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Vanities

20 / Trending Irreverent

preppy summer style

22 / The Gallery Vacation-

ready bags inspired by a bohemian polestar

24 / Opening Act Gen Z

role model and star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

26 / Beauty Eye shadow for

slipping into party mode

27 / Field Trip Gossip Girl’s

28 / Books A cavalcade

of new novels are getting the TV treatment Columns

For the Love of Real Housewives BY CASEY WILSON ILLUSTRATION BY TIM M c DONAGH

A Housewives superfan’s ode to the franchise you either love or hate.

19 Features

BY JOSHUA HUNT

BY JOYCE MAYNARD

BY YOHANA DESTA PHOTOGRAPHS BY ADRIENNE RAQUEL

BY ABIGAIL TRACY ILLUSTRATIONS BY ZOHAR LAZAR

The acclaimed novelist on Allen v. Farrow and her relationship with J.D. Salinger.

Cover star Issa Rae struck comedy gold with Insecure. Now the mega-talent has her pick of projects.

Rae of Light

Shame the Devil

STOLEN TREASURE

€ 2 Million

Estimated worth of Olympia, René Magritte’s intimate painting of his wife swiped from a Belgian museum. [P. 42]

VA N I T Y FA I R

On the Cover

The Missing Magritte The theft of a painting by René Magritte in Belgium points to a web of underworld deals— and perhaps something far more tragic.

White Flight

On January 6, eight wealthy Memphians flew private to attend the infamous “Stop the Steal” rally. V.F. gets inside a Trump enclave.

Issa Rae wears clothing and a belt by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello; earrings by Tiffany & Co. Elsa Peretti. Hair products by Sienna Naturals. Makeup products by Dior. Nail enamel by Chanel Le Vernis. Hair by Felicia Leatherwood. Makeup by Joanna Simkin. Manicure by Eri Ishizu. Tailor, Hasmik Kourinian. Produced on location by Lola Production. Styled by Shiona Turini. Photographed exclusively for V.F. by Adrienne Raquel in Beverly Hills. For details, go to VF.com/credits.

PHOTOGRAPH BY T I E R N E Y

GEARON

M A I T R E Y I R A M A K R I S H N A N ’ S C LO T H I N G A N D J E W E L R Y B Y D I O R . O P P O S I T E : N I C O L A C O U G H L A N ’ S T O P B Y G U C C I ; E A R R I N G S B Y S I M O N E R O C H A . F O R D E TA I L S , G O T O V F. C O M / C R E D I T S .

longtime costume designer on the show’s expansive wardrobe

Contents / Issue No. 729

AWARDS INSIDER!

A special section devoted to TV’s most sparkling stars and inspired creators Behind the Scenes

62 / Dawn of the Ted!

Kindness takes center stage in Ted Lasso 68 / Past Present

Costuming our new favorite period dramas 72 / Changing Their Tunes

This season’s television that didn’t miss a beat 78 / Flight of Fancy

On location with The Flight Attendant 80 / Hue and Cry

The transcendent power of hair in I May Destroy You 82 /Wrap Party

Fourteen beloved shows say their final farewells Features

Scene Stealers PHOTO PORTFOLIO

From Hollywood veterans Gillian Anderson and Hugh Grant to younger talent like Jurnee Smollett and Nicola Coughlan, these nine stars delighted us on the small screen this season.

118

124

BY RICHARD LAWSON

AN ORAL HISTORY BY LEAH FAYE COOPER

Home Truths

Binge Without Borders BY JOY PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALEX MAJOLI

Thanks to the streaming boom, international shows we might’ve otherwise missed are having their day in the sun.

Like many of us, V.F.’s chief critic is obsessed with home reno shows. But there’s a troubling side to the trend.

A Different World

The story of one of the most influential sitcoms of all time, told by those who made it.

106 Stay Tuned BY JOE POMPEO ILLUSTRATION BY LINCOLN AGNEW

For the past four years, the Trump sideshow kept Americans glued to their screens. What’s good for the country might spell trouble for cable news.

112

Kathryn Hahn All Along BY AMY WALLACE PHOTOGRAPHS BY LEEOR WILD

A look back at the beloved actor’s joyous—and booming—career.

“When everybody sets the same intention, those are the times I’m the most satisfied as a performer. You can just be.” — KATHRYN HAHN

PHOTOGRAPH BY T O M

14 16 136

Contributors Editor’s Letter Proust Questionnaire

[P. 112]

CRAIG

JUNE 2021

® Editor in Chief Radhika Jones Creative Director Kira Pollack Deputy Editor Daniel Kile Executive Digital Director Michael Hogan Director of Editorial Operations Caryn Prime Executive Editors Claire Howorth, Matthew Lynch Executive Editor, The Hive Miriam Elder Executive Hollywood Editor Jeff Giles Director of Special Projects Sara Marks Executive Entertainment Director Alison Ward Frank Managing Editor, VF.com Kelly Butler Deputy Editor, VF.com Katey Rich Editor, Creative Development David Friend Senior West Coast Editor Britt Hennemuth Senior Editors, The Hive Michael Calderone, Claire Landsbaum Senior Hollywood Editor Hillary Busis Senior Editor Keziah Weir Entertainment Editor Caitlin Brody Senior Media Correspondent Joe Pompeo National Correspondent Emily Jane Fox Politics Correspondent Bess Levin National Political Reporter Abigail Tracy Chief Critic Richard Lawson Senior Feature Writer Julie Miller TV Correspondent Joy Press Senior Staff Writer Joanna Robinson TV Critic Sonia Saraiya Staff Writers Dan Adler, Kenzie Bryant, Cassie da Costa, Yohana Desta, Charlotte Klein, Chris Murphy, Erin Vanderhoof Staff Reporter Caleb Ecarma Special Correspondents Nick Bilton, Anthony Breznican, Bryan Burrough, William D. Cohan, Joe Hagan, Maureen Orth, Jessica Pressler, Mark Seal, Gabriel Sherman Writers-at-Large Marie Brenner, T.A. Frank, James Reginato Associate Producers Jaime Archer, Maham Hasan Assistant to the Editor in Chief Daniela Tijerina Editorial Assistants Arimeta Diop, Kayla Holliday, Savannah Walsh Special Projects Manager Ari Bergen Special Projects Associate Charlene Oliver Editorial Finance Manager Geoff Collins

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Contributors Contributing Art Director Emily Crawford Production Director Kerrie Keegan Associate Editor S.P. Nix Associate Visuals Producer Michael Kramer Fashion Assistants Samantha Gasmer, Jessica Neises Architecture Consultant Basil Walter Summit Contributing Producer Graham Veysey Special Projects Art Director Angela Panichi Contributing Photographers Annie Leibovitz Jonathan Becker, Larry Fink, Collier Schorr, Mark Seliger Contributing Editors Kurt Andersen, Lili Anolik, Jorge Arévalo, Peter Biskind, Buzz Bissinger, Derek Blasberg, Christopher Bollen, Douglas Brinkley, Michael Callahan, Adam Ciralsky, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Sloane Crosley, Katherine Eban, Lisa Eisner, Bruce Feirstein, Ariel Foxman, Alex French, Paul Goldberger, Vanessa Grigoriadis, Michael Joseph Gross, Bruce Handy, Carol Blue Hitchens, A.M. Homes, Uzodinma Iweala, May Jeong, Sebastian Junger, Sam Kashner, Jemima Khan, Hilary Knight, Wayne Lawson, Kiese Makeba Laymon, Franklin Leonard, Monica Lewinsky, Bethany McLean, Nina Munk, Katie Nicholl, Maureen O’Connor, Jen Palmieri, Evgenia Peretz, Maximillian Potter, Robert Risko, Lisa Robinson, Mark Rozzo, Maureen Ryan, Nancy Jo Sales, Elissa Schappell, Jeff Sharlet, Michael Shnayerson, Chris Smith, Richard Stengel, Diane von Furstenberg, Elizabeth Saltzman Walker, Benjamin Wallace, Jesmyn Ward, Ned Zeman 8

VA N I T Y FA I R

JUNE 2021

Inside the Hive with Emily Jane Fox and Joe Hagan A VA N I T Y F A I R P O D C A S T

Will Biden spend his way to a new New Deal? Can anti-vaxxers derail pandemic progress? Does Big Tech survive 2021? Emily Jane Fox and Joe Hagan bring you inside the rooms where decisions are made, through in-depth, revealing conversations with the biggest newsmakers in Silicon Valley, on Wall Street, and in Washington.

INSIDE THE

HIVE

Subscribe now at vf.com/podcasts

® Chief Business Officer Susan D. Plagemann Head of Marketing Kimberly Fasting Berg Vice President, Finance Sylvia W. Chan Vice President, Brand Marketing Heather Gumbley Executive Director, Brand Revenue & Strategy Evan Chodos Executive Business Director Jennifer Jackson Senior Directors, Brand Marketing Alexa Mattsson, Nicole Spagnola Head of Sales, Auto & Media/Entertainment Bill Mulvihill Head of Sales, CPG & Vice Jeff Barish Head of Sales, Technology & Finance Douglas Grinspan Head of Sales, Beauty Lucy Kriz Head of Sales, Home & Travel Beth Lusko-Gunderman Head of Sales, Health Carrie Moore Head of Sales, Fashion & Luxury David Stuckey Vice President, Revenue–Midwest Pamela Quandt Vice President, Revenue–San Francisco Devon Rothwell Vice President, Enterprise Sales–Los Angeles Dan Weiner

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In the United States Chief Communications Officer Joseph Libonati Chief Business Officer, U.S. Advertising Revenue and Global Video Sales Craig Kostelic Executive Vice President–Revenue Monica Ray

Chairman of the Board Jonathan Newhouse

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VA N I T Y FA I R

JUNE 2021

Contributors

Clockwise from top left: Joshua Hunt, Amy Wallace, Adrienne Raquel, Joyce Maynard, Abigail Tracy.

“WHITE FLIGHT” P. 50

While reporting on the so-called Memphis Patriots, Tracy, a staff writer, called ringleader John Dobbs. “He didn’t hang up the phone after the conversation,” says Tracy. “I overheard him talking about Vanity Fair and myself to the people he was with: ‘The last thing I want to do is talk to them.’ ”

VA N I T Y FA I R

Joshua HUNT “THE MISSING MAGRITTE” P. 42

Hunt was in Belgium interviewing the federal prosecutor for a book project when the conversation strayed to a Magritte heist. “I let him keep talking, because what he told me was so compelling,” says Hunt. “A story about stolen art, terrorist plots, and, above all, a missed opportunity to avert one of the decade’s great tragedies.”

Joyce MAYNARD “SHAME THE DEVIL” P. 32

Joyce Maynard, who lived with J.D. Salinger as a young woman, was left unsettled by HBO’s Allen v. Farrow documentary. “The kind of dismissal and humiliation Woody Allen supporters employed, attempting to discredit Mia Farrow, offered a chillingly familiar reminder of what I had experienced,” says the author of the forthcoming novel Count the Ways.

Amy WALLACE “KATHRYN HAHN ALL ALONG” P. 112

Wallace admits that the job of a profile writer has gotten harder during the pandemic. “Zoom is better than nothing, but it can be hard to get a genuine glimpse of the person on the other end of the laptop,” says Wallace, who interviewed Kathryn Hahn for the issue. “She was hip to this and seemed eager to be truly known.” Wallace adds, “What most struck me about Kathryn was her warmth.”

Adrienne R AQUEL “RAE OF LIGHT” P. 34

For Issa Rae’s first Vanity Fair cover, Raquel photographed her at a legendary Los Angeles location, the Sheats-Goldstein Residence. “It was a major moment,” says Raquel. “I’ve admired Issa for quite some time, and I love how she continues to be a trailblazer throughout Hollywood.”

C R A I G : D AV I D B A I L E Y. D E S TA : B A N N A D E S TA . H U N T : C O U R T E S Y O F J O S H U A H U N T. L A Z A R : M E G A N K A N E . M AY N A R D : X I R E N WA N G . R A Q U E L : R O X A N E H A R T R I D G E . T R A C Y : C H R I S T I N A B A R T - B I L S K Y. T U R I N I : Q U A N M A I . WA L L A C E : PAT R I C I A S H I E L D S . W I L S O N : M I K E R O S E N T H A L .

Abigail TR ACY

Clockwise from top left: Casey Wilson, Tom Craig, Yohana Desta, Zohar Lazar, Shiona Turini.

Casey WILSON “FOR THE LOVE OF REAL HOUSEWIVES” P. 30

“I’m done being a garbage-TV apologist,” says Wilson, an actor and writer whose new essay collection, The Wreckage of My Presence, is excerpted this month. “Watching Housewives has been a form of self-care for me this past year, and I wanted to write a love/hate letter to my favorite frenemies.”

Shiona TURINI “RAE OF LIGHT” P. 34

The costume designer on Issa Rae’s Insecure, Turini was inspired to dress the actress in a new light for Vanity Fair—and not as her character, who has such a defined aesthetic. “For this cover I wanted to show the difference between Issa Dee and Issa Rae,” says Turini. “She is a force on-camera, but we really got to explore the powerhouse that Issa Rae has become off-screen as well.”

Tom CR AIG “SCENE STEALERS” P. 84

Craig, a photographer based in London, worked with rain and smoke machines, live doves, ball pits, and even a large fluffy cat on set. “When planning the shoot, I felt strongly that I wanted to tap into the classic heritage of Vanity Fair but with all the fun that we have been craving during lockdown,” says Craig. “It was like post-pandemic pagan magic.”

Zohar LAZAR

Yohana DESTA

“WHITE FLIGHT” P. 50

“RAE OF LIGHT” P. 34

“The boll weevil was the perfect mascot for a privileged class that so blithely celebrates a shameful chapter in our nation’s history,” says Lazar, who illustrated wealthy Trump supporters traveling by private jet to January’s “Stop the Steal” rally.

Before she was assigned this month’s cover story, Desta, a staff writer, had already interviewed Issa Rae several times, throughout the actor’s rise. “She’s the same as she ever was: quick-witted, kind, engaging, low-key,” says Desta. “Even though her career has skyrocketed and she’s worlds more famous than she was five years ago, she’s still deeply grounded.”

JUNE 2021

Editor’s Letter

baseline positive interaction with someone. Ted, an American football coach played by Jason Sudeikis, has come to England to coach a soccer team; he is purposely set up to fail in every possible way, heckled relentlessly by the press, the fans, and often his own players. No one appreciates him. And yet, “I appreciate you,” he says, over and over, in response to even a minuscule act of kindness. His team isn’t winning—but Ted is, just by appreciating people! By the time the team starts to score, the show had decisively won me over, and now part of my July is booked to binge the second season, right after I’m done with the second season of Never Have I Ever. (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, I appreciate you!) It has been a year of superlative TV, and with this issue, we dive headlong into appreciating it. We appreciate Issa Rae, legend in her own time, who at 36 has ascended to the status of bona fide TV mogul as she wraps her immensely successful series Insecure and looks to the future. We’re addicted to a slew of magnificent shows from beyond our national borders, because if we can’t be tourists at the Louvre during a pandemic, at least we can watch Omar Sy as Lupin pull off a magisterial heist there. We bow to the imaginative power of the location scouts of The Flight Attendant; the transformative hair and makeup designer of I May Destroy You; the maestro behind the period-crossover musical arrangements of Bridgerton. I am personally inspired by the elocution tip Gillian Anderson reveals, from her scene-stealing portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Crown, that taking a breath in the middle of a sentence decreases the possibility that you’ll be cut off at the end of it. We’ve loved Kathryn Hahn, all along. Haven’t you? We also know that the great TV of the present comes on the shoulders of great TV of 16

VA N I T Y FA I R

For the digital cover of our special section on awards-worthy TV, Gillian Anderson wears a top by Armani Privé. Hair products by Leonor Greyl. Makeup products by Dolce & Gabbana. Hair by Davide Barbieri. Makeup by Florrie White. Lettering by David Milan. Set design by Derek Hardie Martin. Produced on location by JNProduction. Styled by Nathan Klein. Photographed exclusively for V.F. by Tom Craig in London. For details, go to VF.com/credits.

the past. The cast and crew of A Different World come together to reminisce about the boundary-breaking show that changed their lives and influenced a generation of actors and viewers alike. And Norman Lear, the iconic creator of All in the Family, Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, Good Times, and more classics of the medium, answers the Proust Questionnaire for the first time as he looks forward to his 99th birthday this summer. He responds to the question “What is your favorite occupation?” with one simple word: “Laughing.” Now that, we really appreciate.

radhika jones, Editor in Chief

JUNE 2021

H AT B Y R A C H E L T R E V O R - M O R G A N . F O R D E TA I L S , G O T O V F. C O M / C R E D I T S .

I was a few episodes into Ted Lasso before I noticed the title character’s habit of tossing off a sotto voce “I appreciate you” whenever he had a

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VA N I T I E S VA N I TA S VA N I TAT U M

PAGE 24

Netflix star MAITREYI RAMAKRISHNAN

lives the teenage dream PAGE 24

WHY LUCY DACUS LOVES SLAYER PAGE 26

HALSTON HEATS UP PAGE 27

H A I R , R I C K C A R O T O ; M A K E U P , V I V I A N M A X W E L L ; P R O D U C E D O N LO C AT I O N B Y P R E I S S C R E AT I V E ; F O R D E TA I L S , G O T O V F. C O M / C R E D I T S .

GOSSIP GIRL’S FANCY FASHION

Cover-up by Loewe; top and shorts by Valentino; hairpins by Lelet NY; earrings by Oscar de la Renta. Throughout: hair products by Hask; makeup by Koh Gen Do. Styled by Michaela Dosamantes.

VA N I T Y FA I R

PHOTOGRAPH BY T I E R N E Y

GEARON

JUNE 2021

1. Tory Burch swimsuit, $258. (toryburch.com) 2. Sophie Bille Brahe necklace, $3,460. (matchesfashion.com) 3. Polo Ralph Lauren vest, $328. (ralphlauren.com) 4. Tata Harper Superkind softening cleanser, $86. (tataharperskincare.com) 5. Jennifer Behr headband, $225. (jenniferbehr.com) 6. Gucci polo, $950. (gucci.com) 7. Dior dress, $4,000. (Dior boutiques) 8. Salvatore Ferragamo bag, $2,200. (Salvatore Ferragamo boutiques) 9. Chanel Bleu de Chanel shaving kit, $350. (chanel .com) 10. Blackstock & Weber loafer, $325. (blackstockandweber.com) 11. Lacoste polo, $125. (lacoste.com)

Polo Whether it’s the country club or pinkies-up tea this summer, stick to the strictures of The Official Preppy Handbook and Carlton Banks: classic cuts

restrained touch of ’60s pop

10.

11.

The formidable Carlton Banks dancing to the beat of his own Tom Jones on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. 20

VA N I T Y FA I R

JUNE 2021

C A R LT O N : C H R I S H A S T O N / N B C U P H O T O B A N K / G E T T Y I M A G E S . 7 : J O S E P H I N E S C H I E L E ; S T Y L E D B Y J O H N O L S O N . A L L O T H E R S C O U R T E S Y O F T H E B R A N D S / W E B S I T E S . F O R D E TA I L S G O T O V F. C O M / C R E D I T S .

TO THE NINES

Luxury is where you are.

Vanities /The Gallery

La Vie BOHÈME For the past four years, Loewe designer Jonathan Anderson has channeled the easy vibes of Paula’s, a boutique in Ibiza that flourished in the ’70s and ’80s, into a summertime collaboration with Paula’s founder Armin Heinemann. “It captures my idea of escapism,” says Anderson, who grew up visiting the island bohemia. This year’s capsule features a hippie-chic caftan, a moon print sweatsuit, and these juicy confections. The woven leather crossbody bags shaped like strawberries and pineapples—plus a nifty sliced passion fruit coin purse—evoke warm climes and carefree living. ¡Salud! —Daisy Shaw-Ellis

F O R D E TA I L S , G O T O V F. C O M / C R E D I T S .

Loewe Passion Fruit Half Moon purse, $450; Pineapple bag, $2,100; Strawberry bag; $2,100. (loewe.com)

VA N I T Y FA I R

PHOTOGRAPH BY DA N I E L

GORDON

JUNE 2021

ALLURE PRESENTS

A NEW PODCAST HOSTED BY MICHELLE LEE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, AND JENNY BAILLY, EXECUTIVE BEAUTY DIRECTOR Join Allure as we explore the inextricable link between science and beauty — and don’t be surprised if you discover your next favorite serum, hair mask, or scalp treatment along the way. If you’ve always wondered what a wrinkle actually is and how retinol can make it go away, or why your hair is curly and which polymers will give it the most spring, come get nerdy with us! L I ST E N & S U B S C R I B E TO T H E S C I E N C E O F B E AU T Y W H E R E V E R YO U G E T YO U R P O D CAST S

On her third album, Home Video, Lucy Dacus filters growing pains into balmlike melodies. Here, the stories behind three songs.

Jacket and stole by Louis Vuitton; earrings by Laura Lombardi.

Never Say NEVER MAITREYI RAMAKRISHNAN

went from study halls to Netflix stardom practically overnight Maitreyi Ramakrishnan was a 12th grader starring in a teen production of Chicago when Mindy Kaling began searching for a young South Asian woman to lead her precocious Netflix dramedy, Never Have I Ever. Her winning audition beat the 15,000 others who tried out for Devi—a part that earned Ramakrishnan a spot on A.O. Scott’s list of 2020’s best performances and a Time 100 anointment. Now the 19-year-old is bracing for season two—and trying to maintain perspective: “I kept putting the pressure on myself to represent brown girls everywhere. And I was like, hold on. If I’m not going to put that pressure on a fictional character, why the hell would I do that to myself?” in Mississauga was filled with big personalities: Ramakrishnan’s musically inclined brother, labor-relationsspecialist mother, government-worker father, maternal grandmother, and dog, Melody.

HER CHILDHOOD HOME

VA N I T Y FA I R

“Everyone is so dramatic. We definitely dish it to each other. You enter our household and we’re going to make you feel like family, but I can’t protect you.” HER PARENTS both left their native country of Sri Lanka during the Tamil genocide. “Like many immigrant stories, it’s never a linear line. My mom traveled all around the world from Dubai to England. My dad went to South Africa, then Montreal, before meeting my mom in Ontario.” WHEN SHE SAW Kaling’s tweet, she and her best friend recorded each other’s auditions at their local library. “I still have the text conversation: ‘Imagine if we went to Hollywood, we could totally be Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.’ ” SHE DREAMS OF playing a princess—“maybe Princess Diana”—in a period piece.

1. Raised in Mechanicsville, Virginia, Dacus modeled BRANDO on a friend who acted as her cultural tutor, showing her films like A Streetcar Named Desire. “His personality was just an amalgamation of all these movies. An imitation.” 2. “Brief Notes on Staying,” an essay in Hanif Abdurraqib’s 2017 book, inspired PLEASE STAY (Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker lend vocals on the track). “It’s about losing people and being exhausted, but needing to find a way to get through life.” 3. An early crush shaped VBS. “I was totally infatuated with this kid who loved heavy bands. He had a tough home life and would blast Slayer to get to sleep. It had a calming effect on him.”

year-old girl at a café to a grown woman

their inner child really yearned for.” AS FOR THAT second season? “I’m going to put my money where my mouth is: I think season two is better than season one. You’re going to scream at Devi, but you’re also going to want to hug her.”

PHOTOGRAPH BY T I E R N E Y

GEARON

B R A N D O : E V E R E T T C O L L E C T I O N . DA C U S : E B R U Y I L D I Z . S L AY E R : C H R I S WA LT E R / W I R E I M A G E / G E T T Y I M A G E S . T H E Y C A N ’ T K I L L U S U N T I L T H E Y K I L L U S : C O U R T E S Y O F T W O D O L L A R R A D I O . F O R D E TA I L S , G O T O V F. C O M / C R E D I T S .

BE KIND, REWIND

JUNE 2021

35 Years of Classic Vanity Fair Profiles, Essays, and Columns by Women About Women “A celebration of women’s voices” —VOGUE

“Dazzling” —NBC NEWS

“These essays pack a feminist wallop” —KIRKUS REVIEWS

Available in paperback this fall

Summer Lovin’ The new essentials are all about low-key polish—and with the Sex and the City reboot now in motion, these three are fit for onscreen cameos. (Yes, a scrunchie even Carrie could wear.)

ALL-PURPOSE TRIMMER

The collective desire to slip into party mode, stoked by newfound freedom and HALSTON , puts eye shadow back into play By Laura Regensdorf

From top: Halston amid his muses in 1972, including Anjelica Huston in a yellow caftan. Beverly Johnson in pastel Halston, 1975. Dior Diorshow Mono Couleur Couture eye shadow, $30, in Tutu, Pink Corolle, and Denim. (dior.com) 26

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Months of daydreaming about the social scene’s return has set the agenda ahead: never-ending evenings with cool drinks and perfect strangers, more glamour than effort. If that calls to mind ’70s-era Anjelica Huston in a plunging halter and lavender eye shadow, Netflix’s five-episode Halston arrives to second that mood. The designer’s circle of friends and models, including Elsa Peretti and Pat Cleveland, pulled off slinky elegance with ease—a worthwhile lodestar for summer beauty. “Eye shadow is going to have this kind of revolution,” says Sam Visser, makeup artist ambassador for Dior, of the need for expressive color after an underdressed year. The 21-year-old is a master of the medium, as seen in retro-futuristic looks on Bella Hadid and Nadia Lee Cohen, but his directive right now is no-fuss monochrome, made simple with Dior’s velvety new Mono shadows. There’s no time to labor in the mirror, says Visser: “We’re rushing to get out!”

