The Air Mail Archive: Every weekly issue

Issue No. 254

May 25, 2024

The Graves of Academe

A devastating spate of cancer cases among recent alumni of Virginia’s Roanoke College has students asking whether it’s all a coincidence or something more

Pas de Problème

So much for liberté, égalité, fraternité! While university students around the world are protesting the war in Gaza, those in France have been conspicuously quiet

FALSE-FLAG OPERATION

Flags at the homes of Samuel Alito indicating support for the January 6 insurrectionists raise questions about the justice’s allegiances—and his marriage

Issue No. 253

May 18, 2024

WHERE THERE’S A WILL, THERE’S A RELATIVE

The riches of the late Italian playboy and senator Mario D’Urso were supposed to go to a gay lover—until an American claiming to be D’Urso’s daughter turned up

APOCALYPSE NOW OR NEVER

Francis Ford Coppola fears his $100 million opus Megalopolis may never reach theaters, as Hollywood bigwigs refuse to take a chance on filmmaking’s patron saint

WRITING ON THE HALLS

Twenty years ago, an underground documentary revealed an anti-Israel bias in Columbia’s Middle Eastern–studies department. Was it a warning sign for the current campus unrest?

Issue No. 252

May 11, 2024

A VERY BRITISH SCANDAL

How one man brought down the highest-profile members of the U.K. Establishment with explosive accusations of pedophilia

THE NEW COLLEGE TRY

Community pantries, gym showers, peer-support tents … a Columbia Journalism School student reports from inside the protests rocking the university

CLUB WARS

A landmark vote to admit women into London’s opulent, exclusive, and historically men-only Garrick Club sends its members—and the British media—into a tizzy

Issue No. 251

May 4, 2024

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

Issue No. 250

April 27, 2024

NIMBY FOR THE 1 PERCENT

A battle over Zero Bond, the controversial social club aiming to lease one of East Hampton’s historic inns, is the latest in a war between the rich and Über-rich on the eastern tip of Long Island

PICKET YOUR BATTLES

From the man who set himself on fire outside the Trump trial to the Extinction Rebellion art defacings, to college students railing against the war in Gaza, we’re living in a time of radical protest. Is it doing any good?

A SCOUNDREL IN THE COURT (NOT THAT ONE!)

Early hearings inside the Idaho-student-killings courtroom reveal a clash between a prosecution lacking a motive—and a murder weapon—and a defense struggling to find suitable jurors

Issue No. 249

April 20, 2024

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

Issue No. 248

April 13, 2024

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

Issue No. 247

April 6, 2024

BAD ODDS

Online betting has taken the sports world by storm, generating billions for state governments, professional leagues, and gambling companies. It’s also spawned a new generation of addicts

CHASING RAINBOWS

Gen Z–ers are identifying as bisexual en masse. Is this about their sexual proclivities, their political inclinations … or just the result of being raised on the Internet?

DÉJÀ GOOP

Goop has ended up on the wrong side of innumerable jokes, but many of its practices—from intermittent fasting to meditation—are now mainstream. Was Gwyneth Paltrow right all along?

Issue No. 246

March 30, 2024

COPY-CAT CRAZE

From dachshunds to ponies, Americans are lining up in droves to clone their beloved pets—and they’re willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for it, Holly Peterson reports

CHAMPAGNE SOCIALISM

Rich Cohen asks how a product of Brooklyn’s ritzy Saint Ann’s School and heir to one of the great American fortunes became a political radical intent on destroying the West

FRAUGHT OFF THE PRESSES

King Charles’s and Kate Middleton’s different handling of their cancer diagnoses suggests the royal family’s “never complain, never explain” mantra is dead

Issue No. 245

March 23, 2024

THE SCARLET LETTER

Inside the turmoil that rocked Artforum after its editor was fired over an open letter supporting Palestine and hundreds of staff and contributors quit in solidarity

LOST IN TRANSLATION

English words are permeating Continental European languages, from Italian to French to German, at an unprecedented rate. Franglais, anyone?

HOLY HASHTAGS

The missionaries of yore have nothing on today’s Christian social-media superstars, whose religion comes wrapped in Insta-friendly packaging

Issue No. 244

March 16, 2024

THE PROOF IS IN THE PUTIN

As Russia holds its elections, the question isn’t who’s going to win or by what margin, but why they’re even happening in the first place

RED FLAGS

The world has been so preoccupied with Formula One manager Christian Horner’s philandering that we’re failing to recognize the women caught in the sex scandal as victims

THE LYIN’ KING

Wherever there’s political unrest, Shaun King—Instagram star, dubious activist, alleged fraudster—lurks nearby. His latest arena? The Israel-Hamas war

