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May 23, 2026
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No. 358
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In This Week’s Issue
THE ART OF MURDER

Since the New York gallerist Brent Sikkema was stabbed to death in Rio, his estranged husband has become the central figure in a lurid murder-for-hire trial—which just reached a verdict …

REALITY BYTES

As Hollywood embraces A.I., a new generation of synthetic starlets —obedient, ageless, endlessly available—is reviving an ancient fantasy, and creating a modern nightmare for real women …

MONEYBALLS

The founder of Beau D., a cheeky Malibu male-skin-care line known for its penis cream, is suing Brad Pitt’s luxury cosmetics behemoth, Beau Domaine, for trademark infringement …

A-POCALYPSE NOW

The Harvard faculty’s vote to limit the number of A grades given out to undergraduates has sent students into a panic, with many of them acting as if the end is nigh …

THE LOWNIE RANGER

How Andrew Lownie’s relentless reporting on the former Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, turned him into one of the monarchy’s most feared chroniclers …

SMELLS LIKE TEEN DISPIRIT

Nancy Jo Sales asks what happens to cities when teenagers stop loitering, flirting, and contributing to the culture—and stay inside scrolling on their phones instead …

BROTH OF FRESH AIR

Adam Rapoport discovers the dark magic of really good broth—bones and scraps transformed into liquid gold—with the help of chefs Marco Canora, Simon Kim, and Flynn McGarry …

BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

The unseen Fire Island … a Georgia ranch turned improbably luxurious retreat, courtesy of Italian aristocrats … how to travel stylishly and comfortably, according to our resident shopping expert … Don Johnson’s favorite things … this month’s best mystery books … and our Father’s Day shopping guide …

But First …
Issue No. 358

The View from Here The proliferation of A.I. fembots is only the latest iteration in a centuries-old quest to create the “perfect” woman

By Olivia Rutigliano
Read On
Barry Blitt’s Sketchbook
grade expectations

End Times at Harvard Yard Harvard’s decision to cap A grades has sent students spiraling. Now the over-anxious undergraduates must confront the unthinkable: an occasional B-plus

By Sage Lattman
Photo illustration by Chop Choppish Shop
Read On
Games

The Weekly Waffle

A positively addictive word game to go with your morning coffee
Small Talk
“I garden strictly for sport.”
“I garden strictly for sport.”
still life

Murder in Rio The art world is reeling over a murder-for-hire trial accusing famed New York gallerist Brent Sikkema’s husband of his killing, over an alimony dispute involving sex, drugs, and parties

By Stuart Heritage
Read On
foreskin in the game

Sword Fight! Beau D., a small Malibu men’s beauty brand whose main product is, yes, a penis cream, is taking on Brad Pitt’s skin-care line, Beau Domaine, over a trademark violation

By Carolina de Armas
Photo illustration by Chop Choppish Shop
Read On
Air Supply

For Father’s Sake

A collection for fathers and father figures with hobbies, opinions, highly specific preferences, and at least one recommendation they’ll remember all year
Shop
Photo: Patrice Habans/Paris Match/Getty Images (Belmondo)
Guest Edit

Don Johnson’s Favorite Things The actor, producer, early force behind Augustinus Bader, and father of five shares an edit shaped by good tailoring, excellent tea, old guitars, handwritten notes, and the kind of stories that improve with age

Shop
Royal Follies

The Duke Hunter Andrew Lownie’s biography of the Yorks helped bring down the former Prince Andrew. With new allegations in the forthcoming U.S. paperback, the scourge of the royals is still in hot pursuit

By Charlie Baker
Read On
Notes on an Aesthetic

The Layover Look The secret to looking good at the airport isn’t suffering beautifully. It’s wearing clothes that quietly do their jobs so that you don’t lose your mind

By Jennifer Noyes
Read On
Modern Times

Where Have All the Teenagers Gone? New York’s streets and parks used to be teeming with them. Now they’re inside on their phones—and the city’s culture is all the worse for it