With the past year remapping relationships to body hair, Fur’s trimmer is a well-timed addition: all-gender, all-terrain. Cordless and water-resistant, it offers four lengths. Neoclassical grooves lend grip, and an LED at the tip lights the way. $89. (furyou.com)

ELEVATED CLASSIC

The fanciful scrunchies on Celine’s spring 2021 runway are for a new generation. “It’s not a full carbon copy. They’ve made it their own,” says the show’s hairstylist, Esther Langham. “It’s all about ease now”—from wrist to eye-candy ponytail. $260. (celine.com) JUNE 2021

HAL S TO N : D UAN E M I C HAL S . VO G U E , 1972 . D I O R : J OS E P H I N E S C H I E L E ; S T YL I N G, J O H N O L S O N . J O H N S O N : D I RC K HAL S T E AD / T I M E & L I F E CO L L EC T I O N / G E T T Y I MAG E S . G R A S S : AN T P K R / I S TO C K / G E T T Y I MAG E S . AL L O T H E R S : CO U R T E S Y O F BR AN DS .

Whatever the agenda—lunch meeting or makeout—the hybrid Ultralip formula is a go. Seed oils (watermelon, meadowfoam) and hyaluronic acid give a plush balm texture; the nine tints wear like an understated, grown-up gloss. $18. (glossier.com)

Vanities /First Look

From left: Costume designer Eric Daman sporting a custom Constance Billard varsity jacket; dressing Thomas Doherty, who plays Max Wolfe. “I really dive into the characters and peel them back like an onion. I look at how they’ve been brought up, what they’ve been exposed to.”

In the 2007 pilot, Serena wore a tan jacket, a striped shirt, and a handkerchief around her neck. “We nodded to that with Kate, played by Tavi Gevinson [below]. Someone posted a side-by-side on social media—we used to have to wait for People to run a picture a month later.”

Teen SPIRIT

DA M A N P O R T R A I T : AVA Y U R I KO H A M A . F I T T I N G A N D B AG S : C O U R T E S Y O F H B O . C A P B A G : C O U R T E S Y O F J W A N D E R S O N . AL E X AN D E R AN D GE V I N S O N P O R T R AI T S : J AM E S E M M E R MAN . AL E X AN D E R O N S E T ( 2 ) : J OS E P E RE Z / BAU E R - G R I F F I N / G E T T Y I M AG E S . G E V I N S O N O N S E T : C H R I S T O P H E R P E T E R S O N / S P L A S H N E W S . C O M .

On the set of Gossip Girl with ERIC DAMAN , the show’s longtime costume designer “Tights are not pants!” Leighton Meester’s Blair Waldorf famously shrieked during the second season of Gossip Girl. The series, which ended its six-season run in 2012, is back this July on HBO Max with a new cast gracing the steps of the Met—and now, according to Eric Daman, who has held dominion over the show’s iconic aesthetic since the first season, tights are pants. “Athleisure has become fused into the system.” For the more than 200 costumes per episode, he looked to influencers (the Hadid sisters, Kaia Gerber) and the streets of his own East Village neighborhood—think oversized proportions, like XXL jackets paired with itty-bitty biker shorts: “super contemporary.” And while longtime fans should be on the lookout for fashion Easter eggs, “the headband has been retired,” he says. “At least for the moment.” — Caitlin Brody VA N I T Y FA I R

A JW Anderson Midi Cap bag, from

JUNE 2021

Vanities /Books

Laugh Track Gina Yashere—a creator of CBS’s Bob Hearts Abishola, daughter of Nigerian immigrants, and author of the new memoir Cack-Handed—shares her inspirations with a caveat: “I was

Novel IDEAS A wealth of new books—from wry satires to stormy thrillers— are getting TV treatments, with big stars attached In 2011, George R. R. Martin told the New York Times that he published Game of Thrones after a decade of Hollywood turning down his drafts due to their length and projected expense. “The irony of all this is that the project I thought most unlikely to ever be filmed,” he said, “is now going to be this big show on HBO.” There were book-to-TV adaptations long before the dawn of Westeros (from The Forsyte Saga to Friday Night Lights), but the rise of streaming (and an insatiable thirst for market-tested I.P.) has produced a bumper crop of recent hits based on best sellers: Big Little Lies, Normal People, A Handmaid’s Tale. This year has already heralded adaptation announcements for Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is in Trouble and Laura Lippman’s Lady in the Lake, both 2019 publishing successes. FX’s Fleishman has, as of press time, yet to be cast, while Apple TV+ has tapped Lupita Nyong’o and Natalie Portman for Lippman’s Baltimore-set thriller. Other books—page-turners that speak to universal emotional concerns—have been 28

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snapped up before they’re even available to readers: Mindy Kaling’s Kaling International is adapting Sanjena Sathian’s Gold Diggers, which came out from Penguin Press in April, for Warner Bros. The satire kicks off in the Indian American community of an Atlanta suburb, with an elixir that turns gold into drinkable ambition. Elsewhere on Apple TV+, Julia Roberts’s Red Om Films, in collaboration with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, is taking on Laura Dave’s The Last Thing He Told Me, out in May from Simon & Schuster, in which a woman attempts to track down her missing husband, reluctant stepdaughter in tow. Roberts will star, and Dave and her husband—screenwriter Josh Singer, whose credits include Spotlight—are cowriting. “It’s been a special experience to think about love and marriage and family alongside the person I get to share those things with,” she says. And as Zakiya Dalila Harris publishes her debut, The Other Black Girl (Atria), this month, she will already be hard at work adapting the novel for Hulu: “With the episodic nature of TV, I have to be a lot more mindful of time and pacing.” Tara Duncan, the exec who acquired the project, was drawn to the book because it “so cleverly and hilariously uses the thriller genre to encapsulate the psychological warfare of office politics,” she says. “Even if you’re not familiar with dog whistle racial microaggressions, anyone who’s had a job knows a tone-deaf boss, cliquey coworkers, and the mental pressure of trying to find your authentic voice.” —Keziah Weir I L L U S T R AT I O N BY A G ATA

NOWICKA

unapologetically Black, tackling issues that pertain to us, and delving in

dream was to be adopted by a rich old man and have a white maid.

“We had similar experiences, though born in different countries. I loved his journey and storytelling style. And his mum was almost as nuts as mine!” JUNE 2021

C A C K - H A N D E D : C O U R T E S Y O F T H E P U B L I S H E R . B L A C K - I S H : C O U R T E S Y O F A B C / R I C H A R D C A R T W R I G H T. D I F F ’ R E N T S T R O K E S : CO U R T E S Y O F S O NY P I C T U RE S T E L E V I S I O N . T RE VO R N OAH : MAR K S AG L I O CCO / W I RE I MAG E / G E T T Y I MAG E S .

Julia Roberts, Lupita Nyong’o, Natalie Portman, and Mindy Kaling are attached to forthcoming series adaptations.

Vanities /Letter From L.A. PARTY PEOPLE Blake Lively, Adam Scott, and

Sarah Jessica Parker talk boots and reboots.

Many Happy RETURNS Sex and the City, Gossip Girl, and Party Down are coming back, and our critics have feelings

VA N I T Y FA I R

I L L U S T R AT I O N S BY J O R G E

A R É VA LO

JUNE 2021

F O R Y O U R E M M Y® C O N S I D E R AT I O N EWAN McGREGOR

A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES

FYC.NETFLIX.COM

I Couldn’t Help But WONDER Can Sex and the City feel bold and relevant again—and how much are we going to miss Samantha? By Sonia Saraiya end of the TV run of my beloved Sex and the City, I was discussing the show with a friend of my mother’s, a smug yuppie then obsessed with getting her son into Harvard. We didn’t like each other much, but we both hated the suburbs we lived in, sharing an interest in the world beyond malls, megachurches, and SUVs. I told her I was sad the series was ending. She said, “Well, they had to end it. You know the reason why.” The year was 2004. I was a teenager who fully expected to become a darker-skinned version of Carrie Bradshaw. I actually didn’t know the reason why. With the odd air of triumph that comes from crushing someone else’s fantasy, she explained, “They’re too old.” What she meant was: They can’t be running around sleeping with

SHORTLY BEFORE THE

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strangers anymore, drinking until 3 a.m., baring their midriffs. She seemed extremely satisfied with time catching up to the foursome, as if it validated something for her. I wonder what she would make of the revival. Filming is due to start any day now on And Just Like That…, an upcoming 10-episode run that reunites most of the cast with showrunner Michael Patrick King for Carrie’s fresh take on a brave new world. I tend to be cynical about the reboot/reunion cash grabs that have taken hold of the television industry; there is no hotter product these days than a beloved property that could be milked some more. Sex and the City, which dominated its cultural milieu when it debuted in 1998, has already sustained two movies, both of them

terrible. I struggled even with several episodes in the show’s late period, when it got a bit dumber—or at least ran out of ideas about how to make Charlotte interesting. In its prime, the show electrified with its effortless capture of the zeitgeist. But looking back, I’m shocked by how casually the purportedly queer-friendly show threw trans and bi characters under the bus when it wasn’t using gay characters as props or punch lines. It was always a show blinkered by its own privilege, a fantasy of New York so circumscribed that the characters barely left a 60-block radius. Still, Sex and the City asked big questions with openness and sincerity, playfully tweaking our sexual mores. And youth, and the way aging comes down on women, is one of the taboos that Sex and the City always toyed with, stretching the edges and pulling at the seams. After all, the show began by worrying about the end. Sex and the City’s most AND THEN THERE WERE THREE Cynthia Nixon,

Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kristin Davis. JUNE 2021

J O R G E A R É VA LO .

Vanities /Letter From L.A.

F O R

Y O U R

E M M Y®

F ro m E M M Y® A w a r d W i n n e r s

C O N S I D E R A T I O N

A Z I Z A N SA R I & A L A N YA N G

EMMY ® Award Winner

BAFTA Award Winner

LENA WAITHE

NAOMI ACKIE

presents

Directed by

AZIZ ANSARI

Written by

AZIZ ANSARI &

LENA WAITHE

Vanities /Letter From L.A.

memorable moments may have been the frothy, flirty sexual escapades, the hot clubs, the on-trend workout classes, and the to-die-for footwear, but what animated the series from the start was the specter of obsolescence. The soon-to-be-iconic Carrie Bradshaw— played by a pre-blond (in that first episode, anyway) Sarah Jessica Parker with dark brown curls (!)—attended the birthday dinner of her good friend Miranda. “Another 30-something birthday with a group of unmarried female friends,” she deadpanned in her dreamy, playful voiceover. “We would all have preferred a nice celebratory conference call.” In 1998, being single and female in your 30s, no matter how successful or satisfied, thrust you into our idiotic but powerful culture wars. Because of the intense pressure to “settle down” and reproduce, the unmarried woman was assumed to be in a state of rebellion, even if all she wanted was that exact domestic fantasy. In Sex and the City, Carrie offered the valuable perspective of ambivalence. She enjoyed her carefree life, but the tug of romance—and the knowledge that the party can’t last forever—made her wonder what else was out there. Without mentioning that dreadful term “biological clock,” the pilot episode of Sex and the City examined the suffocating expectations of women even in the midst of Manhattan’s ostensibly no-strings-attached dating circuit. The characters were constantly aware that their worth, in this ruthless city, was measured by their hotness—and, in their 30s, it was already perceived to be running out. Even attractive women were expiring in favor of an ever-replenishing supply of 20-somethings and the men who wanted to fuck them. One of the most beautiful things about Sex and the City was that it was an act of defiance against this idea of what a woman could be. As the characters grew older, they maintained their rigorous self-reflection and raw sex lives, drawing the camera into the most embarrassing and formative moments of their fourth decade. As VA N I T Y FA I R

the show wound down, they were still at times baring their midriffs and sleeping with strangers, but they were also having children and moving to Brooklyn. They remained in the ambivalent space that Carrie opened up in the first episode, even as they moved forward, made choices, and, in some sense, settled down. Our image-saturated digital world has made us more oriented toward appearance than ever, and to be sure, there’s no escaping the innate beauty of youth. But aging is shocking, embarrassing, hilarious, and even sexy: Perhaps revitalizing middle age will be Sex and the City’s last transgression. Which is why—and I have to be honest with you—I’m worried about the

The

CHARACTERS

were constantly aware that their worth, in this RUTHLESS CITY, was measured by their HOTNESS — and, IN THEIR 30s, it was already perceived to be RUNNING OUT.

absence of the shameless, ruthless, adventurous Samantha Jones. The rift between Kim Cattrall and the show stretches all the way back to SATC’s run on HBO, when Cattrall reportedly felt she deserved more money for her role. But onscreen, Samantha’s magnetism is certainly undeniable.

Opposite Carrie’s equivocation, Miranda’s frustration, and Charlotte’s prudery, Samantha embodied the drive for fun that made the show so addictive. She did whatever she wanted to, and unlike the ever-narrating Carrie, didn’t stop to question it. To be sure, sometimes she was more of a caricature than a character—the show’s patter got so reliable, in later seasons, that you could guess not just when Samantha would interject with a cool aside but also what she would say, starting with an “Oh, honey” and ending with a bon mot—but her flat affect served to emphasize her function. If Sex and the City crossed any boundaries or broke any barriers, it used Samantha to do it while the other characters looked on dumbfounded: She dated a woman, fell for a Black man, got Botox, sneered at marriage, complained about children, and most importantly, lived like a horny teenager well into her 40s, even through the breast cancer treatment she got in the last season. She was New York’s femme id, a crusader whose superpower was cock. In a neat package that evaded intra-feminist argument, her desire didn’t embarrass or degrade her, it simply turned her on. In season five, when her friends judged her sex life, she retorted: “I will wear whatever and blow whomever I want as long as I can breathe and kneel.” It’s not just hard to imagine the show without her, it’s also hard to imagine Sex and the City thumbing its nose at aging without Samantha in a starring role. But it’s possible. After all, an inevitable part of aging is being forced to say goodbye to people you love. Maybe Cattrall’s absence will be explained away by suggesting that Samantha died in the intervening decades? If And Just Like That… can’t have her, I hope it will have her spirit. Too many of these revivals are a warmed-over rehash of what the originals served hot, with a few jokes about Twitter or Trump thrown in. Samantha would never look back with nostalgia. Intent on making a splash and seizing the day, she’d have her eyes fixed on the horizon. n JUNE 2021

F O R

WINNER

GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS ®

BEST TELEVISION SERIES DRAMA

YO U R

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SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS

CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS

O UT S TANDING E NS E M BL E I N A DR AM A SE R IE S

BEST TELEVISION SERIES DRAMA

WINNER

PRODUCERS GUILD AWARD

OUTSTANDING PRODUCER OF EPISODIC TELEVISION | DRAMA

The best season yet.” ABC NEWS

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Vanities /Letter From L.A.

All I Want Is EVERYTHING The original Gossip Girl was sudsy fun, but a little tame. HBO Max’s revamp should be sexier and savvier By Richard Lawson ago, I cut my teeth as a blogger by recapping Gossip Girl, the CW’s soapy series about mean teens on the decidedly un-mean streets of the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I’d read some of the books, by Cecily von Ziegesar, prior to the series’s release, and while I did enjoy Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz’s TV version enough to devote hours of my life to recapping it, I was forever disappointed that it didn’t have as much bite as the novels. Where were the drugs and the sex, so dishily strewn across the pages? The show had to be more tame, because it was on network television and ostensibly aimed at teenagers. But there might have been some creative ways to make the series more lurid— oftentimes, Gossip Girl’s marketing was more risqué than its actual episodes. Eventually, Gossip Girl faded for me into a little relic, an emblem of my mid-20s lost to memory. It was strange, then, to watch on social media as the show experienced a revival in 2020, as housebound young people discovered THIRTEEN LONG YEARS

J O R G E A R É VA LO .

XOXO Old guard cast members Blake Lively, Penn Badgley, and Leighton Meester.

the series on streaming and happily live-tweeted their binges. The way they talked about the show—amused, jaded, ironic—made me miss the old days of slavishly covering the exploits of Serena van der Woodsen, her best frenemy Blair Waldorf, and the various boys caught in their orbit. Those familiar faces may not be returning when Gossip Girl reboots. But the next-gen version, from Schwartz and longtime Gossip Girl writer Joshua Safran and soon to premiere on HBO Max, presents an opportunity to truly get it right. The show, no longer bound by the mores of broadcast television, can be wilder, more transgressive, more sharply tuned into the evils of wealth hoarded in palaces looming over Central Park. The contemporary awareness of social justice issues may give the new series a different set of responsibilities, but I hope that doesn’t make the show too pious. Gossip Girl should be nasty and politically aware, cognizant of the amorality it’s satirizing while also offering a guiltily escapist dive into it. A more diverse cast, as the new series boasts, ought to provide more windows into this culture of

entitlement and vanity, more perspectives from which to revel in and revolt against its excesses. That’s a tall and tricky order. How do you have fun with the world of these cruel kids and their social obsessions— from which the likes of Ivanka Trump was born—without, in some senses, forgiving it? Maybe Safran and his writers can figure it out. They have the blueprint, they just need to build a better mansion. Gossip Girl 2.0 could be one of the rare pieces of entertainment to get digital metaphysics right, and not just show kids staring inertly at their phones. The original series drafted off of the rise of blogging and then outlived it, as that medium lost ground to Twitter. What emerging social media undulations might this new series track? Surely something lies beyond TikTok, which Gossip Girl could anticipate, or maybe even invent. So that’s all the show needs to be: socially conscious but not too preoccupied with virtue, in step with the technology of right now while also looking ahead. And it needs to be gay and sexy and tart and mysterious. It needs to be cool—which the original series never quite was. Young people today are even savvier than we were in those heady days of the late aughts, and their Gossip Girl will need to be that much more agile and clever to satisfy them. May these kids finally show us olds how it’s done. n

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JUNE 2021

WINNER

OUTSTANDING PRODUCER OF LIMITED SERIES TELEVISION WILLIAM HORBERG, ALLAN SCOTT, SCOTT FRANK, MARCUS LOGES, MICK ANICETO

BEST LIMITED SERIES BEST ACTRESS - ANYA TAYLOR-JOY

WINNER

PRODUCERS GUILD AWARD 2 CRITICS' CHOICE AWARDS

2 GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS ®

BEST LIMITED SERIES BEST ACTRESS - ANYA TAYLOR-JOY

WINNER

DIRECTORS GUILD AWARD

SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARD

“THE

WRITERS GUILD AWARD

OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES FOR TELEVISION AND LIMITED SERIES SCOTT FRANK

FEMALE ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES ANYA TAYLOR-JOY

ADAPTED LONG FORM SCOTT FRANK, ALLAN SCOTT

TV EVENT OF THE YEAR. The series owes its powerhouse effect to the smashing, star performance of Anya Taylor-Joy. You can’t take your eyes off her. Add suspense, thrills and smarts and the combo is unbeatable.” ABC NEWS

Y®

FYC.NETFLIX.COM

Vanities /Letter From L.A.

Are We Having FUN YET? Like Van Gogh, Party Down was underappreciated in its lifetime. A revival could cement the legend By Sonia Saraiya as networks talked about reviving, reuniting, or otherwise reanimating their most famous shows, a rallying cry that was at least three quarters serious could be heard all over the internet. As New York Times critic Margaret Lyons tweeted once: “Reboot ‘Party Down.’ Then we can talk.” The show inspires rabble-rousing, to put it mildly. Party Down—a patheti-comic half-hour gem and one of Starz’s first original series—followed a catering company in Los Angeles staffed by Hollywood aspirants and adjacents fueled by delusion, self-loathing, or a piquant combination of the two as they struggled toward the day they wouldn’t need those shitty jobs anymore. The show captured what it is to fail at your lifelong dream, tapping into what showrunner John Enbom calls the “slightly uneasy feeling” of being stuck in a humiliating plan B. It was poignant and hilarious. And Party Down itself was a wannabe. The original pilot was shot in cocreator Rob Thomas’s house, the actors were paid $100 a day, and the series

LAST FALL,

HORS D’OEUVRE? Jane Lynch, Adam Scott, and

J O R G E A R É VA LO .

Lizzy Caplan (below) found fame soon after.

had netted tremendously few viewers when it ended in 2010. “It was a funny go-around the first time,” says Enbom. “I don’t think I’d met somebody who had seen it until the first series was over.” In the intervening decade, the show has become a cult hit, partly because much of the cast shot to fame on other shows. Jane Lynch brought her sly wickedness to Glee, Adam Scott his sarcastic tenderness to Parks and Recreation. Lizzy Caplan and Martin Starr, also veterans of Freaks and Geeks, did guest arcs and appearances all over before landing regular roles on prestige cable. And Ken Marino has become a comedy fixture with Fresh Off the Boat, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Black Monday, and my personal favorite, The Other Two. Even a pre-notoriety Stormy Daniels is in Party Down, professionally assessing Marino’s penis. Some sort of reunion has been discussed for years, including the dream of a Party Down movie. This spring, Starz—now a programming powerhouse—greenlighted a six-part limited series in the hopes of charting where the hapless hopefuls are now. But how do you revive a show that so thoroughly embodies being on the cusp of success now that it is itself a success?

Enbom, who will serve once again as the primary writer, is being joined by all his fellow cocreators for the revival, including Thomas, Dan Etheridge, and Paul Rudd, who was originally going to play the Adam Scott role. As of this writing, the cast hasn’t announced that they will return, though all have called Party Down one of their favorite jobs ever. It seems almost preordained that, when the time comes, our favorite caterers will roll up to an event only to discover that it’s a party fêting one of their former coworkers. No matter what, the show should wring dark comedy out of all the new ways we have of becoming famous and humiliating ourselves. “Our main characters are now 10 years older and have lived those 10 years in the same world that we have,” says Enbom. The door could open on an award-winning actor and comedian—or a gun-toting QAnon YouTuber. Now that viral fame is more accessible than ever, Party Down’s refreshing lack of illusions seems prescient. Henry (Scott) and Casey (Caplan) fell for each other in one of the sweetest, sexiest onscreen romances in memory; then she left him in front of everyone for a comedy gig on a cruise ship. The industry makes fools out of all of them, which is to say, all of us. The characters were lovable— and driven to terrible behavior in their pursuit of attention. We need Party Down back, if only to show us how to laugh at the creatures we’ve become. n

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JUNE 2021

CONSIDER THIS, DEAR VIEWER

“

★★★★

AN UNQUALIFIED TRIUMPH.” Chicago Sun-Times

“A

DELICIOUSLY DELIGHTFUL PERIOD PIECE,

GLORIOUSLY FREE FROM THE BODICE OF CONVENTION.” AFI

FROM SHONDALAND

FYC.NETFLIX.COM

Vanities /Obsessed

For the Love of REAL HOUSEWIVES I have watched these women not grow and not change for 15 years. It’s been glorious By Casey Wilson

franchise that would become the love of my life during the darkest period of my life. My mom had passed away suddenly, and I was back in Los Angeles, a city I now loathed due to its relentless sunlight. I spent my days lying on a stained couch in my apartment on Cahuenga Boulevard (cross street: the mouth of the 101 freeway). I lived with my dear pal from college, Laura, and our place was a shiiithole. When we’d looked at the color wheel at Home Depot, the only color we could agree on for our common space was green. Within the green family, the only shade we could agree on was bright stoplight green, which we used only halfheartedly to cover the walls, because no two lazier people have ever existed. While friends hated it aesthetically, several people rented it to shoot projects that required a green screen. They say after a loved one dies, it’s important not just to stay alive but to thrive. Lying on that couch and watching garbage programming was how I spent my early days of mourning. The only errand I actually completed was one I reasoned was worth the effort because it would help lower future exertion levels. I visited my ob-gyn to ask for a prescription for something I’d read about online: pee pills. What are those, you ask? They’re capsules designed to mask your body’s urges to urinate, so

I DISCOVERED THE

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you pee less frequently. Grief had me in such a state of lethargy I felt genuinely fed up with expending even the energy required to go to the bathroom. My doctor was a bit thrown by my request. She told me they’re usually only prescribed for the elderly and infirm— and in some cases, here in Los Angeles, to agents’ assistants who aren’t allowed to leave their desks during the day. I told her I didn’t have a desk but I had a couch and didn’t want to leave it. It was under these grim conditions, remote control in hand, that I came across two lifelines. One was a network called Bravo. The other was its new reality show, The Real Housewives of Orange County. It featured “rich” older gals who lived in a tiny hamlet I had never heard of (but now have engraved on an anklet charm) called Coto de

