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October 4, 2025
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No. 325
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In This Week’s Issue
THE WRITE STUFF

Announcing the winners of our inaugural Tom Wolfe literary prizes for fiction and reportage: Perfection author Vincenzo Latronico and The Catastrophe Hour author Meghan Daum …

THE PELICOT BRIEF

The lawyers who represented Gisèle Pelicot in the mass-rape case that rocked France reveal how they found their client—and the challenges they faced in the courtroom …

HYDE-ING IN PLAIN SIGHT

In the final installment of our series on the Rockefeller con man, Jonathan Alter reveals how Spiro Pavlovich’s Dr. Jekyll–like charm hid a Mr. Hyde–esque fury …

THE ANNA DELVEY OF ACADEMIA

A student from the Bay Area invented a whole new identity—using forged transcripts and fabricated recommendation letters—to get into Yale. Then she disappeared. Clara Molot tracked her down …

IN COLD BLOOD

More than two years after model Abby Choi’s murder, the case remains a flash point in Hong Kong. As Choi’s ex-husband awaits trial for the killing, Eric Wilson digs into his dark past for a possible motive …

MINISTRY OF TRAGIC

From vicious subtweets to transphobic spats, we unpack the escalating dispute between Harry Potter writer J. K. Rowling and Hermione actress Emma Watson …

FOOD FIGHT!

From Butterfield Market to Happier Grocery, Rigor Hill Market to the still-unopened Meadow Lane, gourmet groceries across Manhattan are jostling for the crown that once belonged to Dean & DeLuca …

BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

For Ruthie Rogers and Ed Ruscha, the juice is worth the squeeze … the making of Winnie-the-Pooh … Yves Saint Laurent’s life in photos … Ronan Day-Lewis directs Daniel Day-Lewis … David Duchovny reveals his favorite things … and another insane week in American health …

But First …
Issue No. 325

Announcing the Winners of the Tom Wolfe Literary Prizes The recipients of the inaugural awards are Vincenzo Latronico, for fiction, and Meghan Daum, for reportage

By Julia Vitale
Read On
Barry Blitt’s Sketchbook
School for Scandal

She Faked Her Way into Yale. Then Things Unraveled How fabricated transcripts, recommendation letters, and a personal statement about North Dakota fooled the Ivy into admitting a Chinese student from the Bay Area

By Clara Molot
Read On
Games

The Weekly Waffle

A positively addictive word game to go with your morning coffee
Disappearing Act

The 40-Year Con: Part III Once Spiro Pavlovich became Nicholas Rockefeller, he never dropped the charade, even in private. But beneath the “wonderful man,” as he was described by a Yale Law School classmate, lurked a dark, abusive Mr. Hyde

By Jonathan Alter
Photo illustration by Chop Choppish Shop
Read On
Air Supply

The Perfect Crush

The harvest is on in the Napa Valley. AIR SUPPLY’s guide to peak wine-tasting season includes Pinot Noir, Prada cashmere, and a handy Linhart teeth-whitening kit. Don’t forget the Advil
Shop
Photo: Everett Collection (Schneider in What’s New Pussycat?)
Guest Edit

Lily Atherton Hanbury and Katya Shyfrin’s Favorite Things The founders of Le Monde Béryl, an artful collection of comfortable shoes, have a taste for Rolex Submariners, Filson workwear, and Ginori espresso cups

Shop
The Right Stuff

France’s A-Team Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers reveal how they came to represent the victim in the rape trial that shocked the country

By Jeanne Malle
Read On
Notes on an Aesthetic

The Return of Refined Because old habits—smoking, day robes, handkerchiefs—die hard

By Jennifer Noyes
Read On
The Picture of Health

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

This week in American health: TrumpRx gets the green light; R.F.K. Jr.’s neo-Nazi problem; and the abortion wars rage on
Read On
The Shops Around the Corner

War of the Gourmet Grocers Fighting over everything from chicken salad to trad-wife protein powder, a spate of Manhattan prepared-food stores are vying to take the place of the mother ship, Dean & DeLuca

By Clara Molot
Read On
Anatomy of a Murder

Man on the Run Two years after the model Abby Choi was brutally dismembered, troubling new details have emerged about her ex-husband’s criminal past—and how he was able to evade arrest