By Nancy Jo Sales
Read On
Best
read A Very Unusual Way At the Tonys in 1982, the grandmaster Stephen Sondheim’s original score for Merrily We Roll Along lost the statuette to Nine… watch Wanda Wanda is Barbara Loden’s first and final film—and the very first ever directed, written by, and starring a woman. The 1970 drama… read Trudeau & Doonesbury There are comic strips, and then there is Doonesbury, the outstanding chronicle by Garry Trudeau… shop Uniqlo x Cecilie Bahnsen In a collaboration with Uniqlo, Cecilie Bahnsen’s signature puff sleeves, romantic silhouettes, and storybook… sparkle Mellerio What do Marie Antoinette and Carlos Alcaraz have in common? They share the same jeweler. Well, kind of. Founded in 1613 in Paris’s… carry YKRA Discovering YKRA recently has given me a hit of joy similar to when I first came across Fjällräven in high school, before they had… read A Very Unusual Way At the Tonys in 1982, the grandmaster Stephen Sondheim’s original score for Merrily We Roll Along lost the statuette to Nine… watch Wanda Wanda is Barbara Loden’s first and final film—and the very first ever directed, written by, and starring a woman. The 1970 drama… read Trudeau & Doonesbury There are comic strips, and then there is Doonesbury, the outstanding chronicle by Garry Trudeau… shop Uniqlo x Cecilie Bahnsen In a collaboration with Uniqlo, Cecilie Bahnsen’s signature puff sleeves, romantic silhouettes, and storybook… sparkle Mellerio What do Marie Antoinette and Carlos Alcaraz have in common? They share the same jeweler. Well, kind of. Founded in 1613 in Paris’s… carry YKRA Discovering YKRA recently has given me a hit of joy similar to when I first came across Fjällräven in high school, before they had…
Food

The Great Broth Revival Flavor in a cup—from Brodo, to Bar Chimera’s beef iteration, to Cove’s seasonal-vegetable elixir—is back, and you can make a really good one at home

By Adam Rapoport
Read On
Open Book

Fire Island Time A new coffee-table book looks beyond the island’s reputation as a queer summer utopia, revealing it, for the first time, as a creative hub that influenced artists from Richard Avedon to Wolfgang Tillmans

11
The Bar in Duffy’s Hotel, photographed by Paul Himmel in the late 1940s.
Fire Island, by Wolfgang Tillmans, 2015.
Top, Henry Geldzahler and David Hockney, by Arthur Lambert, 1970s; above, Ilan’s Pool (Ladder), by Stephen Truax, 2023.
Untitled photograph, by George Daniell, circa 1940s.
Jodie in My Kitchen, by Wolfgang Tillmans, 2023.
George Platt Lynes on Fire Island, by PaJaMa, circa 1940s.
Two Men on a Beach, by Mark Beard, date unknown.
Dick and Doe Avedon, by Lillian Bassman, late 1940s.
Big Boat in Harbor, by John Laub, 1992.
Chuck Howard, Fire Island, by PaJaMa, circa 1954.
Homesickness, by Jared French, 1942.
Read On
Books

Murder, They Wrote This month in mysteries: James Comey’s new espionage thriller and the latest installment in Anthony Horowitz’s meta-mystery series

By Lisa Henricksson
Read On
Highlight
A look inside Verner Panton’s Fantasy Landscape, debuted at the 1970 Cologne Furniture Fair.

Requiem for a Dreamscape

Beginning with the Beat Generation, slowly and gently, like pot smoke seeping from a college dorm room, America’s counterculture of the 1950s and 1960s insinuated itself in unlikely places with unexpected results. In Denmark, the architect Verner Panton, a scion of Bauhaus rationalism and Scandinavian good taste, picked up the scent. He went on to design mind-bending interiors and a singular chair that is erotic in its sensuality. READ ON

Read On
View With a Room

The Viscontis of Georgia Fleeing the Years of Lead in the 1970s, a branch of the Italian aristocracy traded Milan for rural Georgia—where their family estate has since become one of the South’s most singular hotels

By Jennifer Noyes
Read On
Around the World in Culture
In Edinburgh
To mark her 100th birthday, Queen Elizabeth II’s private apartments at a Scottish royal palace are open to the public for the first time… In Los Angeles
Spanning seven decades, a museum exhibition explores the radical intersection of Yoko Ono’s music, art, and activism… In theaters
Dustin Hoffman and Leo Woodall co-star in a new film about a piano tuner whose meticulous ear leads him somewhere he never expected… In New York
After two sold-out residencies last year, Tony Danza is bringing his Frank Sinatra-themed cabaret show back to the Café Carlyle… In London
A large-scale European show on the American painter James McNeill Whistler, the biggest in 30 years, arrives at Tate Britain… On Netflix
Led by Rosamund Pike and Sacha Baron Cohen, a new comedy follows an arrogant playboy who wakes up in a world dominated by women…
Small Talk
“Hey, aren’t you going to wipe it down?”
“Hey, aren’t you going to wipe it down?”
Eric Hanson’s Sketchbook
The thrill of the open road. Happy Memorial Day weekend!
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In Memoriam

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

Issue No. 358
May 23, 2026
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Issue No. 358
May 23, 2026
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