Caza. As fate would have it, I was one of the lucky ones who stumbled across the FIRST airing of the FIRST episode. I had met the women who would become my lifelong frenemies, the first of whom was the “OG of the OC,” Vicki “Whoop It Up” Gunvalson, a delightfully unhinged blond insurance agent burdened with an anger problem that eclipsed even mine. I watched the first episodes with my mouth open. Each woman was like an emptied-out purse, the detritus of her life strewn about for all to see. I hated them, but I also…liked them. Nay, rooted for them. And then Bravo went and added another city! And another. And another. And new disasters of humans were revealed. They say there are no great parts for women over 40? I BEG TO DIFFER. These women are as Medeaesque in their emotional tenor as they are tiny in their emotional intelligence. Bette Davis never summoned the rage Dorinda Medley gave us after hosting the other Housewives for a weekend in her Berkshires home that ended in ruin, when she threatened them with an empty wine bottle, hands shaking,

eyes wet with tears, slur-yelling at the top of her lungs, “I DECORATED. I COOKED. I MADE IT NICE!!!” As far as fans go, the older the Housewife, the better. We are wary and often resentful when they introduce younger blood. Those young upstarts can GET THE FUCK OUT, WITH THEIR ZERO EXPERIENCE OF THROWING WINE IN SOMEONE’S FACE DURING A FALL BASH AND NO PRECEDENT OF STANDING BY AS A FRIEND’S 70-YEAR-OLD HUSBAND GETS PUSHED ONTO THE BAJA SHELF OF A BEVERLY HILLS POOL, ALMOST PARALYZING HIM FOR LIFE. No, this franchise has no place for a wide-eyed ingenue just off the bus with a tube of ChapStick and a dream. I want my Housewives just out of a repossessed Lamborghini with a tube top and a broken dream. I’ve spent hundreds of nights watching these women not change and not grow like a fucked-up The Truman Show. My husband can’t stand the sound of them screaming. “Really?” I say, genuinely shocked. “See, for me, their screams are like waves crashing upon the shore.” I look forward to being lulled to sleep by the wails of a woman drinking tequila in Mexico, who just stabbed herself in the hand with a steak knife. I love drifting off to the sweet sounds of Kenya Moore or Ramona Singer ranting and raving. What exactly are they ranting and raving about? It doesn’t matter. It just feels like home. And that home is the house that Andy built. Andy Cohen is the longtime impresario of the Real Housewives franchise. Our Warholian godfather. He knows he need only stand back and let these women live out loud. But he’s also not afraid to step in and cut even the strongest team member, lest anyone think the show hinges on them. Andy’s greatest strength, however, is knowing that, above all else, the shows are FUNNY. During a mid-pandemic Zoom reunion, the Lucille Ball of the franchise, Porsha Williams, told a fellow castmate whose breasts weren’t looking their best, “Girl, them titties is aged hens. They social distancing.” Chef ’s kiss. In an

My husband can’t stand the SCREAMING, but, for me, their screams are like WAVES crashing upon the shore. iconic moment during a Beverly Hills reunion, Kim Richards returned a stuffed bunny, still wrapped in plastic, that Lisa Rinna had given her daughter—because, I quote, Kim didn’t “feel it was given to me with the right energy.” Andy watched with restrained glee as Lisa, in turn, delivered a soap opera–worthy single tear, complete with quivering lip, then slow-walked off the set to collect herself. Though we may laugh, we must also learn from these desperate unicorns. They’re the ghosts of Christmas future. They’ve selflessly taught us what not to do, like pretending you own a ski chalet and have multiple personal assistants when in fact one of the assistants may be aiding you with a telemarketing scheme, which the feds recently arrested you for while—prepare yourself for the three greatest words a Housewives fan could hear—cameras. were. rolling. But while we get to turn them off and go on our merry, it is Andy who bears the brunt of their wrath when things don’t go their way. He was SHOVED by Teresa Giudice during a reunion, but that didn’t stop him from later sitting across from her and conducting a meaningful one-on-one, Diane Sawyer–style. I tuned in for it like it was the moon landing. While many of my friends watched the franchise, one of them spoke the language most fluently. Her name was Danielle Schneider, and I knew her as an unbelievably sweet and hilarious writer-actor from the Upright Citizens Brigade. When our pal Paul Scheer suggested we do a podcast devoted to our obsession, it struck us as a bit déclassé. Do a podcast about I L L U S T R AT I O N BY T I M

DONAGH

reality TV? We were arteeests. But after giving it two minutes of hard thought we decided that, while we would probably just be screaming into the void, it would be fun to get some hot takes to the people. Danielle suggested we call it Bitch Sesh, and we set up mics in my breakfast nook and started talking. At this time, I was struggling after the birth of my first son. It was like someone had taken a Dustbuster to my hormones. All at once, I felt more joy than I ever had, alongside waves of crushing depression. This podcast devoted to nonsense ended up being such a lift for my spirits. And not just mine: A community was born around it. I hope I speak for all Bitch Sesh fans when I say we’re no longer Housewives apologists. Michelle Obama is a fan of Atlanta, and there was a time when President Barack Obama followed Jen from New Jersey on Twitter! I will no longer feel shame over a pleasure I don’t feel to be a guilty one. Life is hard. This is our nerd culture! Our sports! I may laugh when the Housewives lose, but I cry when they win. When Mike Hill asked Cynthia to marry him. When Porsha stepped into her true calling as an activist seeking justice for Breonna Taylor. When Erika won the role of Roxie Hart in Chicago and cried with the aged husband she is now in a bitter divorce battle with. When Luann completed her probation. When Shannon got over David’s betrayal and started her own frozen foods line. And when I found out that Vicki, the original Housewife I watched from my couch on Cahuenga Boulevard, was retiring after 14 seasons, I wept on the beach (two margaritas in). Vicki is a truly despicable person, but I have a soft spot for her. For all of them. They have been entertaining me for 15 years. And even though they don’t know me, I have borne witness to the breadth of their lives. I’ve been there for them. And make no mistake, they’ve been there for me, too. n Excerpted from The Wreckage of My Presence: Essays by Casey Wilson. Copyright © 2021 by Casey Wilson. Used by arrangement with HarperCollins. All rights reserved. JUNE 2021

Vanities /The Corrections

Shame the DEVIL For Mia Farrow and for me, the truth has come with consequences

W By Joyce Maynard

Allen and J.D. Salinger have in common? Start with this: The world knows them as iconic artists whose work transformed the cultural landscape of America. I see them both as predatory men with a taste for teenagers. Both possess the outlook of aging cynics who idealize and seek out innocence and—having done so—destroy it. Here comes another disturbing similarity: In the case of each of these celebrated men, when a woman has dared to shine a light on their dark and disturbing behavior—in Allen’s case, possibly criminal behavior, which he continues to deny—their supporters close ranks. Often with stunning success, they deflect allegations made against the object of their devotion and turn on the person responsible for delivering them. That person would be a woman. I know the part about Allen and very young women only from what I’ve read over the years—though watching his films with knowledge of his personal sexual and romantic history, a viewer may register a creepy shiver of recognition. It’s all on the screen. The part about Salinger and young girls (also visible in the work, if you look) is one with which I am more intimately acquainted. It’s a story I’ve told before. I tell it again because what I experienced long ago still happens—and because in the last handful of months, we’ve borne witness to a whole new round of stories sharing the

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Joyce Maynard at home in San Francisco in 1999, the year after she published At Home in the World.

for decades. The second, and arguably the more painful one, occurred 25 years later, when I chose at long last to speak of what had happened to me when I was young. It took me that long to recognize the truth: that I was groomed to be the sexual partner of a narcissist who nearly derailed my life. When I published a memoir, I was accused of trying to make money from my brief and inconsequential connection to a great man. Adjectives applied to me by well-respected critics included the words “icky, masturbatory” (in Mirabella), “indescribably stupid” (in The Washington Post), and (from Maureen Dowd in the New York Times) “predator.” Cynthia Ozick condemned me as a person who had attached myself to Salinger to “suck out” his celebrity. In the eyes of many, I was a literary vampire. For some, simply a cunt. No question, my personal history informed my experience of watching the recent HBO documentary Allen v. Farrow. Call the event “triggering” and you won’t miss the mark. So much of the language once directed at me is nearly identical to what I hear now employed by those who rush to discredit Mia Farrow. The story in Allen v. Farrow is haunting on two

same familiar theme: the phenomenon of demonizing the women and girls who dare to speak the truth about their lives. When I was a freshman at Yale—a few months past my 18th birthday— Salinger wrote me a series of letters that led me to believe he loved me as no one else ever had. Having read an essay I’d published, accompanied by a picture of a waiflike me in blue jeans—I weighed in at 90 pounds and expounded on my virginity, among other topics—he told me I was brilliant and perfect, his soul mate, and that we would live our days out together. He was 53. By 1972, a couple of generations of readers had fallen in love with the voice of Holden Caulfield. So did I, though the way I fell in love with the man came from the letters he wrote to me, alone. Or so I supposed. I name two events that caused the greatest emotional damage in my life. I’m not speaking here of personal losses— the deaths of my parents, the death of my husband. I’m speaking of times when I felt unsafe, diminished, and under attack almost to the point of questioning the worth of my own life. One happened when I was a teenager, with Salinger— an experience that ended my college education, isolated me from my family, my friends, and the world, and left me in a state of profound shame that endured

levels: First, for Dylan Farrow’s consistent and credible account that Allen did in fact touch her “privates” when she was seven, as she has always alleged. Equally horrifying is what Allen and his team of high-priced lawyers, publicists, image controllers, and celebrity friends chose to do about the allegations against him. They successfully recast the narrative into the story of an aging, vengeful, and deeply troubled ex-lover who manufactured the story of abuse and coached her child to deliver it. Via his own press conference at the Plaza Hotel, now widely repeated, Allen became the victim of retribution for having rejected Mia for her daughter, Soon-Yi, a much younger woman. His crime comes straight out of a romantic movie: falling in love. When I wrote about Allen v. Farrow on Facebook recently, over a thousand readers weighed in. The vast majority— those who’d actually watched the series—shared my outrage. Almost to a person, those who continue to subscribe to Allen’s story said they felt no need to watch the documentary. Allen himself had already explained it to them. What chilled me most was the level of something close to violence—an almost toxic rage—in the way many Allen loyalists spoke about Farrow. (“I’d like to smash her face in,” wrote one.) Some of them, weighing in on the documentary— and more on the Woody Allen fan page—chose to quote the old saw “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” The scariest brand of fury I have ever witnessed is that of men confronted by a woman’s story of abuse at the hands of a man they idolize. Consider Diane Sawyer in a 2003 interview for Primetime recently brought to light in the new documentary Framing Britney Spears. Sawyer leans forward in her chair—cool, self-assured, trustworthy—lasering in on the 21-yearold pop star, who looks exhausted. “You broke his heart,” Sawyer intones, speaking of accusations she’d cheated on Justin Timberlake. “You did something that caused him so…much…pain. What did you do?” What did you do? The assumption, unquestioned: It’s the woman’s fault.

Sometimes the shamed and hated women remain faceless. Sometimes we know them well. One theme runs through all of these stories—from Meghan Markle to Monica Lewinsky to Andrea Constand. It’s not simply about how our culture continues to shame, dismiss, humiliate, devalue, and demonize women. It’s the injury— sometimes overt counterattack, often gaslighting—that an abused woman is virtually certain to endure when she breaks her silence to tell what happened to her. Call it a one-two punch. The attacks I experienced when I published At Home in the World did not simply seek to invalidate a piece of work of which I felt deeply proud. They did not simply decimate my career for a long time (the same thing that happened to Mia Farrow after she leveled her charges against Allen). At the age of 44, I found my identity effectively reduced to that of a woman about whom only one pertinent fact remained: When I was very young, I had slept with a famous man. When I was no longer young, I told about it. Vagina dentata. Big mouth. In pre-#MeToo 1998, when I published the book that told the story of what happened between Salinger and me, I might as well have murdered Holden Caulfield. Many have never forgiven me. I got on with my life, wrote many more books, but not without great cost. For a lover of Woody Allen movies, confronted with the HBO documentary, it is as if Dylan Farrow ran into the theater and threw a bucket of paint on the screen. As for Mia Farrow: She speaks about her fears once the documentary has aired. There would be a new round of attacks. It will never end. It has never truly ended for me either. The year following the publication of my memoir, I made the decision to sell the 14 letters Salinger had written to me when I was 18. I had no use for these. So I consigned them to Sotheby’s. The letters were put on display for potential buyers. They remained available for examination—by collectors, literary historians, biographers, devotees of an important writer. The letters offered much about the author’s views on a wide range of topics—baseball, jazz,

“What CHILLED ME MOST was the level of violence in the way Allen loyalists spoke about Farrow.” Buddhism, Hitchcock movies, gardening, his children, writing. I was told by someone who worked at Sotheby’s that not a single serious critic or literary historian, biographer, or member of the press paid a visit to the auction house. But on the subject of me and my money-grubbing choice to sell what were described as my “love letters,” the press was relentless. Had I no shame? Actually, no. I saw no crime in divesting myself of letters that served only as reminders of a hurtful and damaging time. As it turned out, these letters (whose buyer said he would return them to Salinger) were somewhat less rare than I had supposed. Over the years, I heard from over a dozen women who had similar sets of letters from Salinger, written to them when they were teenagers. It appeared that in the case of one girl, Salinger was writing to her while I sat in the next room, believing he was my soul mate and partner for life. Among those angry Facebook messages, there was one citing, yet again, the story of how I sold my “love letters.” Hearing that a 53-year-old man wrote letters to an 18-year-old college freshman, some still condemn me rather than considering the motives of the man who wrote them in the first place. Consider the irony of suggesting it’s the woman’s fault for sharing her story, not the fault of the man for having made the story happen. Call this person out and he may invoke cancel culture. Flip the narrative, make the perpetrator the victim. Then, the inevitable question. Sawyer was hardly the last to have raised it. What did you do? My answer: I’m a woman. I told the truth. n JUNE 2021

RAE OF LIGHT

BY YOHANA DESTA AFTER FIVE CELEBRATED SEASONS, INSECURE IS WRAPPING UP ON HBO. BUT CREATOR AND STAR ISSA RAE, THE PATRON SAINT OF L.A., HAS A SLEW OF GAMECHANGING PLANS

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of vision-board visions in less than a decade. I’ve witnessed this ascent, having interviewed Rae several times in her career: in 2016, before Insecure began; later that year after Rae was nominated for a Golden Globe; in 2017 after she was snubbed for an Emmy; and last year in the midst of the pandemic. Her personality, somewhat remarkably, is the same as it ever was: funny, friendly, and quick, with a dollop of Eeyore-esque selfdeprecation. I compliment her for achieving so much. She insists she hasn’t done anything at all. “I have one web series, one show,” she says. “I haven’t even written a movie. Of the shit that’s mine, I don’t have much.” When I talk to Rae this time around, she and her team are in the throes of shooting the final season of Insecure, and she’s determined not to squander the goodwill and devotion of the audience, which grew exponentially during quarantine last year. “I’m finding myself putting season-one presDOESN’T MAKE VISION boards anymore, but let’s take a look at her last sure back on the show again,” she tells me. She’s even one and see how she did. She assembled it from magazine photos, headbeen rewatching Insecure from the beginning, which has been a complicated experience. “All these memolines, and other odds and ends at the behest of her publicist back in 2013, ries come up, so I can’t watch it purely objectively. And when she was between projects. It’s now framed on a wall in her makeshift home office in Los Angeles. Among other things, Rae, who was born then, of course, you look at performance stuff, you look Jo-Issa Rae Diop, wanted to cook healthier meals. To fall in love. To have at hair stuff, you look at appearance stuff. You’re just a house with a pool. The board, I can’t help but notice when she Zooms like, Okay, wow, I went on TV like that?” me around the room, also has an HBO logo on it and the words “TV Writer.” You could say the thing worked. Rae has indeed fallen in love—she has an enormous diamond engagement ETAILS ARE EVERYTHING on Insecure. Originally, ring, about which she deadpans, “I’m fully single.” And as for the show seemed like a glossier version of The her TV career, the world has increasingly fallen in love with her. Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, the gleefully When it debuted on HBO in 2016, Rae’s show, Insecure, misanthropic web series that helped Rae get Hollywood’s attention. Insecure follows Issa Dee, an was the first comedy in the network’s history of more than four decades to be created by and star a Black woman. It was aimless 29-year-old, and her best friend Molly, a polished lawan instant hit, praised by critics for its energizing humor, its yer. Issa, the character, is goofy and endearing. She’s working complex depiction of dating, and its adoring view of Los Angea dead-end job at a dubious nonprofit called We Got Y’all—the les. Insecure is to Inglewood and Crenshaw what Sex and the company’s logo is a white hand holding the silhouettes of three City was to Manhattan. The show hinges on Rae, not just as an Black children—and is initially stuck in a relationship with a jobexecutive—she cocreated it with Larry Wilmore and still writes less couch fixture named Lawrence (Jay Ellis). The first season and produces—but also as a nuanced, deeply relatable comic was funny and sexy but grounded: Issa kicks back in her room, actor. As Issa Dee, she is an everywoman with a Hollywood hangs out with her friends, and blows off steam by performing sheen, a glowed-up, doe-eyed version of you and your friends. nerdy raps and aggressive duologues to her own reflection, a Rae recently signed an overall production deal with HBO’s character lovingly dubbed Mirror Bitch. parent company, WarnerMedia, said to be worth $40 million. As the show grew, HBO became increasingly excited, upping She now has so many ventures in the works that she bought a budgets and scheduling it after Game of Thrones and Ballers, building seven minutes from her home to serve as her headquarwhich yielded a huge ratings boost and a spot in the network’s ters. With Insecure set to end after its fifth season this year, Rae’s lineup of must-see TV. Ending the show after five seasons was future is a little more open, a little less defined by the demands always Rae’s intention. “I pretty much go with my gut, and this of a TV production. She’s 36 and has nailed a lifetime’s worth is what my gut’s been telling me forever,” she says between sips of Jack Daniel’s honey whiskey with bitters. COVID has, naturally, made production harder. Extras for crowd scenes have to ROYAL AF be quarantined together in a hotel. Episodes have to be shot out A regal Issa Rae, of order, and work hours have to be trimmed. Production also photographed March 28 had to be shut down for two weeks after a background actor in Beverly Hills. tested positive. Rae happened to be the person closest to them and had to quarantine. Previous spread: On a Wednesday morning in March, Rae invites me to sit in Clothing by Robert Wun; earrings by on a virtual production meeting with her and 72 crew members, Ana Khouri. during which they inch through the logistics of shooting the Opposite: Top by Valentino Haute third episode of season five. First assistant director Toby Burge Couture; earrings reads through the script, pausing for notes and brainstorms. by Cartier High Jewelry. In the episode, Issa’s once and possibly future boyfriend,

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Lawrence, has to cook a meal. It will probably last all of four seconds onscreen. Still, it sparks a debate: What should Lawrence be cooking? What will it connote about his skill level? What will it say about his status in life, since he’s transformed over the seasons into a hyper-successful tech bro? “Lasagna!” Rae says. Someone else suggests ramen. Showrunner Prentice Penny jokingly pitches lobster thermidor. And so on. Ultimately, director Ava Berkofsky—who wears huge glasses like Sophia from The Golden Girls and radiates a tranquil energy—renders her verdict. “Lasagna’s complicated,” she says. “That’ll look good.” During the meeting, Rae is by turns attentive and dreamy, surreptitiously texting her coworkers, then trying to hide her smile when their responses make her laugh. She interrupts only occasionally, like when it’s suggested that Lawrence pay for dinner at a restaurant by pulling out his money clip. “He has a money clip?” Rae says. “Have we established that before? That’s what men do? What is he, a pimp? Y’all have money clips?” Penny unmutes to back her up: “He should not have a money clip. Just a wallet. He should just have a wallet.” They move on to the next scene. Rae seems like a surprisingly hands-off leader—not a micromanager but a team player on a team she built and trusts. Yvonne Orji, who plays Issa’s bougie best friend, confirms this for me, noting that Rae took a chance on Penny, Melina Matsoukas, Orji herself, and many others. “We were all first-timers in so many different ways,” she says. “I was a comedian, but this was my first major acting job. Prentice had been a writer, but this was his first showrunning gig. Melina had been doing music videos, but this was her first TV directing gig. Issa had to believe that we could do it, and she trusted her baby with us.… I wish that more people in power could have the same attitude. She literally puts people in positions and allows them to do their jobs. She lets people grow.” During one of our Zoom interviews, Rae gets a text from costar Natasha Rothwell, who’s directing an episode even as we speak. “Yvonne says she’s killing it,” Rae says proudly. But, lest I believe all the stuff about her being a beloved, beneficent leader, Rae assures me that she’s actually been driving her writers up the wall lately, particularly with her Insecure rewatch: “We’d be working on story and I’d be like, ‘But I watched season three, episode two last night.…’ And they’re like, Ugh, what’s she got to say now? What are you about to change now? What are you about to bring up?” At the time of the interview, the series finale has yet to be written, and Rae wants to make sure they’re following through on her original vision. Recently, she sent a “long, passionate letter” to Penny and executive producer and writer Amy Aniobi that began, “Okay! Came up with an idea I’m really excited about that consolidates some of the ideas that have been brewing for us…I was thinking of my own life and some of my long-term and long-distance friendships—and thinking of the reasons to gather our girls, that feel central to our show.…” Rae says the last three episodes of the series should feel like a cohesive triptych, and the fact that the episodes are being filmed out of order this year makes it even harder for her to track the season’s arcs as she watches incoming cuts. “I don’t know if it’s because it’s not complete, but I’m like, Is this”—she comically grits her teeth and lowers her voice—“not good?” I take all this to be a healthy, or at least semihealthy, sign of creative ambition. But when I ask Rae if she’ll star in her own

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shows in the future, she says something that surprises me, and I realize there’s another reason she’s putting pressure on herself. “Girl, no! I’m never doing this again,” she says. “Before you asked that question, I told myself I would never write and be in a show that I created again. It takes up a lot of your life, and I like to do a lot of things.” Rae slows her cadence, choosing her words carefully. “I love doing this show. I’m so grateful to be able to do this show. But that’s just not really for me.”

Rae and I talk, she’s wearing a giant pink Farm Rio cardigan over a white tank top and super-fleece sweatpants. She’s just received her first COVID vaccination, which she got at the Crenshaw Mall with a group of friends. “That shit has wiped me out,” she says. “I’m talking about chills, body aches. It’s not great. But yay, it means my immune system is good.” Even sick, she woke up at 4 a.m.—as she does every morning— to go for a walk and attend to business in the quiet hours. Rae also clears her mind by writing in her journal at least three times a week. She tried therapy in the past but is holding off until she can safely meet someone in person after the pandemic. “I guess work has been my outlet, which is sad,” she says. “Sometimes I’m like, Oh, I don’t have anybody to talk to who understands. [But] I also never want to be in a position to offer up my problems to somebody.” After her journal, the closest thing Rae has to therapy is astrology, though she insists that she’s not hyper woo-woo about it. She’s astrological in the sense that she checks out the app The Pattern for her horoscope from time to time and is fully aware of her Capricorn traits. Also, when I inform her that I’m a Scorpio, she has a question locked and loaded: “Do people tell you that you’re crazy?” (Answer: not to my face.) I ask Rae to read me her daily horoscope. She pushes her rolling chair away from her desk to grab her phone across the room—this shocks me a little, frankly, because everyone I know needs to maintain skin-to-skin contact with their phones at all times—and opens the app. After a moment, she laughs to herself, and a hint of embarrassment creeps up her throat. “Well, now it’s going to seem arrogant,” she says. “It just says: ‘Natural networker. You know how to put others at ease. In social situations, you’re intuitively aware of what people are thinking and do what’s appropriate in response.’ ” Well, it’s true, I tell her. I’m at ease in this social situation. Rae lets loose with a big laugh. Anyway, it’s not a bad reading for someone who built her career out of being comically uncomfortable in her own skin, literally stamping her brand with the words awkward and insecure. She attributes all this partly to her family. “We all think about the same uncomfortable situations and have very similar observations,” she says. “You could replace me with any of my siblings in Awkward Black Girl, and you would still get the same humor.”