By Eric Wilson
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CHOP CHOPPISH SHOP
Read On
Best
dine Papa San If Hudson Yards feels like a culinary desert, Papa San is an oasis. From owner Juan Correa and chef Erik Ramirez—both of New York’s… look Balloon Complementing Bruce Handy’s prolific career in magazine journalism—chief among them his stint at Spy—is his success… shop Matilda Goad It’s not like Londoners need another reason to while away the afternoon among the design shops of Pimlico Road, and yet here… wear Westley Richards The problem with safari clothing is that its usefulness is more or less limited to safari weather. So those of us looking to get our… sparkle Prada Whom better to trust with your amethyst, aquamarine, pink morganite, and oro-verde peridot than Miuccia Prada and… read Workhorse There are only two types of so-called horses in the magazine world. Debut novelist and Vogue veteran Caroline Palmer explains… dine Papa San If Hudson Yards feels like a culinary desert, Papa San is an oasis. From owner Juan Correa and chef Erik Ramirez—both of New York’s… look Balloon Complementing Bruce Handy’s prolific career in magazine journalism—chief among them his stint at Spy—is his success… shop Matilda Goad It’s not like Londoners need another reason to while away the afternoon among the design shops of Pimlico Road, and yet here… wear Westley Richards The problem with safari clothing is that its usefulness is more or less limited to safari weather. So those of us looking to get our… sparkle Prada Whom better to trust with your amethyst, aquamarine, pink morganite, and oro-verde peridot than Miuccia Prada and… read Workhorse There are only two types of so-called horses in the magazine world. Debut novelist and Vogue veteran Caroline Palmer explains…
Small Talk
T.G.I.S.

The Attention-Whore Index Prince Harry huffs, Pete Hegseth puffs, and Donald Trump glows up the White House

By George Kalogerakis
Read On
Modern Times

The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Warfare Inside the feud between Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling and her former protégé, Hermione actress Emma Watson

By Helen Rumbelow
Photo Illustration by Chop Choppish Shop
Read On
The Art of Food

Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeeze Me Ruthie Rogers, of London’s storied River Cafe, has teamed up with Pop artist Ed Ruscha for a book of simple recipes devoted entirely to the yellow citrus

By Emily Prescott
Read On
Books
Bruce Handy On

The Making of Winnie-the-Pooh: Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, and Other Beloved Characters

by James Campbell
Read On
Listen

God and Grifters at Yale On this week’s podcast, Clara Molot reveals how a high-school student created an entirely new identity and scammed her way into the Ivy League

Read On
Photography

All Eyes on Yves Richard Avedon, Paolo Roversi, Irving Penn … A new coffee-table book traces Yves Saint Laurent’s life and work through the lenses of the 20th century’s greatest photographers

8
Dresses from Yves Saint Laurent’s Autumn-Winter 1965 haute couture collection, a tribute to Piet Mondrian, photographed by Peter Knapp for Elle magazine’s September 1965 issue.
Saint Laurent, by Irving Penn, Paris, 1957.
Naomi Campbell in an evening dress from Saint Laurent’s Autumn-Winter 1987 haute couture collection, Paris, 1987.
Designs from Saint Laurent’s Autumn-Winter 1976 haute couture collection, a tribute to the Opéra-Ballets Russes, photographed by Guy Bourdin for Vogue Paris’s September 1976 issue.
Saint Laurent, by Pierre Bergé, Concarneau, France, 1967.
The model Violeta Sanchez in a dress from Saint Laurent’s Autumn-Winter 1982 haute couture collection, Paris, 1982.
The dancer Zizi Jeanmaire in a Saint Laurent–designed costume, by Jeanloup Sieff, Paris, 1972.
The model and actress Laetitia Casta in a wedding dress from Saint Laurent’s Spring-Summer 2000 haute couture collection, Paris, 2000.
Read On
Inside Story

If Gertrude Stein’s Art Could Talk A new biography pulls back the curtain on the famed Paris patron of everyone from Picasso to Matisse, Hemingway to Fitzgerald

By Francesca Wade
Read On
Highlight
The altarpiece at the convent of San Marco, in Florence, by Fra Angelico, 1438–42.

Higher Things

A spectacular exhibition of frescoes, paintings, drawings, and illuminated manuscripts has just opened in not one but two venues in Florence—Palazzo Strozzi and the Museo di San Marco. Gold, lapis lazuli, and virtuosity abound. The subject? Titled “Fra Angelico,” this is the biggest show in 70 years on the early-Renaissance master whom Giorgio Vasari, the world’s first art historian, called a “rare and perfect talent.” Lit just right, the gilded panels, many of them newly restored, speak movingly of higher things. READ ON

Read On
Small Talk
“I sure wish they hadn’t cut funding for paddles.”
“I sure wish they hadn’t cut funding for paddles.”
Close-up

Ronan Day-Lewis The 27-year-old painter directs his first feature film, Anemone, casting his father, Daniel Day-Lewis, in his first role since retiring in 2017

By Tobias Grey
Read On
The Perfect Ending

David Duchovny

The actor, novelist, and poet answers 40 of life’s most pressing questions
Read On
Danielle Kosann’s Sketchbook
Allons danser! My 2025 oil painting Paris Is a Feeling is just one of the works at “You Still Haven’t Met All of the People Who Are Going to Love You,” my exhibition at the Lobster Club, in New York City, running until October 9.
Is Edited By

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Technology

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OUR CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AND CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER ARE

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In Memoriam

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

Issue No. 325
October 4, 2025
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Issue No. 325
October 4, 2025
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