Issue No. 243

March 9, 2024

TEMPEST IN A G-STRING

Donald Trump’s future could be determined by the Stormy Daniels trial, but the former porn star owes him $670,000 and is refusing to pay, reports Jeffrey Toobin

COURSE CORRECTION

A mix of social fragmentation and bad-guy de-sensitization is spelling the end of the cancellation era, for better or worse

WOLVES IN PREPPY CLOTHING

How a cryptic Instagram post led one journalist down a rabbit hole of coercion and secret sex parties at Abercrombie & Fitch

Issue No. 242

March 2, 2024

TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS

In Rich Cohen’s latest on the Jennifer Dulos murder, which rocked Connecticut, the alleged killer’s mistress is found guilty for her role in the crime

LAW AND ORDER

The U.N.’s special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, is under fire from pro-Palestinian groups who claim she favors Israel in the Hamas conflict. Johanna Berkman reports

A TASTE OF THE PAST

The power lunch may have been one of the coronavirus’s many victims, but at Michael’s in New York City, the aging boomer media cohort is clinging to the tradition for dear life, says Dana Brown

Issue No. 241

February 24, 2024

THE ERIN BROCKOVICH EFFECT

What started off as one woman’s research project to protect Miami’s reefs turned into a battle against corrupt forces destroying the city’s most prized feature: its waterfront

GREAT SCOTT!

The chaste, optimistic, and conciliatory Tim Scott represents the polar opposite of Donald Trump’s apocalyptic cynicism. How on earth did he become a potential Trump running mate?

NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND

Our woman in Moscow reports on the intrepid ways the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s supporters seek to keep his legacy alive

Issue No. 240

February 17, 2024

ODE TO THE REVOLUTIONARY

Alexei Navalny knew the dangers of returning to Russia. He did so anyway, and died as the martyr he may have predicted he would become, writes Alessandra Stanley

BLOOD SPORT

It took thousands of miles, gallons of gumption, and the grisly suicide of J. Paul Getty’s son to turn the idea of ESPN into a revolutionary, multi-billion-dollar reality, reports Bill Keenan

LAST SWAN STANDING

After skewering his closest friends, Truman Capote was exiled from the socialite circles he adored. Yet unlike his victims, the Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham remained unscathed

Issue No. 239

February 10, 2024

TIME’S UP

Time Inc., once the publisher of the recently collapsed Sports Illustrated, was a bastion of journalistic excellence—and unlimited-expense-account excess. Why did it all turn so ugly?

SONGS FOR THE MOTHERLAND

The Kremlin has promised a competition to rival the Eurovision Song Contest in yet another attempt by Putin to turn one of Russia’s industries into a propaganda pawn

NEWS FLASH

The Messenger’s staff knew the eight-month-old, multi-million-dollar news site’s owner was arrogant and its business model shoddy at best, but even they couldn’t have predicted its sudden, violent downfall

Issue No. 238

February 3, 2024

TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS

The gruesome murder of Jennifer Dulos, and the subsequent suicide of her accused husband, Fotis, rocked Connecticut. Now Fotis’s mistress is on trial—and might be the last hope for solving the crime

AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES

Dmitry Rybolovlev, a Russian oligarch and one of the world’s richest men, accused Sotheby’s of helping to bilk him out of $380 million for the Salvator Mundi. Phoebe Eaton takes stock of his spectacular loss

SWAN DIVE

With Answered Prayers, Truman Capote thought he had written the Great American Novel. But its first installment, a skewering of his glamorous friends published in Esquire, put him on the fast track to social suicide, writes Sam Kashner

Issue No. 237

January 27, 2024

BIBI’S GUN

Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife bursts into secret government meetings, abuses her staff, and is involved in choosing Israel’s senior military chiefs. Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv ask: Is she a controlling diva or a wily political animal?

BONES OF CONTENTION

Yale’s most powerful secret society, which counts George W. Bush and Stephen Schwarzman as onetime members, is becoming less rich and less white—to the frustration of some of its rich, white alumni, reports William D. Cohan

LEGAL TENDER

Once idiosyncratic law firms such as Paul, Weiss have become soul-less, multi-national profit machines, writes Jeffrey Toobin, with partners cycling through firms faster than players through the George Steinbrenner–era Yankees

Issue No. 236

January 20, 2024

BAD SPORTS

The Ivy League has been willing to take strong stands on the issues of the day. But when Jewish athletes asked the schools to condemn anti-Semitism, they were met with silence, reports Johanna Berkman

CAPITAL CRIMES

Why did Netanyahu disband Israel’s elite anti-terror-financing task force when it knew Hamas was being sent hundreds of millions of dollars with which to build tunnels and buy rockets? Jennifer Gould follows the money