HE NEXT TIME

AE COMES FROM a big, extremely close family. Asked

who the biggest Insecure fan in the bunch is, she’s hard-pressed to choose: “Maybe my sister. I don’t really know. Maybe my oldest brother on the low.” Rae was born in Los Angeles to an African American

teacher, Delyna, and a Senegalese pediatrician, Abdoulaye Diop. She has four siblings: Lamine, Amadou, Malick, and Elize. (One of Rae’s first web series, a mockumentary called Fly Guys Present “The ‘F’ Word,” was inspired by Lamine’s rap group and starred Lamine himself.) “I WISH THAT MORE PEOPLE IN POWER COULD The family moved around during Rae’s childhood, staying for a time in a luxuriHAVE THE SAME ATTITUDE,” SAYS ous home in Dakar, Senegal. In her 2015 memoir, Rae wrote that they had a mulYVONNE ORJI. “SHE LETS PEOPLE GROW.” tilevel house, a security guard, and two maids: “Life was great, for two years. Until my father attempted to build a hospital in Senegal and instead got ripped off by the government, losing most of his make things right. “He was like, ‘You should just talk to her. Let money in the process. That’s when, to my sadness and my older me set it up,’ ” she says. “It actually sparked an amazing two-hour brothers’ relief, we packed our bags to return to the States.” conversation. We had so much in common. She was like, ‘People The Diops moved to Potomac, Maryland, then back to L.A., don’t understand, I’m an awkward Black girl.’ In the same way that where Rae’s father was locally known thanks to the Inglewood I was upset about the limited portrayal of Black women, she was clinic on Manchester Boulevard that bore his name. Her parlike, ‘People do the same thing to me.’ I completely get that.” The ents divorced when she was in high school. That strained her relationship with her father for several years, though she talks conversation burrowed itself in Rae’s brain. With Insecure, she has actively expanded the scope of characters that Black women can warmly about him now. Rae, who speaks Wolof and French, hasn’t been back to relate to—and that mission will continue to guide her. Rae is now producing such a variety of things that she’s like Senegal since 2009. It’s one of the few topics that makes her someone who just came back from a buffet with a towering plate. noticeably gloomy. “I feel disconnected from it,” she says. Next up is Sweet Life, a docuseries in the vein of Laguna Beach and “I wanted to go back in 2020. That was going to be the year, and then that got derailed. But so much has changed.” She pauses, The Hills about Black 20-somethings living in L.A.’s tony Baldwin Hills neighborhood. The show was inspired by the 2007 BET falling silent for a few seconds. Much of her extended family has series Baldwin Hills, which Rae loved. (One of the managers at since left Senegal. “Yeah,” she finally says, loading the word to the hilt. “I just know that it wouldn’t be the same.” She’s proud of ColorCreative, Rae’s initiative promoting inclusion in TV, was a former cast member of the series.) Alongside Adam McKay, her Senegalese side, though, and eventually hopefulness warms up her voice. “I would love to have a house there,” she says. Rae is also producing an adaptation of Nice White Parents, a qui“I would love to take my future kids there, and maybe give them etly infuriating podcast about a public school in Brooklyn. She’s the same type of childhood and appreciation that my parents writing, producing, and starring in Perfect Strangers, based on gave us.” Rae’s fiancé, businessman Louis Diame, is Senegalese the Italian dramedy Perfutti sconosciuti, about a group of friends and Vietnamese. The pair met while Rae was in college, and she learning each other’s darkest secrets during a chaotic dinner said in her memoir that “from the very first five-hour conversaparty. And then there’s the second season of A Black Lady Sketch Show, the Emmy-nominated series that Rae executive produces. tion,” she knew she had met her match. Vanity Fair can exclusively report that Rae is also working In 2011, Rae made her web series, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, and carved a lane for herself, as well as for other on a revival of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s HBO docuseries Black girls who were gawky and antisocial, in the key of Tina Project Greenlight, which gave money and support to aspiring Fey in 30 Rock, or Larry David in everything. (Both are frequent filmmakers. The series is known less for the films it produced than for a scene in its final season, in which Damon pushed back touch points for Rae.) The archetype existed before she gave face to it, not that the industry’s largely white bosses recognized against producer Effie Brown for saying that the casting for the it. Both in interviews and in her memoir, Rae has told the story participants in the series should have been more inclusive. “When we’re talking about diversity, you do it in the casting of a TV executive who suggested that Lauren London, an actor who got her start playing the love interest in a spate of music of the film, not in the casting of the show,” he insisted. “Wow,” videos and in films like the drama ATL, would be a great fit for a Brown responded, visibly stunned. The scene sparked a backcable version of Awkward Black Girl. The moral of the story was lash and prompted Damon to issue a public apology. (Project Greenlight was canceled in 2016.) Rae’s excitement lies predominot only that executives were out of touch with Black women, swapping one for another even when they were nothing alike, nantly in offering overlooked directors a place to shine: “I want but also that dark-skinned Black women could be edited out of this version of the show to make filmmaking feel attainable.” their own narratives. In a twist that Rae didn’t anticipate, the Those who love Rae’s onscreen presence will be relieved to anecdote hurt London’s feelings. “One of my biggest regrets, hear that she’s also lining up more film and TV roles. She’s eager naming her,” she says. “She took offense to that.” to polish her acting chops, inspired by collaborators like LaKeith Stanfield, who starred with her in 2020’s The Photograph. Rae The duo made peace at Diddy’s birthday party two years ago, Rae says, spurred by London’s partner, the late Nipsey Hussle. remembers Stanfield telling her that he was still shaking off a The rapper approached Rae at the party and encouraged her to character he’d recently played in another film. “He was like, ‘You

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H A I R , F E L I C I A L E AT H E R W O O D ; M A K E U P , J O A N N A S I M K I N ; M A N I C U R E , E R I I S H I Z U ; TA I LO R , H A S M I K KO U R I N I A N ; P R O D U C E D O N LO C AT I O N B Y LO L A P R O D U C T I O N ; F O R D E TA I L S , G O T O V F. C O M / C R E D I T S .

production meeting, the number of participants dwindling from 73 to 18. Rae can be more animated here. More honest. The group discusses the various tension points that occur in the episode, including how ugly an argument between characters should be. (Aniobi, the RAE’S EAGER TO POLISH HER ACTING CHOPS: two writer and producer, says that she thinks it should have “the energy of ‘fuck you,’ “I’VE NEVER HAD THAT OPPORTUNITY. I JUST but saying ‘fuck you’ is too far.”) They discuss the deep fan hatred for Lawrence’s WANT TO BE ABLE TO SEE WHAT I CAN DO.” ex, Condola, and whether they can give her a redemptive scene that won’t feel like they’re simply pandering to their audience. They discuss one character going on a series of dates and how he should start with a girl who doesn’t feel too far out of his league. know how you’ll just black out when you’re playing a role?’ And “A layup,” Penny says. Rae gives him a disapproving look, but I was like, ‘Uh…yeah, yeah, yeah.’ ” She was only pretending she he continues: “Don’t women go on dates for food? ‘I’m about to could relate, she tells me now: “I’ve never had that opportunity. take this n-gga to get me a meal.’ Don’t women do that?” I just want to be able to see what I can do.” “I’ve never done that in my life,” Rae retorts, sounding very Years ago, Twitter became obsessed with a photo of Rihanna and Lupita Nyong’o sitting side by side at a Miu Miu fashion much like she has done that in her life. The room devolves into sidebar nation, everyone debating show, the former in espionage-grade shades and a furry yellow Penny’s point. and black coat, the latter in a crisp collared shirt and thick glasses. Users called for Ava DuVernay to direct a film based on the shot, “I don’t know,” Rae says finally, trying to end the tangent. with a script by Rae. In 2017, Netflix went ahead and actually “That was the most grandma answer!” says Penny, mimicksecured a deal for the concept, though Rae artfully dodged any ing her with a creaky voice. “I don’t know.” The meeting gets reflective at times, which is to be expected confirmation of the news when I interviewed her later that year. when a show is winding down long-running plots. The group She did, however, concede that the four of them had connected talks about tertiary characters in an upcoming episode and and were on a text chain together. Four years later, it seems less and less likely that the movie will ever be made, though Rae how they don’t want to repeat mistakes from a past season, in which two side characters felt too much like caricatures for still gets questions about it. “Every year without fail,” she says when I bring it up again. “Zero comment! Nothing has changed.” Rae’s liking. “What were we doing?” Rae says, with a resigned laugh. As if to taunt me some more, Rae tells me there is some kind “That wasn’t our greatest moment.” of secret movie with someone in the works, but she can’t talk Everyone agrees, until writer-producer Laura Kittrell interabout it in case it doesn’t materialize. “Otherwise I’ll just be rupts. “We did great,” she says confidently, which causes really sad, like, ‘Damn, I guess it’s not happening—and I talked everyone to dissolve into laughter. “It’s the last season. Let’s about that shit.’ ” celebrate ourselves. What are we doing?” “And I’ll blame you,” she adds. “I will.” She raises her brow and keeps a straight face. Then she busts out laughing. “I’m sorry, you’re right,” Rae says. She shakes her head, and smiles broadly. “Progression! Growth!” Hearing all this, I remember Yvonne Orji telling me about a conversation she had last fall with her costar Jay Ellis. “I was SIT IN ON one more conference with the Insecure team like, ‘Hey, fam—what do we do after this?’ You know when before my time with Rae is over. It’s known as the you work with people you like and you genuinely enjoy it? And “tone” meeting, and it’s less about logistics and more there’s no beef and you’re doing good work? I imagine it was about the feeling of an episode, and whether it’s hitting like that after the Obamas left the White House. If you were a the proper emotional beats. It follows directly after the staffer, do you just retire? Because, like, who you gon’ work for better than Barack and Michelle? Like, who? Does this exist WELL SUITED anywhere else? We had such a beautiful moment that probably Rae wakes every can’t be replicated.” morning at 4 a.m., ready to tackle Fortunately for them and us, the show’s not over yet. During her to-do list. the tone meeting, Jonathan Berry, who’s an executive producer, asks what Rae and Kittrell were laughing about in the producClothing by tion meeting, since it was obvious that they were messaging Givenchy; necklace by Cartier High each other constantly. Jewelry. Throughout: “It’s gotta be about me, right?” he says. hair products by Sienna Naturals; “I’m sitting here going, Maybe it’s about me!” adds Aniobi. makeup by Dior; Rae shakes her head fondly. “Wow,” she says. “Insecure nail enamel by Chanel Le Vernis. much?” n

THE M I S SI NG

M AG R I T T E The theft of a deeply personal painting by RENÉ MAGRITTE from a Belgian museum was a national tragedy. Now, an investigation points to a tragedy greater still By JOSHUA HUNT

WITHOUT A TRACE

Olympia, René Magritte’s portrait of his wife, painted in 1948.

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THE DOORBELL RANG

at 135 Rue Esseghem,

A MODEST ROW HOUSE

in Jette, a Brussels suburb. The concierge was occupied with a pair of Japanese tourists visiting the apartment, which had been home to the surrealist painter René Magritte and his wife, Georgette Berger, from 1930 until 1954, and was now a private museum. It was shortly after 10 a.m. on September 24, 2009. When she excused herself to answer the door, the concierge found two young men waiting at the threshold. One of them asked if visiting hours had begun; the other placed a pistol against her head and forced his way inside. The armed men quickly rounded up both tourists and the three staff members on duty, leaving them kneeling in the museum’s small courtyard, where Magritte had hosted weekly gatherings for painters, musicians, and intellectuals. With the hostages out of their way, one of the thieves jumped the glass partition protecting the tiny museum’s centerpiece: Olympia, a 1948 portrait of the late artist’s wife, pictured nude with a seashell resting on her stomach. The painting measured 60 by 80 centimeters and was estimated to be worth 2 million euros. Belgian police arrived within minutes, summoned by an alarm triggered by the removal of the painting. But by that time, the thieves had returned to a getaway car that sped off toward the neighboring suburb of Laeken. It was uncommon in those days for small museums to bother installing surveillance cameras, so police had to rely on sketches of the two suspects, who appeared to be in their 20s. Interpol described one suspect as short, of Asian descent, and an English speaker, while the other was described as a bit taller, of European or North African descent, and a French speaker. Brazen as it was, the robbery seemed to be the work of professionals—a daring, high-value heist carried out with speed and precision by men who knew how to handle weapons, how to deal effectively with 44

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hostages, and how quickly to expect a police response. They had also been clever about selecting their target. Magritte, whose surrealist paintings influenced the work of Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, and Jasper Johns, is a national treasure in Belgium, where a number of museums display his work. But the thieves had avoided larger, more secure metropolitan museums in favor of one exceptionally valuable painting from the artist’s former home, open only by appointment, leaving slim chance they would arrive to find it packed with more visitors than they could manage. With little to go on, one of the first police officers to reach the crime scene called someone he knew could help: Lucas Verhaegen, a veteran officer with Belgium’s Federal Police force in a specialized unit called Section Art. Last August, when I met Verhaegen at police headquarters in central Brussels, he recalled the investigation from behind his tidy desk, next to a table piled high with old case files. He wore gray slacks, a short-sleeve button-up, and the scuffed black dress shoes favored by detectives and those who play them on TV. His face served as its own goodcop-bad-cop routine: friendly, disarming smile; penetrating blue eyes. “They know very well what they must do when there is a theft,” Verhaegen said of Belgium’s local police. “But when it’s art theft, what we need is a very good description, a photo; a maximum of information, very quickly, because we know that a lot of stolen objects go abroad. In the first hour, sometimes it’s in another country.” Verhaegen was 51 at the time of the Magritte heist and had been a cop for two decades. It was a childhood dream that he pursued only after earning degrees in agronomy and biochemistry, then working for a few years in the private sector. His law enforcement career began with a five-year stint on the local police force in

Brussels, where he patrolled the central district of Belgium’s capital city. Next he worked as part of a special intervention unit that investigated organized crime and managed underworld informants; he specialized in Eastern Europe. When he joined Section Art in August 2005, Verhaegen’s years of particular experience proved surprisingly useful: Serbian gangs are heavily involved in trafficking stolen art and antiquities, Verhaegen told me, along with organized crime networks that can be traced to Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, and elsewhere in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. “Our borders are open,” Verhaegen said. “It’s very easy to do an important art theft here in Belgium and then the same night, or 15 hours later, they are in Croatia or in Albania. There they can sell [the art] to finance their own criminal activities: drugs, arms, prostitution.”

art theft unit was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1796 and was focused not on stopping plunder but carrying it out on a scale unseen since the Romans took precious artifacts as spoils of war from Athens, Sicily, and Jerusalem. Napoleon’s repository for looted treasures was the Louvre, in Paris, where many of the works he acquired remain. In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars and again after the First World War, a patchwork of treaties gradually tried to regulate the looting, destruction, and trafficking of art and antiquities. Modern art crime, like the arms trade, still thrives in the shadow of global conflict, which gives rise to criminal networks that make from the detritus of war immensely profitable commodities. “There are master thieves and master forgers, but they are in small supply,” said Jake Archer, a special agent with the FBI’s art crime team. “More so, it’s accurate to say that there are transnational organized crime groups that are treating these objects just as they would any other illicit chattel.” Outside of agencies like Interpol, the practice of art crime investigation tends to reveal the national priorities, and even the national character, of the highly specialized local agencies tasked with enforcement. In Germany, for example, the roots of art crime investigation at the Bundeskriminalamt trace back to postwar efforts to recover pieces looted by the Nazis; in France, the Central ONTINENTAL EUROPE’S FIRST

R E N É M A G R I T T T E , O LY M P I A , 1 9 4 8 , O I L O N C A N VA S , 6 0 X 8 0 C M , B A N Q U E D ’ I M A G E S , A D A G P, PA R I S © 2 02 1 A R T I S T S R I G H T S S O C I E T Y , N E W YO R K . M U S E U M FA Ç A D E & B U Z Z E R : L U C & R E N A U D S C H R O B I LT G E N / R E N É M A G R I T T E M U S E U M , J E T T E - B R U S S E L S . I N T E R I O R : D A N U TA H Y N I E W S K A /A L A M Y.

Office for the Fight Against Trafficking of Cultural Goods investigates not only art theft and forgery but the counterfeiting of luxury items like Hermès ties or Louis Vuitton bags; and in Italy, where even the architectural landscape can qualify as protected cultural heritage, the mandate of a carabinieri commando force includes the investigation of crimes involving archaeological goods. (This is no small task, an officer from the carabinieri tells me: In 2017, they went looking for signs of looting at Greek and Roman archaeological sites in Calabria, in southern Italy, and ended up uncovering a transnational gang in possession of some 10,000 pilfered artifacts.) Belgian police first established a Bureau of Art and Antiques in 1988. Thirteen years later, when Belgium reorganized its law enforcement agencies, the unit became part of the country’s federal police force and was renamed Section Art. Its team built and maintained a database of some 20,000 stolen objects and assisted local police departments throughout Belgium. In 2003, even as its staff began to dwindle, Section Art gained renewed prominence due to the increase in trafficking of illicit art and cultural goods which resulted from the U.S. invasion of Iraq. According to one investigation, as many as 130,000 items were ransacked by assorted criminals and opportunists, who sold them to Iraqi middlemen, who then resold them to foreign dealers. Under such circumstances, it does not take long for an illicit supply chain to take shape: Because looted art and antiques lack the kind of documentation required for legitimate transport, professional smugglers are tasked with getting them into the hands of unwitting collectors, dealers, and auction houses. And because these smugglers specialize in shipping drugs for cartels, guns for arms dealers, and prostitutes or laborers for human traffickers, looters who start as amateurs soon gain professional experience through their association with this diverse array of criminal talent. In time, organized crime syndicates were joined by another major player in this illicit market for looted Iraqi treasures: the extremist group known as the Islamic State, or ISIS. In Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State sought to shore up dwindling oil revenue by selling raided cultural antiquities, which were sometimes trafficked through Belgium, where

IN SITU

The René Magritte Museum in Jette, where the artist resided for nearly 25 years, was open only by appointment.

the Islamic State had no fewer than three major terrorist cells. One of these cells was called the Zerkani network, with members based largely in Molenbeek, an impoverished neighborhood in Brussels that is more than 40 percent Muslim. The group’s leader, Khalid Zerkani, was so effective in radicalizing Molenbeek youths that some called him a “sorcerer” who enticed recruits to pick pockets and rob tourists in order to raise funds. Certain key members of this network were, according to Belgium’s federal prosecutor, Frédéric van Leeuw, members of Molenbeek street gangs who became radicalized while serving time in prison. It was Van Leeuw who first told me about the theft of Magritte’s Olympia canvas. On a cloudy afternoon in January 2020, we met at his office in Brussels, where I was conducting research for a

book. As part of my research, I’d asked the federal prosecutor to explain the challenges of linking terrorist organizations to their financial backers, which he agreed to do over tea. When I arrived at his eighthfloor office, overlooking the sprawling Belgian capital, he poured himself a cup while staring down at Molenbeek, which has been called by its own mayor “a fertile ground for terrorism.” Since taking office in April 2014, Van Leeuw has been a driving force behind legislation imposing more severe punishments on former Islamic State fighters returning to Belgium, making him a prominent figure in Europe’s broader fight against extremism and terror. But prosecuting those responsible for financing terrorist acts, he said, has become increasingly difficult due to microfinancing, Bitcoin, and the growing ties JUNE 2021

between terror groups and other organized crime networks. He used as an example a case which he’d been unable to prosecute: A thief had “stolen a painting [by] Magritte here in Brussels,” Van Leeuw said, and “tried to have some money from the insurance companies” in exchange for its return. Years later, when police learned that the man had been radicalized, Van Leeuw became convinced that the art-napping had been a means to finance terror. But, he emphasized, this was only a theory— one that could not be proven in court unless he was able to show that financing

surprised his FBI colleagues with a special gift. “He grows his own grapes and makes his own wine,” Archer said. “We enjoyed the bottle thoroughly.” Celebrations like these are likely to grow rarer in years to come. Despite being one of the most profitable criminal enterprises in the world, surpassed by drug trafficking, arms dealing, and human trafficking, among others, transnational art crime is viewed as a niche field by law enforcement agencies and is allocated fewer resources now than even a decade ago. For Verhaegen and his partner, as the last practitioners of

theft,” Verhaegen said, his bosses considered the case low priority, which made it impossible to muster the necessary personnel and equipment. With few resources at their disposal, Verhaegen, his partner, and a small team of local police set up a low-budget sting operation: el-Bakraoui, who fit the physical description of one of the thieves, had made contact with Olympia’s insurance underwriter, offering them a chance to pay a “reward” of 50,000 euros for the painting’s safe return, rather than having to pay out the full 800,000-euro claim made by the museum.

When art museums fall prey to men more used to robbing banks, the results can be unpredictable: A painting might be ransomed or burned to ashes. terrorism was, at the time of the heist, the end goal. The time for proving such things, by then, had passed.

masterpiece was no small task for Section Art. Belgium’s elite unit, which launched with 17 officers, had been diminished by waves of retirements and years of budget cuts. When Verhaegen joined, he was one in a team of five; by the Olympia theft, Section Art consisted solely of Verhaegen and his partner. “He has a fundamental understanding and appreciation of the art world; he possesses the investigative patience, the persistence, and savvy that is necessary to navigate both the domestic and international legal systems,” said the FBI’s Archer, who once collaborated with Verhaegen to recover seven paintings by the late Belgian surrealist Agnes Lorca, stolen long before from a fly-by-night gallery in Philadelphia. “He values teamwork, which is crucial on these complex matters. He has a big heart and cares for the victims and the pillaged works. And he enjoys a touch of eccentricity that is common among the few of us dedicated art crime investigators.” When Archer and his partner delivered the recovered paintings to Lorca’s daughter in Brussels, Verhaegen 46

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their craft in Belgium, every phone call was important, whether it was from the FBI, Interpol, or local police. The highprofile Magritte heist raised the stakes: Recovering Olympia would be a chance to show their budget-slashing superiors why Section Art mattered. While helping his colleagues at Interpol prepare an alert for the missing painting, Verhaegen also assisted local police in Jette by fielding and analyzing tips from a network of informants in the art world and the Brussels underworld. It didn’t take long to develop information suggesting the involvement of a well-known organized crime figure. But rather than the Balkans or Eastern Europe, this information led to a working-class enclave in the Laeken neighborhood of Brussels, and a 20-yearold local named Khalid el-Bakraoui—the thief Van Leeuw would tell me about years later—who was growing out of teenage delinquency and into a life of crime and violence; a homegrown gangster, raised by conservative, religious parents who had made a nice life in Laeken after his father emigrated from Morocco. Because the heist involved guns and the threat of violence, a federal prosecutor granted investigators’ requests to employ “special techniques”—surveillance, wiretaps, and undercover operatives aimed at clarifying el-Bakraoui’s role and gathering evidence—but “because it was art

For insurers of fine art, such legally dubious arrangements are so routine that established “reward” rates are an open secret: as low as 3 percent of the insured value for items worth many millions of euros, and as high as 7 percent if the object is insured for 1 million euros or less. Market rates for ransom payments are not the only sign of the professionalization of art theft. In many of these art-nappings, when the thieves don’t have a way to contact the victim or the insurance company directly, they instead seek ransom payments through an intermediary in the murky world of art security. One such private enterprise is the Art Loss Register, which maintains an expansive database of stolen art. Unlike those maintained by the Belgian police, Interpol, and the carabinieri in Italy, anyone can query the database, making it a resource for honest buyers hoping to avoid stolen art as well as a kind of hotline for those hoping to ransom stolen objects. In some cases, Verhaegen says, these private firms have gone as far as facilitating payments through shell corporations in the Maldives or Panama, making them difficult for police to trace. But even these efforts don’t guarantee a painting’s safe return, especially if it’s been stolen by thieves unfamiliar with this tangle of unwritten rules. “What you have quite often in these

museum thefts,” manager of International Art Fairs Will Korner tells me from the Art Loss Register headquarters in London, “is a high degree of planning in terms of the theft itself but very little planning, if any, as to what they will do with the object after they’ve stolen it.” When art museums fall prey to men more used to robbing banks, the results can be unpredictable: Depending on the nerve of the thief, a painting as famous as Olympia might end up being ransomed, traded for drugs, or burned to ashes. So Verhaegen’s team set a trap: The insurance underwriter for the stolen Magritte agreed to pay the suspect 50,000 euros, but, they said, to ensure that the canvas was indeed Olympia, they demanded the transaction be facilitated by an expert— in actuality, an undercover police officer working as part of Verhaegen’s small team. El-Bakraoui agreed to the meeting without hesitation, but when the day arrived, he canceled. A second meeting was arranged some days later, but he canceled that one too. With assistance from the special intervention unit, Verhaegen’s team might have been able to keep elBakraoui under surveillance and scope out the meeting place ahead of time, but lacking equipment and personnel, all they could do was wait for a call from a suspect who thought the police were onto him. In the end, the local police opted to recall the few officers they’d assigned to the case. Officially, the investigation remained open. But without officers working on it, the case went nowhere.

the robbery, late in 2011, a retired cop named Janpiet Callens walked into a Brussels police station and handed over the Olympia canvas. “I was contacted by someone who wanted to return the painting,” Callens said to local media at the time. “The work was unsellable. They preferred a return to the owner over destroying it.” Callens, then 62 years old, had taken his pension in 2009 and started a private consulting business. His role in recovering the stolen painting, barely two years into his retirement, made him an instant celebrity in certain art world circles. But his clients are mostly insurance companies, he says, and the work he does for them consists primarily of unglamorous tasks like investigating fraudulent claims and uncovering forgeries. WO YEARS AFTER

“When I retired they were very happy to have someone who knew the market,” Callens told me one hot afternoon in August, when I met him for a beer at a café in Brussels. Now 71, he possesses the countenance of a man very nearly at leisure and arrived wearing a mint-green polo shirt, buttoned to the top, with a fitness watch on one wrist and a Rolex Sea-Dweller on the other. His ascent into the world of fine art and fine watches hardly happened overnight. Early in his career, Callens spent 15 years busting “prostitutes and pimps” as part of a vice squad. Longing for something more and no longer enamored with nightlife, he went to work as a kind of liaison for Interpol, he says, before returning to the ranks of the federal police in Belgium, where he joined a unit focused on financial crimes. Many of his cases there involved highdollar thefts and fraud, including art, antiques, and collectibles. One case, Callens told me, involved a pair of men who bought unsigned paintings in the style of middle-class artists, added their forged signatures, and sold them for 500 or 1,000 euros. In the beginning, they were cautious, selling just one or two paintings each month. But because the scam kept working, they eventually grew bold enough to bring 80 of these paintings to a Brussels auction house—which soon led Callens to their door. “They couldn’t stop,” Callens said. “Because money, money, money.” In the end, the men received a light punishment, Callens said, because judges and lawyers think of art theft and forgery as crimes that only affect rich people. This, he told me, is a mistake— these are greedy criminals, not romantics, and society coddles them at its peril. Fortunately for Callens, he is now in the private sector, where he is no longer bound by the strictures and protocols that apply to police officers. “I have more freedom now,” Callens told me. “I’m not so restricted. I can go over the line.” Take the Magritte case, he said. In the months after the robbery, Callens told me, he heard that the thieves had not yet managed to unload the Olympia canvas, so he enlisted the help of an informant from his days on the police force, who told him the following: The Olympia robbery had been carried out on behalf of a Magritte-obsessed collector who walked away from the deal due to the intense

media coverage. The stickup men—whose identity Callens said he never knew— understood its value and had tried on a few occasions to sell the painting before deciding to work with the insurance company directly. “Two times it was presented to undercover policemen,” Callens said, referring to Section Art’s attempted sting operation. “But in both cases, they understood and knew they were policemen.” Some two years after the robbery took place, Callens said he asked his informant to relay a message to the person in possession of the Olympia canvas: “It’s famous, nobody will buy it because it’s in the press, it’s on databases,” Callens recalled saying. “So, if you want, I can make a mediation with the insurers.” In the end, 50,000 euros bought it back for the insurance company, which paid him his “standard fee”—one that he declined to disclose. He also didn’t mention one relevant fact about his association with the Magritte case: In late 2009, not long before he left the police force, taking his pension two years ahead of schedule, Callens was among the officers tasked with investigating the Olympia robbery, with access to all the information in the case file.

