka, Papua New Guinea, 2010.
A child of the Sudosukai clan, part of the Wodaabe nomads, at the Gerewol Festival, in Chad, 2016.
Members of the Kazakh people in Altantsogts, in the Bayan-Ölgii province of Mongolia, 2011.
A Chukchi family in Chukotka, Siberia, 2012.
Buddhist monks at the Ganden Monastery, in Tibet, 2011.
A member of the Maori people at the Gisborne Festival, on the North Island of New Zealand, 2011.
Top, Kaluli men on Mount Bosavi, in the Southern Highlands province of Papua New Guinea, 2017; above, members of the Himba people in the Hartmann Valley of Serra Cafema, Namibia, 2005.
A Kazakh boy in Bayan-Ölgii, Mongolia, 2017.
Read On
Small Talk
“When faced with a tricky ethical issue, I always ask the question, ‘What’s in it for me?’”
“When faced with a tricky ethical issue, I always ask the question, ‘What’s in it for me?’”
Listen

Inside the Crime That Scandalized New York’s Bluebloods On this week’s podcast, Michael Gross takes a new look at the conviction of Brooke Astor’s son for stealing millions from her

Read On
Highlight

A Ballet with a Twist Cathy Marston premieres Atonement, an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s 2001 novel and her first creation as the new director of Ballett Zürich

By Genevieve Marks
Read On
Close-up

Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson The duo behind Los Angeles’s Kismet restaurants are publishing their first cookbook

By Carolina de Armas
Read On
Small Talk
The Seasoned Traveler

Daphne Guinness The musician, artist, and fashion fixture reveals her travel routine

Read On
Danielle Kosann’s Sketchbook
John Singer Sargent’s 1904 portrait of Lady Helen Vincent, Viscountess d’Abernon, was considered one of his more risqué paintings at the time. Here, Lady Helen is flanked by two hedonistic vignettes by Fragonard as she watches over a sensual party below. The narrative in this painting—as in most of my work—is about the pursuit of pleasure and the disregard for the boundaries that society often places on women. It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To will be on view at Salon 21 in New York City beginning May 1.
Is Edited By

Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley

Creative Director

Angela Panichi

Deputy Editors

Ashley Baker Ash Carter Chris Garrett Nathan King Julia Vitale

Chief Technology Officer

John Tornow

Editor at Large

George Pendle

Books Editor

Jim Kelly

Arts Intel Report Editor

Laura Jacobs

Senior Editors

Elena Clavarino Jensen Davis Clara Molot

Photo Director

Ann Schneider

Copy Editor

Adam Nadler

Research & Legal Editor

Matt Kapp

Production Editor

H. Scott Jolley

Associate Editors

Carolina de Armas Lucy Horowitz Jeanne Malle Paulina Prosnitz Jack Sullivan

Art Director

Paloma Huerre

Senior Photo Editor

Emine Gözde Sevim

Designer

Zoé Gillette

International Editor

Isabelle Harvie-Watt

London Editor

Bridget Arsenault

Communications Director

Harrison Vail

Columnists

Dana Brown Cazzie David Lisa Henricksson
Walter Isaacson Pico Iyer Rachel Johnson
John Lahr Jonathan Margolis Linda Wells
James Wolcott

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

Monica Ahanonu Barry Blitt André Carrilho Pip Carter Paul Davis David Downton Andrea Ferolla Josh Gosfield Cathy Graham Eric Hanson Angelica Hicks Hilary Knight Danielle Kosann Michael Lindsay-Hogg Ross MacDonald Joe McKendry James McMullan Donald Robertson Charles Dare Scheips Grant Shaffer Ed Sorel Ralph Steadman

Contributing Photographers

Jonathan Becker Justin Bishop Alex Board James Emmerman Marcos Fecchino Daniel Paik Art Streiber Sharon Suh Justin Weiner

Architectural Consultant

Basil Walter

Head of Audience Development

Rachel LeSage

Audience Growth Manager

Merritt Johnson

Cartoon Editor

Bob Mankoff

Music Supervisor

Randall Poster

Technology

Brooks Oakley Justin Rubaloff Sade Singleton

Intern

Gasper Tringale-White

OUR CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AND CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER ARE

Bill Keenan and Emily Davis

Air Supply General Manager and Brand Partnerships

Anjali Lewis

Advertising Director

Michael Pescuma

European Sales Director

Selim Mataraci

Financial & Business Operations

Marc Leyer

Chief Strategy Adviser

Adam Mendelsohn

Chief Merchant

Jennifer Noyes

Shop Editor

Zoe Ruffner

E-Commerce Manager

Isaac Metlitsky

E-commerce Associate

Lilly Schoenbaum

In Memoriam

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

Issue No. 251
May 4, 2024
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Issue No. 251
May 4, 2024
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