Breakfast. Seriously. Photograph by PatrickMcMullan.com.Miami was up early on Thursday, as people poured in for the annual breakfast hosted by the art collectors Don and Mera Rubell and their daughter Jennifer. “Jennifer loves doing a high-concept meal,” said Domino magazine’s Tom Delavan, referring to the mound of bananas and tables piled with cereal boxes. Also gathered for the “30 Americans” opening was photographer Ryan McGinley and designers Jil Sander and Duro Olowu.
After a day of pounding the streets in the name of art, people converged again at the Miami Art Museum, for a party to celebrate the art issue of Interview magazine. An enormous Jeff Koons rabbit balloon (last seen at the 2007 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade) was suspended above the vast plaza. “It’ll have to go in a box after this,” said the museum’s director, Terry Riley. “It’s losing its shine.” Also among the crowd that gathered for cocktails and dumplings were Milk Gallery’s new director, Jen Wirtz, and Museum 52’s Chris Taylor.
This week the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that America is officially in a recession, which is a little like being told your dog died after watching it get hit by a truck. The V.F. 100 felt the pain.
↓ H. Lee Scott’s (No. 19) Wal-Mart [WMT] proves itself to be the lone surviving cockroach in the economy’s nuclear war. The retailer reported a 3.4 percent increase in its same-store November sales, beating its own forecast by 1 to 2 percent. In a mad rush to secure the bargains that are driving up sales, frenzied Wal-Mart shoppers trampled a temporary worker on Black Friday.
↓ Robert Iger (No. 35) fends off overtures by Paris Hilton, whose latest infantilizing desire is to play Tinkerbell in a live action Disney [DIS] movie. As you may recall, (woefully, no doubt) Tinkerbell is also the namesake of her accessory Chihuahua.
↑ Anna Wintour (No. 64) brushes off pesky rumors of her imminent retirement, telling The New York Observer she has “no plans to leave” Vogue.
I arranged my day around the sentencing of O.J. Simpson in Las Vegas. Over the 13 years I was involved with him, he never ceased to fascinate me. Actually, I felt nervous when I flew out to Las Vegas about how we would react to each other.
I am usually the first person in court in the morning at all the trials I’ve covered. I read The New York Times until the people started to drift in 20 minutes later. What I discovered during the recent trial is that O.J. is an early bird too. We were the only two there. He finally said, “Mr. Dunne.” I replied, “Mr. Simpson.” We did not shake hands. I asked him about his two sisters, Shirley and Carmelita. He was astonished that I remembered their names. When my son Griffin Dunne came with me to court one day, I heard O.J. say to his sister, “I never knew Griffin Dunne was Dominick’s son.”
We never discussed the case. He wanted to tell me about his children. His daughter is graduating from Boston University this year and has been on the honor roll in her class. I must admit I was touched, as I’m always touched by father/daughter stories. As much as I feared the wrath of Fred Goldman, I felt I was beginning to like the guy. Worse, I remembered the awful photographs of the nearly severed head of Nicole Brown-Simpson while his daughter and son were sleeping upstairs.
For me, the harshness of the sentence for a relatively unimportant crime doesn’t matter. If it is an atonement for the murders he got away with 13 years ago, I think he deserves his punishment.
Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao at a press conference in Los Angeles on October 7. Photograph by Chris Farina. For the moment, Oscar De La Hoya is the best-known boxer in the world who is not named Muhammad Ali. The Golden Boy’s star rose with no shortage of devastating blows endured. As Ali showed us with his opponents inside the ring and his inability to step out of it in time, boxing may be fought with muscles, but it is won through the psyche. Tomorrow night, we will see if De La Hoya’s desire to regain respect in the game he loves can match Manny Pacquiao’s drive to defeat his former hero and uplift the hopes of his native Philippines—if even just for a day. Of these two good men, I am having trouble deciding whom I prefer to see temporarily rendered unconscious.
What a difference a couple of weeks make. Remember last month, the three auto company heads flew to Washington in private jets looking for the bailout? Well this time, the three CEO’s drove in their own hybrid cars. 520 miles. You know what I think the government should have done here? Make it like the Amazing Race: drop these guys off, no money, no transportation. Give them some tools - they have to build a car. The first one to Washington gets the bailout!
A day after Coldplay was nominated for seven Grammys, Joe Satriani sued the band for plagiarism. Claiming the song “Viva la Vida” is composed of “substantial original portions” of his 2004 song, “If I could Fly.” (What is this, D. Bowie vs. R. Van Winkle redux?) I’m not sure what’s worse: Joe Satriani listening to Coldplay or Chris Martin listening to Joe Satriani. Why dont they just team up? Check out the clip below and judge for yourself.
Raise your hand if you don’t know someone who has been laid off in the past three months.
Hell, raise your hand if you don’t know someone who has been laid off in the past week.
The jobless numbers that just came out (533,000 jobs lost in November alone) are being described as “almost indescribably terrible” by Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics.
True, as David Leonhardt points out in his Economix blog, the vast majority of Americans are still employed. But for how long?
It’s clear that the federal government is paralyzed until January. What I want to know now is where are all the hedge-fund guys? Where are all the C.E.O.’s? Where are the people who pocketed tens or hundreds of millions of dollars during the boom?
When will Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman stop promoting Australia?
Julian Schnabel, who has been in Miami the last few days, was back in New York last night, and attended a Moving Image event featuring Dennis Hopper. Marquee played host to a Nascar Sprint Cup Series party, and a hodgepodge of guests showed up, including DJ AM and Samantha Ronson. Ronson was expected to attend the Tommy Guns and Svedka Vodka event on the Lower East Side, but word is that she didn’t show up. Sam, where is the r-e-s-p-e-c-t? Oh, it was down on Wall Street, where Aretha Franklin tried to brighten the mood at the 85th annual New York Stock Exchange tree lightening. Gavin DeGraw also took to the mic down on Wall Street (and was later made his way to Marquee). Blasts from the past Corey Feldman, Ally Sheedy, and Tatum O’Neal checked out the Winter Wonderland for the Animals benefit at the Art Directors Club, while new kids on the block Chase Crawford and Taylor Momsen (looking more “uptown” than she did at Wednesday night’s biker party downtown) attended the Brooks Brothers holiday benefit for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
Sign up to receive the latest tips from Vanity Fair delivered to your inbox.
Lady in Waiting
In her Steven Meisel shoot for the December issue, Kate Winslet invoked Catherine Deneuve. See all her V.F. appearances here.
Vanity Fair’s Year in Photos, Part One
Capturing—and often defining—the Zeitgeist, Vanity Fair’s photographers this year shot everyone from Miley Cyrus to Tina Fey, to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Take a look back with our early retrospective.
Breakfast. Seriously. Photograph by PatrickMcMullan.com.Miami was up early on Thursday, as people poured in for the annual breakfast hosted by the art collectors Don and Mera Rubell and their daughter Jennifer. “Jennifer loves doing a high-concept meal,” said Domino magazine’s Tom Delavan, referring to the mound of bananas and tables piled with cereal boxes. Also gathered for the “30 Americans” opening was photographer Ryan McGinley and designers Jil Sander and Duro Olowu.