POST MORTEM

John Arlidge reveals how a TV drama forced politicians to focus on the Post Office scandal rocking Britain, in which hundreds of innocent people were accused of crimes they didn’t commit

Issue No. 235

January 13, 2024

FAME AND MISFORTUNE

When Ronald Reagan’s shooter revealed he’d attempted the assassination in order to impress Jodie Foster, the actress’s world descended into madness. Nancy Jo Sales talks with Foster about her fight for a normal life

MINORITY REPORT

Aggressive anti-Israel rhetoric among the Black community is prompting a number of Jews to respond in kind. David Christopher Kaufman cuts to the core of the simmering Black-Jewish hostility

SPANISH INQUISITION

A tell-all from an alleged ex has driven Queen Letizia of Spain and King Felipe VI’s William-and-Kate-esque marriage to the brink of tabloid hysteria, reports Joseph Bullmore

Issue No. 234

January 6, 2024

BARKING MAD

The only thing more difficult for agents to manage than celebrity pets—yes, somehow petfluencers are a thing now—is their drama-queen owners

SEXIST BEAST

Vladimir Putin is a misogynist at heart, but when it comes to punishing the women who defy him, he’s perfectly willing to give them the same treatment as male dissidents such as Alexei Navalny

THE GALLIC WARS

#MeToo has finally come for Gérard Depardieu, and ramped up France’s generational divide, with even President Emmanuel Macron taking sides

Issue No. 233

December 30, 2023

GRAFFITI WARS

Despite being directed by George Lucas and starring Harrison Ford, American Graffiti was almost killed by Universal Studios. Instead, it turned into a smash hit and paved the way for Star Wars

THE BEST OF THE WORST

It’s been a year of men, and women, behaving badly. But who was the vilest? From Elon Musk and Marjorie Taylor Greene to Donald Trump and Prince Harry, we hand out the Attention Whore of the Year Awards

STAR POWER

Little is known about the Michelin Guide, besides the fact that it deals in stars. Adam Hay-Nicholls uncovers its nebulous criteria—and reveals its plans to branch out into hotels

Issue No. 232

December 23, 2023

HELLO, GOODBYE

When Robert Altman re-invented the noir detective movie with The Long Goodbye, he needed a leading man who could capture the 70s Zeitgeist—and found him in a floundering Elliot Gould

FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT

The world’s greatest art forger has been imprisoned twice. Now he’s going straight, selling his own work for tens of thousands of dollars, and offering wealthy patrons backups to their collections

BURNING MAN

How Serge Bromberg, the “Indiana Jones of lost film,” known for his obsessive restoration of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s masterpiece Inferno, ended up behind bars

Issue No. 231

December 16, 2023

SHOOTING THE MOON

While riding high off his Purple Rain superstardom, Prince decided to swap his guitar for a director’s chair. The result, Under the Cherry Moon, was panned by the press, perhaps unfairly

NO JOKE

Jews have often turned to comedy in the face of persecution. But the Israel-Hamas war is beyond any realm of humor, says a former Saturday Night Live writer

LARVAL TRUMP

Charles Leerhsen was Donald Trump’s ghostwriter in the 1980s. He dishes on the frustrating, unyielding, and surprisingly pitiable man he used to work for

Issue No. 230

December 9, 2023

AN IVY LEAGUE OF ITS OWN

Harvard’s administration is teetering as anti-Semitic attacks, pro-Palestinian die-ins, and accusations of hate speech rock the campus. Johanna Berkman reports from Cambridge

RUSSIAN HOARDS

Andrew Ryvkin reveals that the greatest heist of the 21st century is taking place right now, as Russia plunders Ukraine’s museums, galleries, and historical sites of their gold and relics

DEATH IN VENICE

In Italy, the murder of a female student has resulted in protests up and down the country. Elena Clavarino asks: Will a rising generation be able to stop violence against women?

Issue No. 229

December 2, 2023

BATTLE OF THE SEXES

In the weeks before Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped hundreds more, Israel’s largely female border guards sounded the alarm—and were ignored by their all-male commanders

A DUPLEX LIFE

Alice Mason, who just turned 100, was not only a New York social force; she was the real-estate agent for everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Jimmy Carter. She was also hiding a major secret

PRESENT PERFECT

Our Holiday Gift Guide for Women is here! Shopping for the discerning woman who has everything? Ina Garten, Kaitlin Phillips, and Lauren Hutton are here to help

Issue No. 228

November 25, 2023

PLANNED PARENTHOOD

Jensen Davis investigates the brutal, cultish parenting program that teaches evangelical Christians how to beat their children into submission

SOCKS AWAY!

Our Holiday Gift Guide for Men is here! Inspiring, carefully curated, and just glorious ideas for the menfolk in your life

THE GODFATHER OF FILMMAKING