N 2013, NEARLY two years after Olym-

pia’s recovery, thieves broke into the Van Buuren Museum, yet another private home preserved for its cultural significance. Built in 1928 by the Dutch banker David van Buuren and his wife, Alice, the red brick building in a municipality south of Brussels called Uccle is filled with paintings, sculptures, and a piano that once belonged to Erik Satie. In a reception room where the Van Buurens had once greeted esteemed guests like Christian Dior, Jacques Prévert, and Magritte, the walls were adorned with James Ensor’s Shrimps and Shells, and The Thinker by Kees van Dongen. In a little more than two minutes, a couple hours before sunrise on July 16, the intruders escaped with these paintings, plus 10 other works. Neighbors saw as many as four men leaving the crime scene in a BMW; one said he heard them speaking French. In the years since the Magritte heist, Verhaegen’s only other colleague in the art crime unit had retired—he was now Section Art in its entirety. With a small team of Uccle police, he chased down leads and worked informants, to no avail. JUNE 2021

Early on July 16, 2013, thieves stole The Thinker by Kees van Dongen, along with 11 other works, from the Van Buuren Museum.

A few weeks after the Van Buuren robbery, police in Uccle received a visit from the retired cop turned consultant Janpiet Callens. If they brought him into the fold, he claimed, he could help them solve the case and recover the missing paintings. But the architects of the Olympia heist remained at large years after Callens delivered the painting, and Uccle police didn’t take him up on his offer. (Multiple requests for comment went unanswered by representatives of the Uccle police department.) According to Verhaegen, officials are often hesitant to work with private detectives and consultants in the art world because, he says, they “stimulate just that type of theft and illicit markets.” They have been known to aggressively seek out the identity of victims from the police, then hold back information that might aid criminal investigators. 48

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Around this time, Callens told me, he was contacted by an “unknown person” regarding the Van Dongen painting. Acting on behalf of the insurer, Callens says he met with this individual and proposed a “[finder’s] fee” of 10 percent of the painting’s value. Callens later received an SMS message saying the amount was insufficient, and says he had no further contact. Callens’s website describes his services as offering “guidance through the wilderness of police and private databases.” While Belgian law prohibits police officers from working as private detectives for at least five years after retirement, and Callens returned Olympia just two years after leaving the force, he stays within the red tape by identifying as a consultant and, he says, contracting recognized detectives when needed. When I asked, via email, whether he hired a detective in the Magritte case, he responded, “This was [not] necessary in this case. I have not conducted a proactive investigation.” However, he had previously described to me the lengths he’d taken to track down Olympia:

K E E S VA N D O N G E N , L A P E N S E U S E , 1 9 07, O I L O N C A N VA S , 6 5 X 5 5 C M , © 2 02 1 A R T I S T S R I G H T S S O C I E T Y , N E W YO R K /A DA G P , PA R I S .

THE LADY VANISHES

“I contacted one of my informants from my former [unit] and said, ‘Look, you can’t do anything with it. It’s [known], it’s famous. Nobody will buy it because it’s in the press....’ ” Verhaegen, a stickler for the rules, avoided such gray areas, but in early 2014 his personal stakes in the Van Buuren case ratcheted up even further when he was told that his unit would soon be shut down completely due to budget cuts. If he could bring in the thieves on such a high-profile case, he thought, he might be able to save the department. With few resources and a ticking clock, Verhaegen rededicated himself to the thin evidence he had to go on, and a gnawing hunch: He had felt from the beginning that the robbery was related to the 2009 Magritte heist. Nearly two years into the investigation, he finally found evidence that seemed to confirm this. In March 2015, police received information that Khalid el-Bakraoui—the man who had been a prime suspect in Verhaegen’s Olympia case, and who authorities believed was the recipient of the 50,000 euro payout arranged by Callens—was trying to make contact with the insurance company responsible for the Van Buuren Museum’s policy. In the years since his last brush with Section Art, el-Bakraoui had been busy. About one month after the Magritte heist, he’d grabbed a Kalashnikov rifle and robbed a Brussels bank along with two accomplices. Two weeks later, after carjacking an Audi S3, el-Bakraoui was detained by police who found him in a warehouse filled with stolen cars. Somehow, he evaded charges until September 2011, when he was convicted of criminal conspiracy, armed robbery, and possession of stolen cars and weapons. His prison sentence began around the time Olympia was recovered, and he was paroled, with an electronic monitor, two months before the Van Buuren Museum heist took place. El-Bakraoui’s believed involvement in the case offered hope for the art crime unit. Because he was already making inquiries about ransoming paintings from the Van Buuren robbery, bringing him in would simply be a matter of securing the insurance company’s cooperation. Once again, the insurance underwriter agreed to refer el-Bakraoui to an independent expert who was, in reality, an undercover police officer. But an anonymously sourced article soon

appeared in the national press stating that the police had made contact with the suspects in the robbery. This was seen as a warning, according to a member of the investigation: Someone with inside knowledge was sending a message to the art-nappers to let them know that the police were onto them. Following the article’s release, el-Bakraoui went dark and once again slipped away. Verhaegen would not hear his name again until March 2016, when it was on the lips of everyone in Belgium.

N JUNE 2015, authorities in Gazian-

tep, Turkey, detained Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, Khalid’s older brother, on the suspicion that he was planning to enter Syria to fight for the Islamic State. But instead of extraditing him to Belgium, where he would have been incarcerated for violating the terms of his parole, Turkish authorities, at his request, sent him only as far as the Netherlands, and he returned to Brussels on his own. Ibrahim was, like his brother, already associating with men with known terrorist links. In 2010, he had been involved in what the mayor of Brussels then called a run-ofthe-mill crime, an attempted robbery of a Western Union. Armed with a Kalashnikov, Ibrahim shot a police officer in the leg before escaping with his colleagues to a home in Laeken. Police caught up with them there the next morning, and el-Bakraoui was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He served less than half of his sentence, during which time his radicalization only accelerated, before being paroled in October 2014. Seven months after his brother’s parole, in May 2015, Khalid el-Bakraoui was arrested for meeting with a known criminal, which was a violation of the terms of his own parole. But because he was otherwise in accordance with the conditions of his release, the judge set him free. In August, after he once again violated the terms of his parole, Interpol issued a warrant for his arrest, but he evaded capture by using the alias Ibrahim Maaroufi. In September, he rented an apartment 40 miles south of Brussels, which was used as a safe house by Abdelhamid Abaaoud and other Islamic State militants as they plotted and carried out terror attacks in Paris in November 2015, killing 130 people. Just four months later, the el-Bakraoui brothers carried out their own terror

attacks in Brussels: On the morning of March 22, 2016, Ibrahim blew himself up in the departure hall at Zaventem airport; just over an hour later, Khalid blew himself up while riding inside a train pulling out of Maelbeek station. The explosions killed 32 bystanders. “I saw it,” Verhaegen says. “We have here the same guy. So I made a report for our direction and commander in chief, and their comments were very laconic. Just: ‘Okay, it’s not proof that they used that money for their terrorist activities.’ ” Belgian law enforcement were widely criticized for allowing the el-Bakraoui brothers to evade detection when both men were on parole and, at various times, under surveillance. But it was only in the aftermath of the Brussels terror attacks, Van Leeuw tells me, that a clear portrait of the brothers and their radicalization emerged. Verhaegen, meanwhile, feels that even now there is a reluctance to

working as a volunteer tour guide in Overijse, the village where he was born. Months later, when I tell this to Archer at the FBI, he laughs. “A local docent,” he says. “As I said, a touch of eccentricity.” In the meantime, Verhaegen still has crimes to solve and thieves to catch, preferring to busy himself with open cases rather than closed ones. “Everyone makes his choice,” he tells me. Callens, meanwhile, seems content to spend his retirement courting the moneyed private clients who Verhaegen will be happy to ignore. Instead of dwelling on what his efforts might have accomplished a decade ago, Verhaegen remains focused on what they can do now. These days, he says, he’s worried less about high-end art thefts than collectibles, like coins and stamps, which have recently become a target for suspects with known links to the Islamic State.

Someone with inside knowledge was sending a message to the art-nappers to let them know that the police were onto them. accept all that has transpired. In an email, he expresses bafflement over my conversation with Belgium’s federal prosecutor. “When I reported the facts to our direction in 2016,” Verhaegen wrote, “the direction refused to accept this link. And the investigators of terrorism never asked for information about the stolen artifacts.” In 2016, Section Art was formally dissolved, and Verhaegen was assigned to another unit. But art crime cases kept coming in, and local police kept sending their files to Verhaegen’s boss asking for help. So, after seven months, Verhaegen was given permission to work solely on art crime cases, albeit without a formal unit. He shares a small office with one younger colleague. In preparation for retirement, Verhaegen is training her to use the database of stolen art. His colleagues sometimes tease Verhaegen about how much money he stands to make as a freelance consultant, but he tells me he isn’t interested in that. “All that money,” he says. “I’m happy without it.” He wants to spend his retirement

“Every day I go through Maelbeek station,” he tells me. “Every day I’m thinking about that bomb attack. It [could] happen tomorrow. Or this evening.” Before leaving Brussels, I too pass through Maelbeek Station, on my way to a multi-faith cemetery in Schaerbeek. When I arrive, a series of signs guide me to the grave of René Magritte and Georgette Berger, where I find a handsome tomb, adorned with a fresh bouquet of flowers. In pursuit of the same men Verhaegen once chased, I walk a short distance to a plot of land reserved for Muslim graves. The most modest of these have no headstones and are marked only with small metal plates inscribed with the names of the dead. Somewhere among them are the remains of Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, buried under a false name so that his grave may not become a site of pilgrimage for other jihadists. His brother Khalid may be buried nearby, but I can’t be sure. Like the masterpieces stolen from Uccle’s Van Buuren Museum, the whereabouts of his remains are unknown. n JUNE 2021

The day before the Capitol riot, a private jet filled with rich, white Memphians zipped up to D.C. to stop the steal. Those eight passengers debunk the myth of “poor little Trumpers” and illuminate a much deeper cultural rift By ABIGAIL TRACY

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Illustrations by ZOHAR LAZAR

JUNE 2021

initially denied knowledge of it. “I don’t know anything about a rally like that,” he said in a phone conversation, suggesting that Vanity Fair might have meant to contact John Dobbs Sr., his father. Dobbs Jr. said he was about to board a plane—at the time of the call, the Bombardier Challenger 300 registered to Baron Partners was in Colorado—and ended the conversation, but he did not hang up his phone for several minutes. During this period Dobbs could be heard discussing the phone call from Vanity Fair. When an unidentified person suggested somebody was “messing with” Dobbs, he dismissed the notion. “Were you there at Coca-Cola Woods [an Arkansas hunting club] when they called me?” Dobbs said. “They called me; the Commercial Appeal [a Memphis newspaper] was going to do an article, and it was going to be publicized. It was going to be all over, you know, Gwinnett [Editor’s note: He likely meant Gannett, the largest U.S. newspaper publisher, which owns the Commercial Appeal] was going to pick it up.” The unidentified individual responded, “No comment.” Dobbs then said, “Well, I told ’em, I said, I don’t know what you’re talking about”—he laughed— “You must be talking about my dad or something.” Then, “God, the last thing I want to do is talk to them.” When the unidentified individual said, “As your part-time spiritual adviser, do not talk to them,” Dobbs responded, “It wouldn’t be as bad now. I don’t know why, why is it still—why is it still a story for them?” None of the individuals in the photo responded to questions about their potential involvement in the Capitol riot. But the rally, which Trump promised beforehand would “be wild,” was an amuse-bouche, and flying a private jet to attend it is not an example of passive politics. As court documents and Justice Department indictments reveal, for many alleged insurrectionists, it was Trump’s rhetoric leading up to and during the “Stop the Steal” rally that motivated them, a dark reality that ultimately laid the foundation for his impeachment. It’s hard to say what being identified might mean for the people in the picture. Do they regret having gone to the rally? Do they disavow the violent events that followed it? If so, they did not take the opportunity to tell Vanity Fair. Neither did they embrace their leader. So what is the culture that cradles such individuals?

At 12:11 p.m. on January 5, an eight-seat Bombardier Challenger 300 jet took off from Memphis International Airport. A little over an hour and a half and one time zone later, it touched down at Dulles, just outside of Washington, D.C. The following day a seditious horde of Donald Trump supporters, unapologetically encouraged by him, mounted an insurrection to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. “After this we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you,” the 45th president told attendees of the “Stop the Steal” rally gathered at the Ellipse, a park a little over one mile from Capitol Hill. At 2:11 p.m., the first of the mob had breached the Capitol on the west side of the building, near the Senate chamber. At 5:34 p.m., the sergeant at arms informed lawmakers that the Capitol was secure. At 6:39 p.m., the Challenger was wheels up, an hour behind schedule, according to flight data. It touched down in Memphis at 7:25 p.m., back in Central time. As the dust settled in the capital city, the aperture of the moment largely focused on the most violent (the ones with zip ties and stun guns) and the most outrageous (the shirtless QAnon shaman). And while lawmakers reckoned with what would come next—would Vice President Mike Pence invoke the 25th Amendment? Would the inauguration bring more violence?—a murmur began to bubble among Memphis’s lily-white country club elite. Did you hear John Dobbs flew his buddies to the capital on his private jet? A photo posted to the Instagram account of George Zanone III features the lineup: John Hull Dobbs Jr., Zanone, Carter Campbell Sr., Vince Smith and his wife, Kaki Valerius Smith, brothers Dan and Bob McEwan, and Timothy Curran mug against the backdrop of the nose of a private jet alongside the caption, “Go follow @memphispatriots,” plus a Washington, D.C., location tag. That account existed only briefly, featuring the jet 52

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photo as its profile picture and one image in its feed that seems to place the group proceeding toward the Capitol after the rally. The account has since been deleted. The plane photo also disappeared from Zanone’s social media grid, otherwise a memorial to dead ducks and deer, but not before a few quietly horrified members of local society could screenshot it. As for the Bombardier Challenger itself? It is registered to Baron Partners, a limited liability company that shares the same address, down to the suite number, with Dobbs’s eponymous investment firm, Dobbs Equity Partners. Cumulatively, the individuals in the photograph with the plane are worth millions of dollars, with business interests that span the Southeast: sizable stakes in auto dealerships, financial firms whose earnings rival those of Wall Street shops, a chunk of the Corky’s BBQ chain, major real estate developments, hospitality services with clients including Marriott and Hilton hotels, and registered “plantations,” which are used as hunt clubs. Their cohort is emblematic of a certain segment of rich, white American society where the so-called quiet part is cacophonous background noise—private schools, booster clubs, country clubs. In Memphis there is a black-tie ball and festival where men and women, including Dobbs, dress up as royalty and anoint one another “queens,” “princesses,” and “kings.” This society is to the manor born, and the conservatives among it have little to do with the caricature of the down-on-their-luck, economically anxious Trump voter of media lore. To wit: In the aftermath of the “Stop the Steal” rally and Capitol riot, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, a state lawmaker, and a successful Texas real estate agent were among those swept up by law enforcement for their involvement. When Vanity Fair asked Dobbs about the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, he

And what happens in the communities where they live, work, and wield influence? (Dobbs did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Dan McEwan declined to speak to the magazine when reached by phone and did not respond to further questions sent via email. Campbell, Bob McEwan, and the Smiths did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Vanity Fair. Zanone died unexpectedly on February 26.) “You guys are relative masters of the universe, yet you feel the need to be up there and participate in this coup,” says one Memphis-born source who is younger but knows a number of the private-jet playgroup members through various social connections. “What happened that you decided not only this is your guy, but that you’re gonna hop on a private jet and go up there and participate in this?”

A TALE OF TWO CITIES Trump handily won Tennessee in the 2020 election with 61 percent of the vote. But in Shelby County, which encompasses Memphis, the results were the inverse: Biden won with 64 percent. Traditionally, the city, 64 percent Black and 29 percent white, is a blue stronghold in a sea of red. People from various backgrounds who have lived there describe a

segregated world, one steeped in a rich culture but ever tiptoeing around that tension. It’s the home of Sun Studio, where B.B. King and Elvis Presley recorded, and Stax Records, the label of Otis Redding and Booker T & the M.G.’s. Tourists flock to Beale Street, Graceland, and the National Civil Rights Museum. But as that museum—itself built around the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated—showcases, Memphis suffers from a persistent conflict between race and power. Last year Shelby County commissioners declared racism a public health crisis. “Memphis has had this complicated relationship with race in the South. It has wanted always to be better but has always struggled to figure out how to do that. One of the ways you can see this is for years, there were two separate school systems,” says Jesse Holland, an assistant professor at George Washington University’s School of Media & Public Affairs, pointing to the differences between the county school system of mostly white kids, “who wanted for nothing,” and the city system of mostly Black kids, who “wanted for everything.” Growing up in the 1970s, Holland, as part of a school-integration effort in Memphis, was bussed to the Colonial Acres neighborhood to attend Sea Isle Elementary

instead of Hanley Elementary in his neighborhood of Orange Mound, the first neighborhood in America that was built for African Americans by African Americans. “Just like many other places in the South, when the schools were desegregated, the affluent whites, the ones who could afford to, ran away to the private school system.” Poplar Avenue stretches the entirety of Memphis. Its root at the edge of the Mississippi River downtown is the oldest part of the city, a working-class enclave that cradles the seat of the city government and the Walter L. Bailey Jr. Criminal Justice Center. As you head east, there is a noticeable shift. Fast-food restaurants and bail-bond joints give way to a large Catholic school, a Presbyterian church, and, due north, Rhodes College. Once you reach Midtown, “you’ll start to see a really solid enclave of solidly middle-class and upper-class homes,” says Charles McKinney, an associate professor of history and the Neville Frierson Bryan chair of Africana studies at Rhodes College. When you get to Chickasaw Gardens, “it just gets whiter and whiter and whiter.” Continuing east on Poplar, past Chickasaw Gardens, is River Oaks, where Dobbs grew up on Shady Grove Road, in a mansion with a lake. Between the two neighborhoods is Belle Meade,

where he and his wife, Katherine, live today, in an 11,500-square-foot house that Zillow values at $2.3 million. Southwest of Chickasaw Gardens is Orange Mound, the neighborhood where Holland grew up. “As a child, you were warned, ‘These are places you can go; these are places you can’t go; you are to stay within the boundaries of Orange Mound.’ I understand why parents and adults would tell you this as a young Black child, because there are areas in Memphis that you could go into that they were afraid you would never come back from,” says Holland. “Still to this day, I don’t go to Chickasaw Gardens.” Last June, just months into the COVID-19 pandemic—which has disproportionately impacted communities of color—and as the George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests reached a crescendo across the country, Shelby County commissioners approved a resolution that declared racism a “pandemic” too and committed to policies “that unequivocally defend minorities and aim to eradicate the

than nationally,” they emphasized, “and this is cause for great concern.” The stratification within Memphis is layered—as one Memphis native puts it, there’s a “big city, small town” feel—within which the worlds get even smaller. “You’re either in the Memphis country club or you’re just kind of not,” says a source who is the same generation as Dobbs and grew up with him in Memphis, among the elite. “And the Memphis country club is sort of a nexus of this white privilege for generations and generations.” This is the world of Dobbs, et al.; a world where guest lists are never unfamiliar, one of charity boards and church, of golfing and hunting, of naming your sons iterations of Jr. and III.

MONEY GROWN ON A TREE The family wealth goes back generations, according to a humble origin story on the Dobbs Equity Partners website: “In 1921, James K. Dobbs took out a $25,000 loan and opened his first Ford auto dealership, alongside business

Among his cohort, John Dobbs Jr.’s résumé is a study in predictability. He graduated from the prestigious all-boys Memphis University School in 1985, then went to Duke University, where he majored in political science, and closed the loop with a master’s degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina. Now he boasts membership in the Young Presidents’ Organization—for, yes, young presidents of businesses—and the International Order of St. Hubertus, a “knightly order” for hunters and conservationists. (Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had been among a conclave of the men-only fraternity when he died of natural causes in 2016.) The Children’s Museum of Memphis campus became the Katherine & John Dobbs Family Center after the couple donated “the largest single gift in the history of the museum”— a gift that coincided with Dobbs’s reign as “King John.” Carnival Memphis, his dominion, is a centerpiece of Memphis privilege, variously described to me as “Mardi

Bob follows Trump fan pages and PAC pages; mixed in is a sprinkling of accounts featuring seminude women, such as “Hotties Boating.” effects of systemic racism affecting Black people and other minorities.” The overall poverty rate in Memphis, according to a 2020 report from University of Memphis researchers—with data that predates the pandemic—is 21.7 percent. Broken down by race, gulfs in prosperity come into focus. Among Blacks and Hispanics/Latinos, the poverty rates were, respectively, 26.1 percent and 29.2 percent. In contrast the poverty rate among non-Hispanic whites in Memphis was in the single digits, at 9.3 percent. Similarly, for non-Hispanic white Memphians the median household income was $69,395 relative to $35,668 for Black households and $38,864 for Hispanic/Latino households. “The differences between the poverty rates of minority groups and nonHispanic whites are striking,” the authors of the study wrote, pointing out that Memphis ranks second for child poverty and is the second poorest metro area with a population greater than 1 million. “The disparities between non-Hispanic whites and Blacks are much more severe 54

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partner Horace Hull. After just three years, the dealership was grossing over $1.25 million”—approximately $19 million in 2021 dollars—“and within 10 years, Dobbs sold that dealership for 10 times the loan value. Thus, began the Dobbs family’s three generations of successful investment in private companies.” The family expanded into the restaurant and airline catering business. In 1998, Dobbs Automotive Group offloaded its 22 dealerships—a total that reportedly made it the third largest automotive retailer in the country at the time—to AutoNation for more than $200 million in stock. “It takes acumen, persistence, planning, and some luck to build a successful business, but all of these, and some incredible timing, combined in spades to grow the Dobbs family dynasty,” reads a 2014 story in the Memphis Business Journal. “Most Memphians have heard of the Dobbs family.” (Barry Pelts, the co-owner of Corky’s BBQ, in which Dobbs Equity Partners began investing in 2018, declined to comment for this story.)

Gras lite” and “just a lot of pomp and circumstance.” Previously the “Cotton Carnival,” it began in 1931 to “promote business and draw attention to cotton”— which is still one of the region’s cash crops and forever linked to the legacy of slavery. The carnival now is pitched as a philanthropic event to raise money for three local children’s charities; the website boasts that it has hauled in “more than $3.2 million with matching funds” since 1999. (Or roughly one seventh the cost of a Bombardier Challenger 300, which retails for about $24 million.) Two of the three of the charities it supports, according to executive director Ed Galfsky, are in part dedicated to children who live in Orange Mound. Carnival Memphis also appears to be a fantastic opportunity for white Memphians to cosplay as royalty. Every year a Memphis business tycoon is crowned king and paired with a young queen, typically a college-age woman, who is therefore decades the king’s junior. For a week they rule—but not before ponying up thousands of dollars for the honor.

According to the July 2011 issue of RSVP magazine, the coronation of Dobbs went as follows: The evening began with the presentation of King John Hull Dobbs Jr. and Queen Kate Orgill Smith, whose long velvet train was carefully carried by her pages. Then, the 36 princesses were presented, most of whom were accompanied by their fathers, with their escorts following close behind. After the royal court was assembled, the princesses and their escorts processed out of the room, and the next phase of the program began. Carnival kings and queens from years past were introduced and paid homage to the 2011 king and queen, after which the kings and queens of each of the Grand Krewes, along with their dukes and duchesses, were presented. The Secret Order of the Boll Weevils was the last group to enter, and each member brought a segment of what was constructed into a huge Boll Weevil, behind which appeared a similar visage of King John and Queen Kate.

“It’s pretend aristocracy,” says a source. “It’s not like your average person in Memphis is coming out for the parade.” A scroll through the names of past royals is a codex to Memphis’s oldest and wealthiest families, and the Dobbses make many appearances. “As Carnival Memphis celebrates our 80th Anniversary, John Hull Dobbs Jr. has been chosen to reign as King to honor a very important industry in the Mid-South—the health care industry which is an integral part of the area’s economic base,” reads Dobbs’s king announcement from 2011. “King John and his family have a great history with Carnival as well. His cousin, John C. Dobbs also served as King of Carnival in 1984. Our King is a long-time member of the Grand Krewe of Osiris and has stayed involved with the organization over the years. King John Dobbs started his Carnival involvement at a young age when he was a Carnival Page in 1976 during the reign of King M. Carter Stovall and Queen Dorothy Dunavant. King John was the Prince of the Memphis Country Club in 1986. His father, John H. Dobbs Sr., was the recipient of the Cook Halle Award at last year’s Business & Industry Salute.” In 2017, Edward Johnstone Dobbs, John Jr.’s brother, was king.

