Received my subscription copy today, 136 pgs for the UK print version, no supplement this month.
The cover isn't any more exciting in real life. It's like Alicia Vikander - these are people who have found great success in their actual careers, but they don't inspire much when they're photographed in a fashion context, because modelling is not their primary function in life, it's just a secondary opportunity (or part of promoting your work).
There's a gatefold Chanel Metiers d'art advert inside the cover, and further inside the issue, a gatefold ad with Elle Fanning for Cartier. Bella Ramsey is the Vanities person. There's a short piece by Molly Jong-Fast (Erica's daughter).
The longer articles look at oligarchs exploiting Portugal's immigration policy, "can Biden handle four more years?", William F Buckley Jr's campaign to make universities prmote right-wing thought, then there's the Awards Insider section, with opens with the image of Aubrey Plaza that we've seen in the separate Insider thread. She's interviewed as part of this section.
There's also an article about how the series Lost went to sh*t, excerpted from a new book by Maureen Ryan, followed by an Emmy portfolio, shot by Dan Jackson, featuring Elizabeth Olsen, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Claire Danes, Riley Keough, J Smith Cameron, Niecy Nash-Betts, Lizzy Caplan, Sharon Horgan, Dominique Fishback and Ali Wong. There's a piece on the current state of the TV industry, followed by an article hiding at the back of the issue about the 1980s sci-fi series V, which I loved watching at the time, so I can't wait to read this bit. Dominique Dunn, the daughter of long-time VF contributor Dominick Dunne, had just started working on the show when she was murdered, which spurred her father's career writing about justice. The back page Proust Questionnaire is Sir Elton John.