Source | Vanity Fair
Table of Contents January 2009
Features
66 WHAT TINA WANTS
Her Saturday Night Live Sarah Palin impression made Tina Fey a household name, snared her a $5 million book deal, and juiced the ratings for her funny, clever sitcom, 30 Rock. Backstage for the Palin face-off, and at home with Fey and family, Maureen Dowd profiles the queen of comedy. Photographs by Annie Leibovitz. Web special: Video from the photo shoot.
74 PROFILES IN PANIC
How are all those high-rolling Wall Streeters and their pampered wives holding up as the pink slips multiply and portfolios evaporate? From the returns counters at high-end stores to the reservation desks on St. Barth’s, Michael Shnayerson surveys the financial and social wreckage of a gilded age.
80 ELOISE SHEDS A TEAR
Buyers of the Plaza Hotel’s new condominiums paid top dollar for a piece of its Old New York magic—but some got a rude surprise once they moved in. With several lawsuits targeting the developer, Evgenia Peretz investigates the gap between Plaza history and Plaza hype. Photographs by Todd Eberle.
86 THE DEVIL AT 37,000 FEET
In 2006, a business jet and a Boeing 737 collided high above the Amazon—killing 154 people—in one of the most improbable aviation disasters in history. Delving into the cockpit recordings, William Langewiesche finds the blame lies as much in state-of-the-art technology as in human error.
92 THE THINGS YVES LOVED
Yves Saint Laurent’s Paris duplex was overflowing with the trophies of a four-decade hunt for inspiration. In February, those treasures will be auctioned off by the late designer’s partner, Pierre Bergé. Previewing an art-world event, Amy Fine Collins hears from Bergé and other experts about the passion behind this private collection. Photographs by Pascal Chevallier.
100 THE MAN IN THE ROCKEFELLER SUIT
“Clark Rockefeller” posed first as an English aristocrat and then as a Hollywood producer before his decade-plus performance as a scion of the illustrious dynasty. While the master con artist awaits trial for custodial kidnapping, and has so far refused to be questioned in a missing-persons case, Mark Seal discovers how one role—loving dad—brought him down.
106 PLATINUM BLONDE
Frederike Helwig and Ned Zeman spotlight Taylor Swift, the Tennessee teenager who is putting pop-country first.
108 MR. AND MRS. RIGHT
With the recent deaths of National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr. and his wife, Patricia, conservatism lost a lot of its brainpower, and much of its glamour. Interviewing the Buckleys’ inner circle—including their apostate son, Christopher—Bob Colacello recaps a grand old romance.
FANFAIR
37 31 DAYS IN THE LIFE OF THE CULTURE
Miami’s iconic Fontainebleau Hotel gets a makeover
40 The Cultural Divide
42 Night-Table Reading; Lisa Robinson’s Hot Tracks
43 My Stuff: J. Robshaw; Leslie Bennetts on Frank Langella
Columns
48 CAPITALIST FOOLS
The financial system spiraled out of control because a succession of administrations refused to control it, writes Nobel-laureate economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, who identifies the five most important mistakes Washington made.
52 THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS
A. A. Gill takes the Sex and the City bus tour, a soul-destroying slog through bakeries, sex shops, and boutiques that proves one thing: Carrie doesn’t live here anymore.
54 MOTHER JUSTICE
After her son was convicted of a made-for-the-tabloids murder, Brooklyn housewife Doreen Giuliano went undercover, stopping at nothing to prove his innocence. Christopher Ketcham reveals how her sting may have succeeded. Photographs by Harry Benson.
VANITIES
63 GREAT HALL
64 Dick Cheney pitches a memoir; Bruce Feirstein eavesdrops on the Twitter conversations of the rich and powerful
Et Cetera
30 EDITOR’S LETTER
32 CONTRIBUTORS
34 LETTERS
Mrs. Kennedy and the Mona Lisa
45 FAIRGROUND
146 CREDITS
148 PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE
Roger Moore