Despite the projected grandeur, sources paint a picture of a weeklong country club bacchanal, during which men dressed as boll weevils—an insect parasitic to cotton—run around causing mischief. “The Secret Order of Boll Weevils was founded in 1966 as a secret society. The initial mission was to have mischievous fun with the Memphis Cotton Carnival elite, crash their parties, and make Memphis Cotton Carnival a little more colorful experience (much like real life boll weevils creating mayhem on cotton crops),” the Carnival Memphis website reads. Though the Boll Weevils too have apparently “evolved into a support group for what is known today as Carnival Memphis. Most importantly though, today’s Boll Weevil group is a community service group for the Mid-South. Donned with green capes and masks, they travel throughout the city on a green bus and a 1941 green fire truck with anonymity. Led by their Evil Eminence, Todd Brown, they visit retirement homes, hospitals, the less fortunate, those with disabilities, and many other facilities, helping spread joy and financial support wherever they go.” But one former Memphis resident has a different take: “You can’t see their faces. They’re drunk for a week. They pinch girls’ butts. They grab you. They’re just nasty.” Another younger Memphis native whose family still participates in Carnival Memphis echoes the sentiment. “You literally see these men trashed, preying on these young princesses. You’re just keeping all of these misogynistic and racist traditions alive.” The whiteness is overwhelming. “I can sympathize with people who have a sanitized view of the past and want to celebrate what they considered to be the heyday of the Old South,” says Holland. “But when you think about what it took for that heyday to come about— why would anyone whose families had to sweat and bleed for their heyday to come about want to celebrate it with them?” There has never been a Black king or queen of Carnival Memphis, according to several people. When asked whether this was true—among specific questions regarding the connotations of cotton and boll weevils, the diversity of the organization, and certain carnival revelers’ “Stop the Steal” attendance—Galfsky did not address the inquiries directly but pointed to the organization’s charitable work, adding, “Carnival Memphis is not

a political organization, has no political leanings, makes no political contributions, and has no political affiliations. “We welcome people of all races, religions, sexual orientation, and backgrounds who share in that dedication to promoting the Mid-South as a great place to live and raising funds to better the lives of children in this community. If those who do not understand this mission want to criticize us, that is their business,” Galfsky said. “As an organization dedicated to fostering understanding, enjoyment, and involvement of the Memphis area’s diverse population, we do not in any way condone violence or lawlessness or harassment of any kind.” As McKinney notes, Memphis, on the banks of the Mississippi, “cut its teeth as a distribution center,” but it also functioned as a major hub for selling people into slavery. “Those two things come together to shape the dynamics of race and power in Memphis,” McKinney explains. The largest employer in Memphis is Federal Express, which reinforces that interplay, McKinney argues. “We need low-wage workers. We need Black people; we need Black people encased in a lower socioeconomic caste,” he says. “That also puts the brakes on any sort of overly transformative evolution of racial dynamics in the city, since the need for labor in 2021 is really similar to the need for particular types of labor from 1921.” This is the throwback that Carnival Memphis celebrates—a #tbt to the days when white men ruled and Black people picked cotton. “It’s not unique to Memphis. A lot of Southern cities are trying to make this move,” McKinney says. “There’s this veneer of inclusion, this veneer of civility, this veneer of ‘This is an opportunity for us,’ in air quotes, ‘to come together and celebrate our city, celebrate the region,’ but if you scratch the surface: No, it’s not, right?”

“MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE” On the whole, Dobbs’s plane gang is made up of “very charismatic people,” says a source who has various social connections to the individuals and is white. “You would meet them and think, like, Wow, that’s a great person—as long as you didn’t delve too deep into anything.” A third-generation “George,” Zanone had a family farm in Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas—a literal plantation—and a JUNE 2021

business entity called Zanone Plantation LLC, per court documents. According to an obituary, his father, George Zanone Jr., “held considerable influence in his community” and “was also known for his generous Southern hospitality, always welcoming friends to the lake house and hosting impromptu parties and dinners.” A trail of legal documents show that George III earned a living operating hunting clubs, including more than 7,100 acres in eastern Arkansas. Prior to 1998, George Zanone III operated a duck-hunting club on this land under the name of Green River Gun Club. His obituary notes that he split his time between Memphis and Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas, where he was a “major sponsor” of 4th of July fireworks. Vince Smith has established himself as one of the most prominent residential developers in the Memphis area. As of April 2020, he had three major projects under way in Lakeland and downtown and Midtown Memphis. On its website, one of them, Museum Lofts, promotes proximity to the National Civil Rights Museum as an amenity. The biggest of the three, according to an article in the Memphis Business Journal, is Lakeland Commons, which “is set to cost $42 million and include 150 residences and 21,000 square feet of retail.” For at least

a period, his wife, Kaki Valerius Smith, also pictured, dabbled in millinery after “her fascination with headgear began with an article she saved about making hats,” per an article in Memphis magazine. While an apparent eponymous website is defunct and her Etsy portal lists only one sale of a hat listed on the storefront back in June 2010, “she has designed hats for weddings and Kentucky Derby parties, and even put together a giant poppy flower hat for a flower show gala.” Like Dobbs, Carter Campbell and the McEwan brothers have all gone into some variation of finance or investment. Campbell founded National Property Concepts “to optimize bank branch properties with innovative solutions”— like plopping a Starbucks inside a bank as brick-and-mortar banking becomes increasingly obsolete. Campbell sits on the board of trustees of Memphis’s Presbyterian Day School, which “strives to glorify God by developing boys in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” (“We have no information regarding the issue or incident,” a spokesperson for the Presbyterian Day School said in response to a request for comment on Campbell and the rally.) After stints with investment and development firms, Dan McEwan founded Maximum Hospitality, which “manages

upscale, urban and boutique hotel properties with an obsession for maximum return on investment,” according to the website. (A spokesperson for Marriott declined to comment. A representative for Hilton told Vanity Fair that the Home2 property associated with McEwan’s firm, in Lubbock, Texas, is operated by a separate individual or entity.) His older brother, Bob, rose through the ranks at Raymond James after the $1.2 billion acquisition of a smaller investment firm, Morgan Keegan, in 2012, “creating one of the country’s largest full-service wealth management and capital markets firms not headquartered on Wall Street.” At the time of acquisition, Raymond James announced, “Bob McEwan is sales manager of the rookie sales program.” (Raymond James did not respond to a request for comment.) More recently Bob was listed as the managing director of the company’s fixed-income capital market in a press release naming him as a member of the chancellor-search committee at the University of Mississippi. On Instagram, Bob follows a mix of Trump fan pages—even those dedicated to figures like Kayleigh McEnany and Candace Owens—and PAC pages, such as @americafirstgop; mixed in is a sprinkling of accounts featuring seminude women, such as “Hotties Boating.” On

Twitter on January 13, he liked a missive from the account of Conrad Black that read, “This will be the second impeachment proceeding where a full transcript exists exonerating the president.” A day earlier he did the same with a Nick Adams tweet that read, “There is no Republican Party without Donald J. Trump!”

“THEY FELT CALLED” When Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016, many—mostly white—pundits tried to explain away his victory as a consequence of economic anxiety—perhaps an easier pill to swallow than the reality that his outwardly racist appeals had found an audience, one motivated to go to the polls. The “Trump voter in a diner” tropes became parody over Trump’s four years in office, but even in the weeks following the January 6 Capitol attack, economic anxiety was trotted out as an explanation. “A majority of the people arrested for the Capitol riot had a history of financial trouble,” headlined an exclusive from

“It goes to show—and more so than anything about Memphis—how the big lie that Trump put out there didn’t just appeal to people who were middle income and lower or lesser education.… This big lie attracted people that were well educated and have high-income economic status. And I think that was true throughout the country,” Congressman Steve Cohen, who represents Memphis’s district, told Vanity Fair. “It was an insurrection, it was a seditious effort to take over the government and manipulate the process so that the people’s will wouldn’t be heard through the Electoral College.” “The fact that people came up there that were educated and apparently supported such a proposition—although they might not have known what it was going to be like when they took off from Memphis— but just coming up there for Trump and he’d been speaking for months, months before the election even,” Cohen added. “He had set the stage for so long.” Cohen, who was in the gallery of the House

with in the South a lot, the presentation versus the reality.” The 45th president has emboldened people who previously felt they had to “mute their true feelings about race,” as McKinney, who also doesn’t know those pictured, puts it. As for why someone initially sent the picture to Vanity Fair and what the fallout may mean for the group, the answers come down to a desire to address systemic inequity. One person sums it up thusly: “No one wants to rock the boat ever—even if it’s not to be malicious or get back at someone, if it’s just simply to hold people accountable for their behavior that they’ve perpetuated for decades.” Club clout may be the best way to understand the type of “economic anxiety” that Dobbs and his planeload suffer from, one defined not by credit card payments and water bills, but by the status quo and the systems of inequity that undergird affluence and privilege. The type of people who attended the “Stop the Steal” rally, says McKinney, did not

“Clearly they went up there because they felt called,” a Memphis resident says. But called for what exactly? The Washington Post: “Trail of bankruptcies, tax problems, and bad debts raises questions for researchers trying to understand motivations for attack.” While this may be true, it was surely not economic anxiety that prompted Dobbs and his crew to hop on his private jet and fly to Washington, D.C., the night before the “Stop the Steal” rally. Lined up against the nose of that jet, maskless, in financebro regalia, the group seems far from money woes. “Clearly they went up there because they felt called,” a current Memphis resident in the same social circle says. But called for what exactly? According to a Capitol Police spokesperson, roughly 20,000 people were screened by the Secret Service at the Ellipse, where Trump held his “Stop the Steal” rally, and another approximately 10,000 to 15,000 people were estimated to be outside the metal detectors at the park. Per the spokesperson, the latest official count of the number of people believed to have breached the barriers and entered the Capitol is approximately 800.

chamber during the attack, added, “Anybody who did that had to understand that this was possibly an earthshaking change that would be coming on that day and that something was going to come other than just rhetoric.” Something about Trump resonated with Dobbs enough for him to fuel up the jet. One source who knows Dobbs muses, “They want you to think that they’re a bigger deal than they are.” Another says, “As a human being, I would say, honestly, [Dobbs is] very Trumpy. He’s into his brand. He’s into wanting to be noticed. He wants to think that he’s very attractive. He wants to be known.” Holland, who does not know the people in the photograph personally, takes a broader view: “The difference between racists in the South and racists in the North is that racists in the North will stab you in the front; racists in the South will stab you in the back and smile while doing it. The Southern genteel attitude is just a façade for a lot of people…. That’s one of the things that we’ve had to deal

go about life “in some sort of benign, neutral, and benevolent way and then on January 5, they suddenly lost their minds. January 6 was an opportunity for them to articulate frustration with the loss of their racist president. But it was also a moment, of sorts, of affirmation and convention. It was a moment of congregation of like-minded people who have been engaged very explicitly in the work of subordination.” “Just like Memphis, the U.S. Capitol was built on the backs of African slavery. It is the highest disrespect to see insurrectionists damage and destroy historical buildings that would not be there without the effort, the sweat, and the blood of African slaves,” says Holland. “They showed no respect for the government for which they claim they are part of, and they’re definitely not showing the respect for the efforts and the labor of the people who were forced to work on that building. Just like they very rarely show respect for the people who built Memphis into the way it is today.” n JUNE 2021

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SENSATION

FEVER PITCH

Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) is unfailingly kind, even when met with a locker room full of players who initially want nothing to do with him.

Ted Lasso naive, but look, that kind of talk is not appreciated around here. Of all the shows that hit big this year, the Apple TV+ comedy about the unflappable soccer coach brought the greatest and giddiest blast of optimism to an overwhelmingly grim year. As Ted, Jason Sudeikis was the friend that many of us needed. He became a word-of-mouth sensation because we just had to share. “We certainly couldn’t have predicted the dumpster fire that the year was going to be,” says showrunner Bill Lawrence (Scrubs) who cocreated Ted Lasso with Sudeikis. “The whole writing staff talked about how the world, specifically social media and politics, had gotten to such a cynical, dark place that it was just pervasively gross. If I was to meet someone like Ted Lasso in real life, my first assumption would be: ‘I can’t wait for a week from now when this person reveals himself to be an asshole like everybody else.’ ” In the series, which returns for a second season on July 23, Ted proved that instinct wrong again and again—just think of the biscuits he’s secretly baking for team owner Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham, pictured left), letting her think at first that they come from a store. “When that person turns out to be actually kind and forgiving and empathetic and lovely,”

DAW N OF T H E T E D ! Ted Lasso, the culture-clash comedy about an American football coach in England, made the case for kindness in a difficult year BY ANTHONY BREZNICAN

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CLOSE TALKER

Juno Temple’s Keeley, the model girlfriend of one of the team’s star players, is one of many characters who reveals new depths as the season continues.

IN THE TANK

Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) is one of the first AFC Richmond players to buy in on Ted’s ethos of kindness—and convinces the rest of the team to get on board. AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

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Lawrence says, “then you’ve got to look at yourself.” Ted Lasso was precisely who he appeared to be, but curiously, he was the only one. “By the end of the show, you saw each character very differently from how you initially saw them,” says Juno Temple, who plays Keeley, a model and the girlfriend of AFC Richmond’s narcissistic star player. Such a character might have been written as shallow and conniving in another program, Temple acknowledged, but the coach’s sincerity brings out the hidden depths in everyone. The friendship that springs up between Temple and Waddingham’s characters was a particularly central part of the show—and a welcome surprise in a story largely about sweaty men. “That was a really precious thing to put on film,” Temple says, but also one that happened off-camera, “Hannah Waddingham just being an extraordinary female goddess in my life.” Ted Lasso was the real deal, even if he was fictional. The fantasy of the series was aspirational: Maybe there really are good people out there. Maybe we could be one of them. n

COSTUMES

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Much of Beth Harmon’s arc happens internally: her struggles after being orphaned, her plight as a female chess prodigy, her battle with addiction. Designer Gabriele Binder used color strategically to telegraph those struggles— green, for instance, to mark when Anya Taylor-Joy’s character lost her mother, then again when she seemed to heal. “When she gets to Moscow and the final game, we came back to this green color to show that she is reconnected again,” she says. Binder modeled other looks after different 1950s and

PA S T PRESENT There’s more to period dress than corsets, as the designers behind some of this season’s most beautifully attired series can attest—from re-creating Halston fashion shows to duplicating The Rock’s childhood athleisure BY J U L I E M I L L E R

and goes to New York Warhol’s Factory style.” Binder wanted to signify

from alpaca wool, which emulate the silhouette of “We wanted to make a point, but without losing the costume language of the whole series.” 68

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CHECKMATE

Taylor-Joy in The Queen’s Gambit.

The series bounces

movie star was a child when Johnson was

and the not-so-distant future, when the fictional Johnson is running for president. (He has not actually confirmed that he plans to run for office…yet.) Evans accommodated each story line, whether the wardrobe called for retro wrestling gear, ’80s sweaters, or a Woody Woodpecker starter jacket. She estimates that she relied on vintage clothing for about 60 percent of the wardrobe while custombuilding the rest. “I felt like we were re-creating this moment that had this grounded-authenticity feel to it,” she says.

JEANS

Bradley Constant as 15-year-old Johnson, rocking an intense (and period-perfect) acid wash.

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The Underground Railroad, based on Colson Whitehead’s 2016 novel, depicts the antebellum-era path to freedom as a literal railway. Costumer Caroline Eselin naturally looked to history to inform her designs: “I think we found every published daguerreotype, painting, drawing, etching of the enslaved that we could.” The show’s characters travel to several different states as their quest unfolds, all requiring a slightly different sartorial approach. “Each state in the story is its own world,” Eselin says. “I am proud of the realism we achieved in Georgia. I am proud of the uniformity BUTTONED UP

Thuso Mbedu as Cora.

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of South Carolina and the hybrid 1850s–1880s world we built there. I’m proud of the wicked, dark, terrible world with a huge and almost grotesque 1830s sleeve that we built in North Carolina; the rugged burned world of 1850s Tennessee; and the beauty and ease, if you will, of our progressive Indiana farm.” Cora and Caesar, the story’s central characters, “do not have many personal choices,” says Eselin. That explains their minimalist costumes, which cloak the characters through nightmarish journeys. “Cora goes through the worst hell in this story—from cotton fields to swamps to wilderness and burned-out territory to underground train tunnels.” She telegraphed Cora’s journey by the wear in her wardrobe. “We made many multiples of her pieces and aged them in the stages of her journey. We had dirt samples from all of our locations and used those dirt colors on the costumes.”

DESIGN WITHIN REACH

Jeriana San Juan brings a style icon back to life.

forward-thinking driving force in fashion.” She also spoke to Chris Royer, a model for and good friend of Halston’s, about “the textures and fabrics he wore, how he occupied the space in a room, and the very unique way that Halston wore menswear.” Says San Juan, “He had such a sensitivity to fabric and to drape. Even his sports coats were often made out of a crepe wool, which is more traditionally used in womens wear to soften the shoulders of his designs. He created a unique pattern for his pants that was almost like 1940s sailor pants, which allows the fabric to drape more elegantly along the leg. Those little details helped clue me in on and develop a silhouette for him that captures that ease and elegance.” AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

T H E U N D E R G R O U N D R A I L R O A D : K Y L E K A P L A N /A M A Z O N S T U D I O S ( 2 ) . S K E T C H : A L A N V I L L A N U E VA . S T I L L : C O U R T E S Y O F N E T F L I X . H A L S T O N W I T H M O D E L : D O N H O G A N C H A R L E S / T H E N E W YO R K T I M E S / R E D U X .

Ewan McGregor channels the designer in a sumptuous new series charting Halston’s rise as a modernist and his fall, precipitated by impulsive business decisions, before he died at age 57. Costume designer Jeriana San Juan had the daunting task of re-creating Halston’s personal closet, as well as his most iconic designs. “I wanted to highlight how evolved his aesthetic was,” she says, “and to show his collective tribe of collaborators as these bon vivants that were in juxtaposition to the rest of the world.” San Juan was able to pick the brain of Halston’s own head tailor, Gino Balsamo. “It was pretty much the finding-the-needle-inthe-haystack moment,” she says. “He came to my workroom and helped me literally develop the patterns to the jackets exactly as he had for Halston himself.” One favorite re-creation was a long jacket with a sheen that the real-life Halston wore to an art opening. San Juan had the jacket made in patent leather: “It did feel so futuristic, slick,

MUSIC

CHANGING THEIR TUNES Five shows that used existing music in fascinating ways this season—from scoring gravity-defying pole dances with Megan Thee Stallion’s rap songs to making a chamber piece out of an Ariana Grande hit

B R I D G E RT O N

Netflix’s Regency-era drama made a splash for several reasons—its nontraditional casting, its steamy sex scenes, and its innovative take on classical music, which put a sophisticated sheen on recent hits by featuring orchestral arrangements of pop songs like Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy,” Maroon 5’s “Girls Like You,” and Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams,” many performed by the Vitamin String Quartet. Music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas said she “pulled over 100 songs” before finding the 5 that landed in season one. “I love that the audience might not recognize it right 72

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I L L U S T R AT I O N S BY D E W E Y

SAUNDERS

away—that the song would sneak up on you,” she says of the arrangements. Bridgerton’s composer, Kris Bowers, cites the early 20th-century French pianist and composer Maurice Ravel as a key influence. “I wanted to make the score have as much of a modern feel to it as possible,” he says. The cover of Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next” in the pilot holds a special place in his heart—a shining example of Bridgerton’s uncanny ability to combine worlds. “I think it’s my favorite because it’s our introduction to the ball— to the grandeur of the storytelling and to our covers project.” —Chris Murphy AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

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MUSIC

DICKINSON Apple TV+

Emily Dickinson stands in an empty opera theater, next to an accomplished soprano who warns that the spotlight is not everything she may want it to be. As in so many pivotal moments in Dickinson, the music accompanying the moment is modern: “Light On,” a 2018 single from Maggie Rogers. As hopeful and ambitious as our protagonist, the song bridges Dickinson’s past and our present, cutting through period-piece trappings to present the famous poet as someone viewers might know. DeVoe Yates, Dickinson’s music supervisor, calls the show “a very fun playground to work with.” He began the season with a playlist of songs

that fit its themes, from eyesight to fame, working with showrunner Alena Smith to incorporate her specific requests—she knew she wanted “Light On” featured somewhere—and combing through his selections to find, say, the right contemporary club song for a barn dance scene. (It’s “Gon Blow” by Cakes da Killa.) Sometimes the songs are on the nose, and that’s the point. A Litty Kitty track called “Serve It Up,” for example, accompanies the preparation for a tea party at the Dickinson home. “It just adds a layer of humor to the show,” Yates says. “Just having fun, really.” —Katey Rich

P - VA L L E Y Starz

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“There is such a musical tapestry in the area, and I think the fact that it’s a mythological city let us open things up a little bit,” Diaz-Matos says. “We hit hard all of our contacts, trying to find as many women—southern artists from everywhere from Texas to Florida to Atlanta.” Their ambitious curation coincided with the latest explosion of women in rap. As Bromberg says, “When we were doing the show at the end of 2018, beginning of 2019, Megan Thee Stallion”—whose music Bromberg brought to the show—“hadn’t even been signed to a major label.” —Cassie da Costa

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P-Valley’s theme song, “Down in the Valley,” is a thrillingly bombastic introduction to playwright Katori Hall’s series about strippers at a club called the Pynk, located in the fictional Mississippi town of Chucalissa. Developed from a demo by Memphis rapper Jucee Froot, the singsong, nursery rhyme– esque opening bars slap, as they say. Music supervisors Stephanie Diaz-Matos and Sarah Bromberg collaborated with showrunner Hall to cultivate a “trap noir” or “Delta noir” sound throughout the season, largely featuring songs performed by Black female rappers.

AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

MUSIC

ZO EY ’S E X T R A O R D I N A RY P L AY L I ST

Because Jane Levy’s title character sees people’s innermost feelings as elaborately choreographed dance numbers set to pop favorites, showrunner Austin Winsberg and his writers are deeply involved in selecting the songs they want their show’s cast to perform. Then it’s up to music supervisor Jen Ross to wrangle the rights, often from some of the biggest artists in the world. “We have such a shorthand now because we’ve done this so many times,” Winsberg says. “When I’m even thinking about the songs, I’ll send her a couple, and she’ll tell me right off the bat, ‘This one will never clear’ or ‘This

SMALL AXE: LOV E R S RO C K

artist is very challenging.’ Sometimes we just take the big swings.” Now that the show is familiar to musicians and songwriters, it’s a little easier. In season two, they scored the rights to Andra Day’s “Rise Up,” Charlie Puth’s “One Call Away,” Queen’s “I Want to Break Free,” and Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off,” each reflective of a character’s resilience and yearning. “The whole theme of the season was about the need to ‘Carry On,’ ” Winsberg says. That song, by Fun, “was the one that I had wanted very early.” Like almost everything else on Zoey’s wish list this time around, they got it. —Anthony Breznican

Amazon

When Small Axe music supervisor Ed Bailie first met with director Steve McQueen about Lovers Rock, an installment of McQueen’s ambitious film series, which focuses on a house party in the early 1980s, there was an awkward hitch. “I was going in with the script all scribbled on,” Bailie says, “and just kind of, ‘There are certain songs that you just can’t have. No matter how much money we throw at it—no matter what we do—there are rights issues.’ ” Thankfully, what resulted was a compelling and imaginative playlist with a mix of essential hits—like Janet Kay’s “Silly Games” and Carl Douglas’s “Kung Fu Fighting”—as well as 76

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deep cuts culled from crate digging for dub-reggae remixes. Bailie was inspired by McQueen’s attention to detail: “He was thinking about the smells of the room, and the rumble of the wall, and ‘Are we going to see sweat dripping down the wall?’ ” Over the course of the party, the music transitions from airy lovers’ rock to bass-heavy dub, dotted with strategic gaps filled by characters who blissfully sing along. “The fluidity of the experience that is caught on camera is genuine to the way that [McQueen] shot it,” Bailie says. “The energy and the room was like a real party at times; he made that event.” —C.D. AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

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DESIGN

F LI G H T O F FA N CY Globe-trotting HBO Max series The Flight Attendant offers pandemic-age escapism with luxe locations from Bangkok to Manhattan BY JOAN NA ROBI NSON

WHEN THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT

premiered on HBO Max in November, a world locked down by the coronavirus pandemic was offered a chance to escape—both into the show’s twisty mystery and the far-flung cities where Kaley Cuoco’s Cassie tries to figure out how her one-night stand in Bangkok ended in murder. The Thai capital recurs throughout the show as Cassie returns in her mind to the hotel suite where her fling Alex (Michiel Huisman) met his end. The room, built on a soundstage in New York City, shape-shifts in a wide range of fantasy sequences, with design elements heavily inspired by real Thai interiors. The rest of the time, however, Bangkok plays itself. “We 78

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felt like it was important to transport the audience and transport Cassie into places that truly could not be experienced by her in New York,” says production designer Sara K White. Walking with Alex through a Bangkok night market or floating down the Chao Phraya River with the Wat Arun temple in the

background, Cassie is introduced to the audience as a high-flying if troubled glamour girl—an illusion the series will eventually bring crashing down to earth. “She comes from a place that doesn’t have a lot of privilege, and she sort of snuck into privilege by virtue of her career,” White adds. “Going to those

TO MARKET Real Bangkok locations, including this night market, played themselves whenever possible.

main locations was really important to us.” Filming on location in Bangkok and Rome, The Flight Attendant managed to wrap its international shoots before the pandemic shut everything down. But even back in New York, White and her team were able to find locations that put an evocative cosmopolitan shine on the production. The Vessel, Thomas Heatherwick’s massive architectural artwork in Hudson Yards, looms over a scene outside Alex’s apartment—which includes a pointed critique from the building’s doorman. “That came from [series creator] Steve Yockey’s own experiences with, uh, opinions around the Vessel,” White says. n AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

C U O C O : P H U L C A R U S O . S K E T C H : S A R A K W H I T E . H O T E L R O O M : S P E C N E R L A S K Y. H U I S M A N A N D C U O C O : J I R AT H I T S A E N G AV U T.

where Cassie (Kaley Cuoco) returns in fantasy sequences to piece together a romantic night that ended in murder, was built on a soundstage with heavy inspiration from real Thai interiors.

BEAUTY BY A HAIR

H U E A N D C RY In Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You, hair sets the mood BY LAUR A REGENSDORF

second episode of I May Destroy You, Arabella (played by writer and codirector Michaela Coel) acquiesces to a nap. She’s sorting through shards of memory— what she will later realize was a drug-facilitated sexual assault in a London bar— but for now, her friend Terry (Weruche Opia) is tucking

PARTWAY INTO THE

her into bed. “Where’s your headscarf?” Terry asks, fishing in the nightstand drawer for it. It’s an everyday gesture made visible—an example of how I May Destroy You speaks volumes in subtle details. As the show’s makeup and hair designer Bethany Swan explains, “If you’ve spent the time to glue your wig down and do your edges, your best friend is not going to let you go to sleep and mess it up and put your hard work to waste.”

