Sam Kashner
Exiled in Style
Picasso, Chaplin, Churchill, Woolf—they all came to Villa Mauresque, in Cap Ferrat, W. Somerset Maugham’s well-appointed refuge from England’s sodomy laws
Beauty Secrets of the Dead
Everybody who’s anybody—including fictional characters such as Succession’s Logan Roy—stops in at Frank E. Campbell’s eventually
Lighter than Air
Albert Lamorisse’s 1956 short, “The Red Balloon,” is high art for all ages
Life Imitates Bruce Wagner
The true oral history of a fake oral history—and an audiobook that would make Pirandello proud
Dreams in Progress
A new book celebrates Hollywood’s greatest behind-the-scenes photographer
Take a Seat!
Ann Getty’s storied tabletop collections are ripe for the bidding at Christie’s
Meditations on Crime
Listen and Read
The Flight of the “Concordski”
The espionage and secret history behind the Soviets’ attempt to build their own Concorde
The Spruce Deuce
Before Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, there was Howard Hughes and Jean Peters
Before January 6, There Was Seven Days in May
J.F.K. was haunted by the book that outlined how a right-wing coup could happen in America. The movie still rivets audiences
Oscar Season
Mad, sad, and legendarily bad, Oscar Levant was the showbiz answer to Oscar Wilde. After being forgotten for decades, is Hollywood’s greatest wit ready for his comeback?
Hall of Mirrors
Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley—now showing in glorious black and white—is a throwback to Hollywood’s golden era, and a film for our times
Hall of Mirrors
Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley—now showing in glorious black and white—is a throwback to Hollywood’s golden age, and a film for our times
His Last Picture Show
My Year with Peter Bogdanovich
A Word from the Wiseguys
Twenty-two years after The Sopranos premiered, a new oral history revisits the gritty mobster universe the show created
The View from Here
Beloved by Kurt Vonnegut, Groucho Marx, and Sidney Namlerep, S. J. Perelman re-invented American humor
At Christmas, You Tell the Truth
The romantic-comedy king Richard Curtis reveals never-before-heard details about the making of the holiday classic Love Actually
Swans Along Fifth Avenue
A new book feeds our continuing fascination with Truman Capote—and the society beauties he loved and hated
Rumbled in the Jungle
The 1974 championship bout between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali, in Zaire, forever changed the lives of both fighters—and the writers who covered it
Singer, Dancer, Marcher, Spy
Josephine Baker broke barriers onstage and off—from Jim Crow Miami to the royal court of Monaco
When the Little Tramp Returned to America
In 1972, 20 years after Charlie Chaplin was forced into exile, the man who helped invent Hollywood came to a garden party in Los Angeles. Everyone was there
Electrifying Guitar
How the 60s hit “Classical Gas” became the anthem of movies, television, and, most recently, The Queen’s Gambit
Groucho’s Dinner with T. S. Eliot
Comedy meets tragedy over roast beef in London