TWO OF A KIND Michaela Coel as Arabella and Weruche Opia as Terry.

Coel’s 12-episode HBO-BBC series is a story about many things: trauma, consent, the alchemy of the creative process. Throughout, hair is an essential element of that narrative arc. At first, “the only cue within the script was pink hair,” Swan recalls of Arabella’s defining look from episode one. “The color was sort of the catalyst for everything.” Coel’s hair was newly shorn at the time of filming, so the solution was a wig: shoulder-length in a shade of bubble gum with dark roots. “She’s sort of stuck in a rut with her writing, and the color itself is a bit more washed out,” Swan says. “She’s at a crossroads, really.” The correlation between Arabella’s spin-cycle moods and hair developed from there. In energetic flashback scenes set in Italy, her hair is a blunt-cut electric purple. “When you think of that color, it’s vivid, it’s confident, it’s in your face,” says Swan. In another

episode, Arabella leans into her Instagram swagger with long glossy black hair; later, in an imagined encounter with her rapist, she whips a platinum pixie out of her bag. “Wigs have been part of film and TV for years, but it was wonderful to be able to use them to be seen and to be obvious and to be worn as people would wear in real life,” says Swan. The show’s wigs can convey a sense of heaviness (Terry finds herself dismissed from an audition for wearing one) but also a release. In a salon scene in episode five, the stylist slips off Arabella’s pink hair, revealing cornrows underneath—itself another wig, braided and finessed. That sleight of hand sets up the big reveal in the following scene: Arabella’s shaved head as a means of tender catharsis. “It’s the power of taking away,” says Swan, with a word of appreciation for “knowing when enough is enough.” n AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

P I N K : T C D / P R O D . D B /A L A M Y S T O C K P H O T O . A L L O T H E R S : N ATA L I E S E E R Y/ H B O .

Michaela Coel in Arabella’s bubble-gum pink wig, which was the only hair cue in the initial script; Arabella is a devil out on the town on Halloween.

SWAN SONGS

WRAP PARTY Another year, another spate of beloved series taking a bow

GRACE AND FRANKIE

POSE

YOUNGER

Paramount+

Netflix

The category is: uncategorizable. FX’s period drama broke barriers with style, enlisting a remarkably diverse creative team and a record-setting number of trans cast members to dramatize New York’s ballroom scene in the era of Reagan (and Bush the First).

The immortal Sutton Foster anchored Darren Star’s winningly high-concept sitcom about a 40-something divorcée who disguises herself as a millennial to get a job in book publishing. Our only complaint is that the show didn’t find more excuses for Foster to sing and/or dance.

Age was nothing but a number for Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, the dynamic duo at the center of Marta Kauffman and Howard J. Morris’s comedy—and the obvious winners of the “TV casts we’d most like to share a bottle of wine with” award.

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THE BOLD TYPE Freeform

Mix Sex and the City with The Devil Wears Prada, add a big slug of Gen Z earnestness, plunk it all down in a Toronto masquerading as New York, and voilà—you have The Bold Type, Freeform’s most sweetly beguiling confection. At least we’ll always have The Dot Com.

KEEPING UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS E!

Twenty seasons, 10 official spin-offs, umpteen tabloid headlines, and infinite selfies later, Kris Jenner’s potent kreation—the primordial ooze from which arguably all influencer culture emerged—has finally been laid to rest. You’ve done amazing, sweetie.

MOM

BOSCH

CBS

Amazon

After Anna Faris’s Christy departed last season, Chuck Lorre’s family sitcom became more of an ensemble show about her character’s old AA pals— though it was still dominated by the venerable Allison Janney, who has won two Emmys for playing Christy’s mother, Bonnie.

Don’t weep for Titus Welliver, who plays Bosch’s titular hard-boiled detective. Though the original mystery series is kaput at Amazon, IMDb TV is already plotting a spin-off centered on… Bosch. One more, and we’ll have ourselves a triptych.

J U D G E J U DY A N D P O S E : E V E R E T T C O L L E C T I O N . S T I L L S : C O U R T E S Y O F T H E S T U D I O S / N E T WO R K S . AL L O T H E R S : G E T T Y I MAG E S .

BY H I L L A RY BU S I S

KIM’S CONVENIENCE

AMERICAN GODS

WYNONNA EARP

SHRILL

JUDGE JUDY

Hulu

Syndicated

Netflix

Starz

Syfy

This warm Canadian import about a squabbling family’s screwball antics has filled the Schitt’s Creek–shaped hole in many a viewer’s heart— and serves as a fine introduction to star Simu Liu, soon to play the title character in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

A pantheon of experienced showrunners— four over the course of three tumultuous seasons— couldn’t quite crack this adaptation of the novel by Neil Gaiman, who has said the show ended at “the single most frustrating, upsetting, and maddening place.”

Conventional wisdom is that audiences aren’t into Westerns these days…unless, apparently, they’re full of supernatural high jinks and refreshingly nonpandering queer romances. Wynonna’s die-hard fans will be so sorry to see her go.

Aidy Bryant was sorely missed on Saturday Night Live last fall, but she was playing hooky for a good reason: executive producing and starring in this Hulu gem based on Lindy West’s memoir, which grew more rewarding in each of its three seasons.

The verdict is in: Judy Sheindlin, the highest-paid host on TV, is hanging up her robes after 25 seasons. But she won’t be going far. IMDb TV has also picked up a follow-up reality court show starring Sheindlin that’s called—wait for it—Judy Justice.

I L L U S T R AT I O N BY D E W E Y

SAUNDERS

THE KOMINSKY METHOD Netflix

On another Chuck Lorre half hour, Michael Douglas spent three amusing seasons playing an aging former actor who is, let’s be clear, much less successful than Michael Douglas. The inviting premise drew a slew of guest stars from Jay Leno to Patti LaBelle.

SUPERSTORE NBC

What started as a gentle redo of a tried-andtrue formula— it’s The Office at a suburban big box emporium!— gradually morphed into a surprisingly sharp critique of labor relations in the age of late capitalism, with jokes. Talk about reaching across the aisle.

AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

Nine actors who lit up the small screen this season, from breakout newcomers to seasoned vets

Photograph by

TOM C R AIG Styled by

NAT HAN K LE I N

on a simple litmus test when she’s considering a new role: She asks herself whether a part of the character lives inside of her already. “I learned in my career to trust that,” she says on the phone from London. “If I didn’t feel that, I was in trouble saying yes. If I did feel that, between the support that I was going to get and a lot of hard work, I’d be able to get there.” Anderson has gone remarkable places, playing characters far-flung in time, location, and temperament. Beyond lighting up adaptations of novels by Dickens, Tolstoy, Melville, and Wharton, the feminist actor, activist, and author has most recently played a sex therapist on the comic drama Sex Education and riveted us on The Crown as the controversial British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. There’s often a steely elegance to Anderson’s characters; Fiona Apple was so struck by the self-possessed way she delivered one seemingly throwaway line as a lead detective in BBC2’s psychological thriller GILLIAN ANDERSON RELIES

VA N I T Y FA I R

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“WHEN YOU TAKE RISKS, THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT YOU WILL HUMILIATE YOURSELF AND FALL FLAT ON YOUR FACE. I KNEW I WAS GOING TO THROW EVERYTHING AT IT.” that the scripts did not devote more time to it. “Even though I knew the show is not really about the prime minister—it’s about the queen and the other royals and the crown—there was still a moment of, Oh, it’s just these bits? The challenge was to make sure that enough of what I felt were important elements of her whole self were able to come through.” Finding the Iron Lady’s deep, distinctive timbre was only one hurdle. Anderson read avidly about Thatcher’s upbringing, listened to endless recordings, and contorted herself into Thatcher’s peculiar posture. “She had quite a wide stance and her weight was very much on the balls of her feet, with one foot slightly pigeontoed,” she says. “She took very short steps, walked quite quickly and ahead of people, including presidents of other countries. She led the way with her chin or forehead. But she was also slightly slumped in the middle—her shoulders back, her breasts close to her navel, and her pelvis tilted up. It’s one thing to get that right,” Anderson concludes with a laugh, “but then it’s another to be able to remember all of that with the voice.” Thatcher, she says, “took a breath midsentence rather than at the end of a false stop, because if she did that, someone could come in and cut her off.” Anderson has already won a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award for playing Thatcher, and the late P.M.’s own biographer, Charles Moore, has described the portrayal as “the only convincing” depiction he’s seen. After closing out her season-long arc on The Crown, she returned to Sex Education—and found her inner Thatcher still fighting for dominance. “There were definitely a couple of scenes where I had to say to the director, ‘Maggie showed up a few lines there. You may not have been able to tell, but I could tell, and I need to do another take.’ ” —Julie Miller 86

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Previous spread: dress by Celine by Hedi Slimane; earrings by Pomellato; ring by Sarah Madeleine Bru; hair products by Leonor Greyl; makeup by Dolce & Gabbana. H A I R , DAV I D E B A R B I E R I ( A N D E R S O N ) , H A L L E Y B R I S K E R ( C O U G H L A N ) ; M A K E U P , F LO R R I E W H I T E ( A N D E R S O N ) , N E I L YO U N G ( C O U G H L A N ) ; S E T D E S I G N , D E R E K H A R D I E M A R T I N . P R O D U C E D O N LO C AT I O N B Y J N P R O D U C T I O N . F O R D E TA I L S , G O T O V F. C O M / C R E D I T S .

The Fall that she borrowed it for the title of her latest album. Upon discovering a serial killer’s hiding place and anticipating horrors inside, Anderson coolly directs a burly male police officer to “fetch the bolt cutters.” There have been some far reaches in her career, Anderson concedes. “Blanche DuBois certainly took me to a psychological precipice,” she says of 2014’s Young Vic coproduction of A Streetcar Named Desire. But she felt that even a part of DuBois resided inside her. (Asked which part, she demurs: “Now you’re getting into Daily Mail territory.”) Portraying Thatcher, she says, was the most technically difficult performance of her career, not that that stopped her: “When you take risks, there is a possibility that you will humiliate yourself and fall flat on your face. I knew I was going to throw everything at it, and if people reacted by saying what a car crash it is, I would just have to deal with that and maybe go to bed for a month.” Anderson knew the series as both a viewer and the then partner of The Crown’s creator Peter Morgan. But after immersing herself in Thatcher’s life, she was slightly disappointed to see

Photograph by TO M CR AI G

NICOLA COUGHLAN Bridgerton NETFLIX

“I love costumes. I love hair. I love makeup,” says Nicola Coughlan, who pretty much hit the glam jackpot playing Penelope Featherington in Bridgerton, Netflix’s addictive period romance. The only downside to those candy-colored costumes was what Coughlan wore underneath: “The corsets were not comfy, but I have still been known to nap in one.” Bridgerton became Netflix’s most watched original series with its 2020 debut, and like the rest of us, the Coughlan family was all in— including Coughlan’s sister, “the number one Bridger-fan,” who’s watched the series five times. “I didn’t want to watch the racy episodes with my mum, but she insists that we watch everything together, so I ended up fastforwarding through them,” says Coughlan. “Some people can deal with the embarrassment of that, but I am absolutely not one of those people.” —Caitlin Brody

Coat by Fendi; brooch by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello; headband by Chanel; gloves by Amato New York (Coughlan); hair products by Oribe; makeup by Guerlain.

Styled by NAT HAN K LE I N

AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

OLLY ALEXANDER It’s a Sin HBO MA X

“I instantly related to Ritchie,” says Olly Alexander of the spirited character he plays in the HBO Max original limited series It’s a Sin. Ritchie also happens to be an actor; “I had the same big dreams as him.” Alexander, who is best known as the front man of the synth-pop band Years & Years, says his music and acting careers are often interconnected. “I’d never been the lead of a TV show with such a demanding role,” he says. “I honestly never thought I would be able to handle it.” But playing sold-out arenas changed his perspective. “When I’m onstage, it’s me, but I’m also playing a character—that gave me the confidence to go for it.” While Alexander would love another leading role, he confesses that it will be hard to top It’s a Sin. There’s one person, though, whom Alexander would blindly jump for. “I’m fully such a Rihanna stan. I would collaborate with her on anything.” —C.B.

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Alexander’s sweatshirt and pants by Louis Vuitton Men’s; top by Max Mara; earrings by Agmes (left) and Balenciaga (worn as brooch); rings by Balenciaga (right pinky) and Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello (left middle); hair products by Oribe; grooming products by Officine Universelle Buly. Douglas’s clothing by Louis Vuitton Men’s; sneakers by Fendi Men’s; necklace and socks by Dior; rings by Sarah Madeleine Bru; belt by Maximum Henry; hair products by Bumble and Bumble; grooming products by Dr Dennis Gross.

OMARI DOUGLAS It’s a Sin

H A I R , R YO N A R U S H I M A ( A L E X A N D E R ) ; G R O O M I N G , E M M A D AY ( A L E X A N D E R ) , M A R C I A L E E ( D O U G L A S ) ; S E T D E S I G N , D E R E K H A R D I E M A R T I N . P R O D U C E D O N LO C AT I O N B Y J N P R O D U C T I O N . F O R D E TA I L S , G O T O V F. C O M / C R E D I T S .

HBO MA X

Hands down, one of the scariest moments in Omari Douglas’s career was his read-through for It’s a Sin. “I remember being like, Oh my God, who am I, here with all of these amazing people? Please don’t fire me!” he says. Once he got over the impostor syndrome, it was important for Douglas—who made his TV acting debut as lovable standout Roscoe—to represent the legacy of Britain’s queer Black community. “They’ve been left out of the narrative for a long time,” he says of the characters depicted in the limited series, set during the 1980s AIDS crisis. “I’m proud to have played Roscoe and for him to be a reminder that we’ve always been here.” —C.B.

Photograph by

TO M CR AI G Styled by

NAT HAN K L E IN AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

VA N I T Y FA I R

Photograph by TI ER N E Y GE ARO N

JOSIE TOTAH Saved by the Bell

H A I R , R I C K Y M O TA ; M A K E U P , C H E R I S H B R O O K E H I L L ; TA I LO R , H A S M I K KO U R I N I A N . P R O D U C E D O N LO C AT I O N B Y P R E I S S C R E AT I V E . F O R D E TA I L S , G O T O V F. C O M / C R E D I T S .

P E AC O C K

Styled by RE BECCA R AM SE Y

Josie Totah “felt so empowered” playing Lexi Haddad-DeFabrizio, a quintessential queen bee “who happens to be trans,” on Peacock’s Saved by the Bell reboot. “I found myself leaving set with a greater sense of confidence each day of filming,” she says. Totah, who came out as trans in 2018, is both a performer and a producer on the series, affording her more agency to tell “authentic” stories about young people that “were not only entertaining, but felt real and palpable.” She considers the original Saved by the Bell stars who appear in the reboot to be “aunts and uncles” who welcomed a new generation with open arms. Totah enjoys bingeing Spanish soap operas, longs to be in a crowd so big that it gives her “an anxiety attack,” and has one significant thing in common with Lexi: “Lexi and I both think the world revolves around us. But the difference is the world actually revolves around her.” —Chris Murphy

Jumpsuit by Chanel; shoes by Celine by Hedi Slimane; gloves by Cornelia James; hair products by Oribe; makeup by Shiseido. AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

ALIA SHAWKAT Search Party HBO MA X

Gown and scarf (worn as headband) by Valentino; earrings by Lisa Eisner Jewelry; hair products by Innersense; makeup by Charlotte Tilbury Beauty.

S H AW K AT : H A I R , T E R R I WA L K E R ; M A K E U P , T O B Y F L E I S C H M A N ; TA I LO R , H A S M I K KO U R I N I A N . P R O D U C E D O N LO C AT I O N B Y P R E I S S C R E AT I V E . N O R T O N : G R O O M I N G , P E T R A S E L LG E ; S E T D E S I G N , D E R E K H A R D I E M A R T I N . P R O D U C E D O N LO C AT I O N B Y J N P R O D U C T I O N . F O R D E TA I L S , G O T O V F. C O M / C R E D I T S .

Months before the rest of the world began to shelter in place, Alia Shawkat was locked down on the set of Search Party. Her character, Dory, spends much of the dark comedy’s fourth season held captive by an obsessive fan (Cole Escola), who brainwashes her inside an eerie re-creation of her Brooklyn apartment. “I felt like an athlete,” Shawkat says of filming some of the more emotionally draining scenes. “I’m not a Method actor, but I was just really feeling it.” Following a long hiatus and a move from TBS to HBO Max, Search Party debuted both its third and fourth seasons during the pandemic and has found its audience expanding rapidly. “Like most of my career, lots of things take a second to catch on,” Shawkat says. “I’m just very humbled and very happy.” —Katey Rich

Photograph by

TIERNEY GEARON Styled by

VA N I T Y FA I R

REBECCA RAMSEY

JAMES NORTON The Nevers HBO

On HBO’s steampunk drama The Nevers, James Norton plays Hugo Swann, a pansexual hedonist with a penchant for blackmail. “He represents our darker, more subversive side, the part of ourselves that we’re both afraid of and intrigued by,” Norton says. “For Hugo, anything goes— there’s no boundaries, no judgment—and that’s both intoxicating and dangerous.” Hugo’s specialty is dalliances with the Touched, a set of Londoners newly endowed with superhuman powers, which presumably makes them a hot attraction on the late-19th-century sex-party scene. But if Norton were Touched, his superpower would be markedly less exotic, he says: “I’d turn water into sparkling water by dipping my little finger in it.” —Sonia Saraiya

Clothing by Alexander McQueen; hair products by Kevin Murphy; grooming products by Shiseido.

Photograph by

TO M CR AIG Styled by

NAT HAN K L E IN

AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

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JURNEE SMOLLETT Lovecraft Country

H A I R , K I YA H W R I G H T ; M A K E U P , E M I LY C H E N G ; TA I LO R , H A S M I K KO U R I N I A N . P R O D U C E D O N LO C AT I O N B Y P R E I S S C R E AT I V E . F O R D E TA I L S , G O T O V F. C O M / C R E D I T S .

HBO

The Lovecraft Country star loved what she wore as Letitia Lewis in the HBO drama series. “I wish I could’ve stolen the green party dress that Leti smashes the cars in,” she says. She did make off with a pair of cream capri pants from episode eight—“the one pair that didn’t get ruined with Shoggoth blood!” This pandemic year has been transformative: “I’ve gone through quite an intense season of transition and awakening,” she says. “It’s required me to extend a level of compassion to myself that I usually reserve for others.” It’s also given her some extra time to practice Carole King’s “So Far Away” on the guitar—“playing it over and over because I couldn’t master this one chord.” —S.S. Top by Miu Miu; skirt by Marni; shoes by Church’s; earrings by Cartier High Jewelry; ring by Cathy Waterman; hair products by Muze Hair; makeup by Chanel.

Photograph b y

TI E RNE Y GE ARO N Styled b y

REBECCA RAMS E Y AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

HUGH GRANT The Undoing

“I called his inner monster John Boy,” says Hugh Grant, referring to Jonathan Fraser, the suave and criminal pediatric oncologist he played on HBO’s psychological thriller The Undoing. The Golden Globe winner has had a blast employing his massive charm to dastardly ends in his recent projects: “It’s really been about six baddies in a row now. I must stop. But good people revolt me slightly.” When not channeling his inner bad boy, Grant likes to unwind with a Lagavulin whisky and imagine a somewhat happier end for John Boy. “I always thought Jonathan went to prison, where he developed an unexpected enthusiasm for musical theater under the influence of his cellmate, Phoenix Buchanan”—i.e., the antagonist Grant played in 2017’s Paddington 2. “Together they stage a production of The Sound of Music with Jonathan as the captain and Phoenix as the baroness. It is so moving that Grace”— Nicole Kidman’s Undoing character—“forgives him in a flood of tears.” —C.M.

Photograph by

NICK RILEY BENTHAM Styled by

WAY PERRY

G R O O M I N G , P E T R A S E L LG E . P R O D U C E D O N LO C AT I O N B Y J N P R O D U C T I O N . F O R D E TA I L S , G O T O V F. C O M / C R E D I T S .

HBO

Jacket by Thom Sweeney; shirt by Emma Willis; jeans by Ralph Lauren; shoes by Edward Green; socks by Pantherella; hair products by Living Proof; grooming products by Tom Ford for Men. Photographed at the Babington House, Somerset, England.

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BINGE WITHOUT BORDERS If there’s not a French, Japanese, or Israeli show you love, the world has left you behind. Inside a global TV revolution By JOY P RE S S

Photographs by

AL E X MAJOLI Styled by

COL IN E BACH

LUPIN LIVES

Coat by Louis Vuitton Men’s; sweatshirt and jeans by Dior Men; sneakers by Jordan Brand. 98

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MAG N U M P H O TO S .

Omar Sy, photographed at the Hotel Regina Paris in March.

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OMAR SY DEVOURED America’s brightest,

gaudiest television as a young boy growing up in France. “I learned a lot from TV shows from the ’80s, you know?” says the Lupin star, calling from his Paris apartment after a long day of shooting his Netflix series. “I don’t know the title in English, but do you remember Super Jimmy?” Honestly, no, it doesn’t ring a bell. But soon it becomes clear that what Sy is actually saying is Super Jaimie, which… also doesn’t ring a bell. “She had super powers,” he says. “It wasn’t Wonder Woman, but she was a superwoman. And her ex-husband was l’homme qui valait trois milliards, a robot guy who was a superman.” Okay, yes! He means The Bionic Woman, about Jaime Sommers, which was indeed called Super Jaimie in France. “We had, also, the two brothers with their car,” Sy says. “With a girl? Two brothers and a girl.” The Dukes of Hazzard? “Yes, those guys!” He laughs with the relief of a man who is finally being understood. It’s only fair that Sy benefited from our pop-cultural treasures, because now he’s giving back in a major way. Lupin is Netflix’s third most successful global launch, after Bridgerton and The Witcher, part of a huge wave of international TV that’s washing over a grateful, binge-curious America. Lupin is a contemporary spin on master thief Arsène Lupin—a fictional character as iconic in his native land as Sherlock Holmes—and opens with the glass pyramid glimmering in the courtyard of the Louvre. For Americans, the image is bound to trigger a cascade of romanticized notions of Paris, but it signifies differently for Sy and his character, Assane Diop, a Senegalese immigrant. Aiming to pull off the robbery of the century, Diop slips unnoticed into the bowels of the Louvre dressed as a janitor, entering through a grim tunnel

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used by maintenance workers who sweep and polish the empty museum during the small hours. Sy’s own immigrant mother worked nights as an office cleaner. Filming Lupin made Sy think, he says, about “how she was looked at”—or not looked at, since she rarely collided with those whose spaces she tidied, people who “want it to be clean but don’t want to know how it was cleaned.” His character uses peoples’ prejudices and blind spots against them as he performs his heists, while the series itself takes clichéd Parisian settings like the Louvre and reveals their inner workings. Sy and the creative team did not have American audiences in mind when they developed the show, and the star tries not to think too hard about why such an intrinsically French series as Lupin has stirred so much enthusiasm internationally. “It’s sometimes better if you don’t know,” he says. “If you start to guess then you’re going to try to repeat, and that’s how you’re going to be lost. Just do what you have to do with your instinct, your feeling, your focus, and your work, because there is no recipe. That’s the beauty of it—that there is a part of it that we will never understand. That’s why we’re still here.”

fancied itself as the center of the entertainment universe, a glorious sun beaming stories to the rest of the world. For most of television history we were exporters, not importers. When the occasional British series—like Upstairs, Downstairs—arrived, it was relegated to Masterpiece Theatre on PBS, or else transformed into an Americanized version, like The Office. That started changing during the dawn of prestige TV, as HBO and Sundance experimented with international series like Extras and Deutschland 83. Now nearly every major streamer is awash with foreign fare. “Technology and the availability of content has just democratized everything,” says Dan McDermott, president of original programming for AMC. The last remaining hurdle, he says, was whether Americans could summon the fortitude to read subtitles. “I think we now know, the answer is yes.” Subtitles—once associated with challenging, highbrow foreign films—have become de rigueur for millennials and Gen Z audiences, which watch even OLLYWOOD HAS LONG

English-language shows with the subtitles on, either because the intricately layered soundscapes of modern TV don’t translate well to their various devices, or because their parents and teachers will know what they’re doing if they put the sound on. The result is that if you ask a friend what shows they’re obsessing over, chances are, they’ll tip you off about some great Israeli or Korean series they stumbled upon in the nooks and crannies of Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu, or on subscription streaming services like Acorn, BritBox, and MHz, which are entirely devoted to international TV. From the cozy perch of my living room sofa, I have traipsed across the world with the pensive and unexpectedly soulful spies of France’s The Bureau; eavesdropped on the compelling intricacies of Denmark’s coalition politics with Borgen; luxuriated in the lush Delhi backdrops of Indian rom-drama Made in Heaven; sipped sake in a Tokyo back alley with the oddball customers of Midnight Diner; and savored the cheeky camaraderie and fumbling love affairs of Call My Agent!, as an office full of Parisian movie agents dedicated themselves to massage de l’ego pour célébrités. After bingeing Call My Agent! for weeks, I woke up one morning realizing that I had dreamed in French. It was Netflix that truly normalized international content in America. As the company expanded its worldwide presence, it made it a priority to buy and create what they call “local-language content” for other regions. “We knew that it was silly to say that we’re a global service while having storytellers only from Hollywood,” says Erik Barmack, a former Netflix executive in charge of international originals. (He now runs Wild Sheep Content, a production company focused on making shows for a variety of media entities, like an animated series about African queens he has in

WORLD WIDE WEB

1. Veneno, a Spanish series about a real-life trans icon. 2. The French comedy Call My Agent!, about movie agents stumbling through business and love. 3. France’s Lupin, a modern spin on the beloved story of a master thief. 4. Tehran, from Israel, about a Mossad agent undercover in Iran. 5. My Brilliant Friend, based on the Italian best sellers.

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development with French African artist Nicholle Kobi.) About his Netflix days, he says, “We needed to find global storytellers. I think the big surprise for us, frankly, was that shows like La Casa de Papel could have such large audiences in the U.S.” La Casa de Papel—known here as Money Heist—fell flat when its first season aired in Spain. But after Netflix licensed the series, viewers around the world thrilled to the stylish and sexy thriller about a band of antiauthoritarian bank robbers who take over the Spanish equivalent of Fort Knox and start printing currency by the billions. The global buzz about Money Heist persuaded Netflix to produce new episodes, which made it a juggernaut. Such was its cultural ubiquity that at political demonstrations around the world, protesters began donning the robbers’ trademark costume (a Salvador Dalí mask and red overalls) as a symbol of resistance. By one recent estimate, 60 percent of Netflix drama originals are now being commissioned outside the U.S. And if you’re already scooping up French-made shows for the French and Indian-made series for India, why not make it available everywhere? A show’s nationality and language are increasingly irrelevant, says

media analyst Rich Greenfield of LightShed Media: “It’s not American. It’s not Indian. It’s not French. It’s just content.” Many streaming behemoths are now following Netflix’s lead. Disney is getting into the act with Star, a hub launched earlier this year in places like Europe, Singapore, and Australia, for which it is commissioning a slate of originals. Paramount+ also has its sights on further international expansion. Amazon, Apple+, and HBO Max are already

knee-deep in global content, looking not just to capture the attention of audiences abroad but to harness the enormous resources of talent and creativity that exist outside the anglophone sphere. HBO has long produced programming outside the U.S., but this content rarely crept onto American screens. “I don’t think that we fully took advantage of all of those shows,” says Casey Bloys, chief content officer of HBO and HBO Max. As recently as 2018, when HBO signed up to AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

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coproduce the Italian series My Brilliant Friend, an immersive adaptation of the globally popular Elena Ferrante novels, Bloys faced skepticism about whether it would appeal to Americans. “I got a lot of questions like: ‘Well, it’s in Italian! Will people watch it? Will people embrace it?’ ” Bloys says. It went on to be a critically acclaimed word-of-mouth hit. With HBO Max in the process of rolling out in 60 locations overseas by the end of this year, Bloys foresees a much more reciprocal relationship between the domestic and foreign arms of the company. “Everything that we are producing 102

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internationally will eventually live on HBO Max,” he says. The streamer is already highlighting some international series on its American platform—shows like The Investigation, an austere Danish true-crime drama, and La Jauria, a chilling thriller from Chile about a misogynistic online game that turns young women into prey, executive produced by director Pablo Larraín with his brother Juan de Dios Larraín. Recognizing that American taste is not universal, HBO Max’s U.S. executives won’t dictate overseas acquisitions based on domestic desires. They will,

however, try to coordinate so that “we have an understanding in the U.S. about what foreign shows might have crossover appeal,” Bloys tells me. The streamer’s Veneno, for instance, is a visually brazen, emotionally raw Spanish limited series based on the real life of the late transgender sex worker and celebrity Cristina “La Veneno” Ortiz Rodríguez, who’s played by three separate trans actors in bravura performances. The show was a huge hit in its native country last spring and even helped spur the Spanish parliament to legislate protections for trans people. Creators Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi were thrilled to find that international audiences were just as entranced. “A lot of people are writing us from everywhere!” Ambrossi exclaims over Zoom from their Madrid production office, shaking his mop of dark hair in wonderment. “Everyone is like, I needed

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to see different trans women, different bodies, different faces, and different experiences portrayed.” Calvo imagined Veneno as a very Spanish tribute to an unsung LGBTQ+ pioneer, something that wouldn’t travel well. But the series’ success has made him realize that viewers are dying to see “something they never saw before”—especially, he adds, when “it’s a story that comes out of your soul.” Producers might be tempted to make generic content in pursuit of universal appeal, but it turns out that viewers really crave specificity. “Be very, very local, and in making it as personal as possible, somehow there you find the universal themes that an international audience can enjoy,” Israeli director Gideon Raff (the creator of Hatufim, the series on which Homeland was based) once told me. Israel has emerged as one of the most successful exporters of TV fare, with Tehran (Apple+), Fauda (Netflix), and False Flag (Hulu) finding loyal American followings. A more unexpected Israeli crossover for Netflix was Shtisel, a tender dramedy about the life of an eccentric Orthodox Jewish artist. In the first season, which originally aired in 2013, Akiva Shtisel (Michael Aloni) falls in love with an older widow, played by Ayelet Zurer. Zurer, who now lives in Los Angeles, was baffled when Americans began recognizing her in airports and sending her messages about her Shtisel character, especially so many years after it had aired in Israel. “My mind was blown,” she says, “because (a) it was being shown on Netflix, and (b) it wasn’t dubbed. They got the real thing and liked it!” Although Zurer regularly pops up on American TV series like Daredevil and You, she returned to her native land to shoot Apple TV+’s Losing Alice, a noirish psychological puzzle by female writer-director Sigal Avin. Filmed in Hebrew, the disorienting drama centers on a film director, played by Zurer, who becomes enraptured

ROAM IF YOU WANT TO 1. The “Lovers Rock” installment of the British anthology Small Axe. 2. Made in Heaven, a romantic drama from India. 3. The twisty Spanish show Money Heist. 4. Israel’s psychological thriller Losing Alice. 5. Denmark’s true-crime series The Investigation. 6. Midnight Diner, a Japanese anthology series about patrons who eat, and bond, all night long.

by a movie project and its young female screenwriter, and upends her life in the relentless pursuit of artistic passion. Zurer gives an extraordinary, quicksilver performance in what she describes as an existential tale about “making a deal with the devil inside of you.” Losing Alice is the kind of idiosyncratic project that resembles an independent film far more than a standard Hollywood television production. That indie aura is one of the things that lures us to international shows. They’re often populated by the kind of charmingly realistic-looking faces and ordinary bodies that are mostly invisible on American TV. And the tight budgets and schedules inspire intensely original thinking on the part of everyone involved. “You have a bunch

If it happens to also strike a nerve in the U.S. or elsewhere, that’s just a bonus, as happened with the series ZeroZeroZero. A drug-trafficking drama cocreated by Italian director Stefano Sollima, the show is set partly in Mexico and stars several English-speaking actors, including Andrea Riseborough and Gabriel Byrne. “I would get five emails a week from the biggest tastemakers I know saying, ‘This show is incredible, why isn’t it bigger?’ ” Salke recalls. Among the ZeroZeroZero fan club was the musician Drake, who recommended it to his Instagram followers. All of that inspired Salke to relaunch the series earlier this year with a proper marketing campaign and “really elevate it on the service so [viewers] can find it.”

AYELET ZURER, THE STAR OF ISRAEL’S LOSING ALICE, WAS BAFFLED WHEN AMERICANS BEGAN RECOGNIZING HER IN AIRPORTS: “MY MIND WAS BLOWN BECAUSE (A) IT WAS BEING SHOWN ON NETFLIX, AND (B) IT WASN’T DUBBED. THEY GOT THE REAL THING AND LIKED IT!” of people who are extremely passionate, and they work very fast,” Zurer says of Israeli TV productions. “They have to think outside of the box to create what they want to create.”

set their sights on the wider world, a gold rush for talent is under way. Many of international cinema’s and television’s hottest writers, directors, and actors suddenly find themselves being wooed by American-based companies. “We’re trying to make sure that we lock up long-term relationships with some of our international creative partners,” says Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke, the goal being to transform the streamer into “an extended global home for talent.” The company’s top priority is to create local-language shows that wow audiences in their home countries. “We’re not making shows in Mexico and hoping they’re going to work in France,” James Farrell, Amazon’s head of international originals, points out. “As long as a comedy makes a ton of people in Mexico laugh, we’re super happy.” S MORE STREAMERS

The coronavirus pandemic further accelerated the globalizing of television. Trapped in our homes, we’re bingeing as fast as we can. Dan McDermott, who oversees AMC, BBC America, and SundanceTV, says he’s seen a huge spike in home viewing of their shows, including older content. And because so many shoots had to be shut down in 2020, networks and streaming platforms scrambled to find programming to fill the chasm. “We immediately found a bunch of great shows that we were able to close deals on really quickly,” he says. Recent imports include the British series Gangs of London and Finnish/Irish/Belgian/Icelandic drama Cold Courage. Not only can international content be cranked out faster than many American shows, says McDermott, but those international partnerships “enable us to compete in a bigger market and punch above our weight.” During the lockdown, my social media feed was abuzz with newly discovered international series. One of the most beloved was Call My Agent!, which Americans discovered en masse just as AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

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IN THE NEW GLOBAL STREAMING FUTURE, THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL MAY GRADUALLY DISSOLVE, UNTIL IT BECOMES NOTHING MORE THAN A HAZY MEMORY.

it was coming to an end in France after four seasons. No one was more startled than the show’s cast. “I don’t think we are the first people you would think of for humor, the French people!” says Camille Cottin, who stars as Andréa Martel, a no-bullshit lesbian agent who morphs from seductress to dazed, conflicted working mom over the course of the show’s run. Cottin was amused that viewers outside the country were so beguiled with their “Frenchy adventures.” Humor full of regional injokes doesn’t always travel well, which is why many crossover hits fall into genres like thriller or melodrama. But American viewers don’t seem to mind missing out on the show’s culturally specific references, like the dog named after French movie icon Jean Gabin. Created by Fanny Herrero and based on an idea by former agent Dominique Besnehard, Call My Agent! features French actors like Charlotte Gainsbourg and Isabelle Adjani satirizing themselves. Even if American viewers don’t recognize all the superstars, the sense of reality bleeds through. “I think [Herrero] wanted to talk about things that matter to her,” says Cottin, speaking from her home in Paris. “It could be the equality of the wages between men and women, or the #MeToo thing, like when Juliette Binoche is invited to go on the boat of a magnate who really wants to date her.” Cottin says that her own character was inspired by a real French talent agent, who inadvertently benefited from the show’s popularity. “She sent me some messages saying that every girl wants to date her now!” Cottin says with a grin. Call My Agent! exudes a sweetness and esprit de corps that’s unusual in Hollywood portrayals of the movie world. “The industry is often depicted with a touch of cynicism, depicted as sharks,” Cottin says. Although the series has an 104

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edge, “it never lets us forget that [these people] make us dream, and that we love the cinema.” The renewed excitement about certain international shows has led to whispers of spin-offs and revivals. Shtisel recently sprung back to life after a five-year absence, buoyed by its Netflix-driven popularity. Borgen hasn’t aired in Denmark since 2013. But once Netflix began airing its three-season run, the sheer intelligence of the series—about an idealistic prime minister and her team navigating the compromises of multiparty politics—resonated so favorably around the world that the gang is getting back together. The fifth season of The Bureau dropped on Sundance Now in 2020, but there is now talk of a sequel in development. Likewise, Americans’ affection for Call My Agent! has been so fervent that cocreator Besnehard is developing a movie spin-off and a new season, possibly filmed in New York. “Is it going to happen? I don’t know,” Cottin says impishly. She’s in the midst of shooting the Ridley Scott movie House of Gucci alongside Lady Gaga and Adam Driver, and she’s not sure how the timing would work. If it doesn’t, she will embrace the pleasure of ending on a high: “You have to say goodbye when it’s still sunny.”

satisfy a global audience in a world that is constantly fracturing— well, it’s as insanely hard as it sounds. “Each country has its own cultural nuances and lines in entertainment,” says Bela Bajaria, the current head of global TV for Netflix, and they are not always obvious to an outsider. Navigating political fault lines can be dicey too. Netflix has pulled various shows from its platform internationally. In one instance it acceded to Saudi Arabia’s request to remove an episode of talk show Patriot Act from the platform; in another, it

Overshirt by Dior Men; shirt by Ami Paris; pants by Brunello Cucinelli. Throughout: hair products by Pattern; grooming products by Pat McGrath Labs.

AKING SHOWS THAT

canceled a series because the Turkish government asked to eliminate a gay character. Salke says that they’ve had to make equally complicated decisions at Amazon. Amazon’s Indian series Tandav, an edgy political drama, contained scenes (including the depiction of a Hindu god) that so angered Hindu nationalists, it nearly landed its creators in jail this year. The show’s creators apologized and pulled the offending scenes.

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In the new global streaming future, the distinction between domestic and international may gradually dissolve, until it becomes nothing more than a hazy memory. Zurer gets a dreamy look on her face when she talks about “crossing the boundary of language.” Speaking different tongues is one of the things that keeps us apart, creating a sense of us and them. “We grew up in different weather and maybe ate different food,” Zurer says with

a shrug. “But we have mothers and sisters and fathers, and we cry when someone passes away. We have the same stories, really. The archetypes are the same.” The distinctions that will matter going forward may not be language or country of origin so much as things like big budget versus small, or original idea versus project attached to a popular franchise (like a video game or comic book). In this new, decentralized entertainment landscape,

will Hollywood be dethroned as the worldwide capital of television? “Hollywood is still going to have these amazing movies and TV shows that travel globally,” predicts Bajaria. “I think that doesn’t go away. But instead of a dream factory only in Hollywood, we might have dream factories in Mumbai, in São Paulo, in Paris.” ■

Additional reporting by Julie Miller AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

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LI N COL N AG N E W

The Trump era turned Americans into cable news addicts. A new crop of leaders and stars at CNN and MSNBC—and the old hands at Fox News—are betting they can keep us hooked

JO E PO MP EO

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It was two days after the polls had closed. Donald Trump was still raging about the early results, Joe Biden was daydreaming about his Oval Office decor, and millions of Americans were fixated on the cable news channels. Steve Kornacki, a bespectacled election wonk and one of the main faces of MSNBC’s “Road to 270” coverage, was gesticulating in front of an interactive touchscreen—the Big Board in MSNBC jargon, not to be confused with CNN’s Magic Wall—breaking down the nail-biter in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, over on the West Coast, Leslie Jones was snacking on something that sounded delicious (if her enthusiastic chomps were any indication), her eyes glued to the TV. “This is how I like my reporters to look: disheveled and concerned,” the former Saturday Night Live star said between bites. “I love this dude.” Jones pointed her phone at the TV and recorded the Kornacki segment while narrating along. Then she tweeted the video to her more than 1 million followers. From that moment, Jones’s MSNBC obsession became a must-watch daily spectacle in its own right. She was a relatable superfan, and her side-splitting commentary was a symptom of what one veteran producer described to me as “peak cable news.” The Trump soap opera was captivating viewers like nothing else, and we were witnessing its disastrous finale in real time. Over the next three months, Trump’s “Stop the Steal” circus played out like a bad horror flick, complete with Rudy Giuliani ranting about imaginary widespread voter fraud while a substance that looked like brown hair dye oozed down his face. In the background, there was cable news, narrating the minuteby-minute chaos, feeding our nonstop information addiction, keeping us 108

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continued to kill thousands of Americans every week. But as the normalcy of the Biden administration sank in, the average person’s media diet began to feel further and further away from the nonstop tweets, the constant controversies, the soul-sucking turmoil. Bit by bit, the Trump gold rush slowed to a trickle, and people began to break their cable news addictions. There were, after all, plenty of other things to watch. Another industry veteran recalled a conversation he’d just had with a friend who said it used to be that “after work, they would come home and put on Rachel Maddow or put on CNN because they had to get caught up on whatever crazy thing had happened that day. Now they come home and decide what to stream.” (By the last week of March, Jones was spending an evening tweeting live video commentary of Zack Snyder’s Justice League.) It wasn’t long before dire prognostications began to swirl. “Trump predicted news ratings would ‘tank if I’m not there.’ He wasn’t wrong,” declared a March 22 headline in The Washington Post, which reported drops at all three of the leading cable news channels (CNN the most and Fox News the least). The previous week, a chart created by Variety’s business intelligence service was circulating on Twitter. It compared the total audience for each prime-time show for the first week of March versus the first week of December (a comparison network executives would argue is ridiculous, but that’s another story). Don Lemon and Anderson Cooper saw losses of a little more than 30 percent and Chris Cuomo a little less. The losses for Chris Hayes and Lawrence O’Donnell were in the neighborhood of 17 percent. Laura Ingraham,

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hooked, lest we miss what happened next. And in the background of that was Jones, gushing over her favorite hosts, critiquing the commentariat’s remote-work scenery, and sometimes weighing in with impassioned diatribes of her own. “You remember these bitches when it’s time to vote again,” Jones urged her followers in a 23-second video on January 4. She was excoriating the dozen Republican senators, pictured onscreen in an MSNBC graphic, who were planning to oppose Biden’s certification. “This is who y’all remember: the dirty-ass 12.” Two days later, MAGA fanatics invaded the United States Capitol. They ransacked the halls of government, disrupted the Electoral College count, and endangered hundreds of congresspeople, journalists, and staff. Five people died. As the melee unfolded, the nation watched in horror. Jones, who pleaded for the 25th Amendment while making a video of Rachel Maddow and Nicolle Wallace, was one of more than 4,006,000 watching MSNBC that day. Another 2,988,000 were tuned in to Fox News. CNN clobbered them both, with 5,221,000 viewers, making January 6 the most-watched day in the network’s 40-year history. Even combined, those numbers pale in comparison to a megawatt special on one of the broadcast networks, like, say, Oprah interviewing Harry and Meghan, which netted a whopping 17.1 million American viewers. (Never mind the 95 million who watched the O.J. Simpson chase back in 1994.) But in cable news terms, the ratings were gangbusters. If this was peak cable news, you could call January 6, as dark and awful as it was, the peak of the peak. As the veteran producer put it, “You may never see those numbers again.”

THE RATINGS WERE GANGBUSTERS. IF THIS WAS AS IT WAS, THE PEAK OF THE PEAK. AS A

and weeks after President Biden’s inauguration, without endless provocations from the man who occupied such a vast swath of our attention for the better part of five years, news consumption started to feel more and more, what’s the word— healthy? Liberated? Sane? It’s not as if there was suddenly a shortage of major news, not least of all a pandemic that N T H E DAY S

Sean Hannity, and Rachel Maddow were each down 10 percent, give or take. Tucker Carlson held onto more of his viewers than anyone else, with a dip of just under 5 percent. “The next opportunity for Trump to dominate the headlines will be if he declares as a candidate for the 2024 elections,” the Variety analysis concluded. “In the meantime, the left-leaning networks will have to rely on politicians

making the occasional gaffe and just get used to the post-Trump slump.” It’s worth noting that CNN, MSNBC, and Fox have a wide array of digital and streaming endeavors, which means you either believe that cable news will eventually fizzle out as traditional cable viewers flee, or you believe the strength of these brands creates an opportunity to establish new viewing habits and find audiences on new platforms. But conversations I had with a range of executives, producers, journalists, agents, and analysts painted a stark reality nonetheless. “We’re unlikely to reach that peak of Trumpified interest in cable news again,” one source told me. “What the networks are now trying to figure out is, how do they quickly make that okay?” Another said, “Look back before Trump, before the man ran for office, and look at where the trend lines were going. These last five years have been an anomaly.” Rich Greenfield, a media analyst with LightShed Partners, echoed that sentiment. “It honestly feels like we’re back to the run-up to the 2016 election, like we’re going back in time five years to when cable news was really about old people,” he said. “The volatility, the anger, the hatred that was spewed across cable news over the last few years, from both sides, clearly brought an audience. I would feel very comfortable saying I don’t think we’ll ever see sustained full-year ratings like we’ve just seen.”

stars forged in the crucible of peak cable news was Abby Phillip. She joined CNN from The Washington Post in 2017 and worked as a White House correspondent for most of the Trump presidency, doing NE OF THE

sharp and measured analysis on the latest political havoc. Then came a glowing New York Times profile. Then a promotion to a Sunday morning political show. Then, in March, a stylish photo shoot for The Cut, accompanying an interview in which Gayle King gushed, “I’m thrilled to be sitting here talking to you. I’m not kidding, I just adore you.” Phillip is now one of the most prominent Black journalists on television. She’s someone who represents the next generation of cable news talent. She’s also someone who will be on the rise in the coming years as the number of people watching cable is expected to fall. She broke out during a moment when it was easy to get viewers fired up and excited, to keep them coming back for more. Only a few years earlier, CNN producers were pulling rabbits out of hats to figure out how to fill a whole day’s worth of air, wringing every last bit of drama from a marooned cruise ship or a missing Malaysian airliner. “I don’t think the days of the missing airplane are coming back,” Phillip told me. “There’s still a lot of interest in politics. People are still watching political news, but now we have to give them more than just, what did Trump do today?” The hair-raising interregnum of November 2020 through January 2021 could very well go down as one of the most exhilarating times of Phillip’s career, but it wasn’t sustainable. “We can’t always be in this heightened state—of anxiety, fascination, amusement, whatever it is,” she said. “How do we make people feel like they understand better what’s going on in their country and not just be outraged by it all the time? That’s the post-Trump challenge.”

about, adults ages 25 to 54, and in that metric, CNN emerged from the Trump cycle basically neck and neck with Fox. In February, after months of intrigue regarding his future, Zucker told employees that he expected to move on at the end of 2021. Zucker transformed CNN during his eight years running the network, and he’s widely revered by CNN journalists. As one of them told me right before Zucker announced his intention to step down, “In 40 years of CNN, the place has never been defined by its leader like it is right now.” Referring to the late former leader of Fox News, the journalist added, “It’s like Roger Ailes without the sexual abuse and hush money.” Several well-connected sources suggested that the real question is not who will replace Jeff Zucker, but rather who will own CNN. “I think it gets sold by the time they have to make a decision on who will run it,” said one. There’s been an uptick in speculation that debt-ridden AT&T will put CNN on the block, perhaps as a package deal with the Turner entertainment networks or possibly even WarnerMedia as a whole. Former Turner CEO John Martin, who is friendly with Zucker, casually explored the possibility of buying CNN through a special-purpose acquisition company, sources told me. Within the past year, Zucker has been approached by suitors interested in buying CNN, according to people familiar with the matter, but his response was, “You’ve gotta talk to AT&T.” Whoever ends up in the driver’s seat will be running a network that emerged from the Trump era at a different place than it was going in. Not only did Trump give Ted Turner’s pride and joy its best ratings in 25 years and record profits north of $1 billion annually, he also gave CNN

PEAK CABLE NEWS, YOU COULD CALL JANUARY 6, AS DARK AND AWFUL VETERAN PRODUCER PUT IT, “YOU MAY NEVER SEE THOSE NUMBERS AGAIN.” the dirty work of shouting out inquiries at press gaggles and enduring the president’s bilious retorts. (“What a stupid question,” Trump sneered when Phillip asked if he wanted Robert Mueller reined in.) During the postelection period, Phillip was given a prominent role in the network’s prime-time specials. Night after night, she appeared alongside Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, a fresh young face of 32 offering

In terms of ratings, CNN would argue that its falloff looked dramatic because the network gained so much audience during Trump, and that no one expected all of those people to stick around long term. Privately, CNN president Jeff Zucker has acknowledged that Trump hurt CNN with Republicans, but he’s also said the only numbers he really cares about are the ones that advertisers care

a reason to have a point of view. Hosts were suddenly emboldened to call a lie a lie, to say that something is crazy when it sounds crazy, not to mask their incredulity or even their abject disgust at the most shocking and destructive impulses of those in power. A talent agent I was chatting with put it like this: “Trump forced CNN to become a television network as opposed to a wire service on television.” AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

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Some say CNN is now a liberal network, but the brass would vigorously dispute that, pointing out that CNN’s journalists are tough on politicians from both sides. (Chris Cuomo took a lot of heat for sitting out his brother’s various scandals after interviewing the governor nearly a dozen times during the height of New York’s COVID-19 crisis, but hosts like Tapper and Brianna Keilar dove in with blistering Andrew Cuomo segments.) Still, the perception might be hard to shake. A former CNN executive told me, “Roger Ailes wanted CNN to be known as a left-wing network, and where Ailes didn’t fully succeed, Trump did.”

East Coast time on March 4, Lachlan Murdoch, CEO of Fox News’s parent company, Fox Corporation, logged on for a virtual “fireside chat” as part of Morgan Stanley’s annual media and telecom conference. He beamed in from Fox’s Century City headquarters in Los Angeles, sitting at a conference table in front of some muted office art, wearing a crisp white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a surfer-chic bracelet on his right wrist. After a few warm-ups about the media industry, corporate strategy, and the streaming wars, Morgan Stanley analyst Ben Swinburne got to the good stuff. “For investors in Fox who are anxious about Fox News’s leadership position, and relevance, as we look forward, what’s your message?” Lachlan leaned back and cleared his throat. “Look, it’s pretty simple. We’ve been in this business a long time,” he said. “What we didn’t foresee was the news cycle post the election. The president not accepting the results, the second impeachment trial, and then of course the riots in Washington, D.C. So just while our audience was disappointed with the election results and taking a pause, and we started to see that dip, we saw our competitors…have these big spikes with those news cycles. That’s come back down to earth…. We’re number one again in prime time and we’re sort of neck and neck with MSNBC in total daytime viewers…. The main beneficiary of the Trump administration, from a ratings point of view, was MSNBC. MSNBC had the biggest lift relative to where it was before, and relative to its peers, through the Trump administration.” He paused before saying the thing that was bound to generate a cascade 110

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of headlines. “That’s because they’re in sort of loyal opposition, right? They called out the president when he needed to be called out. That’s what our job is now with the Biden administration. And you know, you’ll see our ratings really improve from here and will do so for at least the next four years.” The creator of Fox News, Lachlan’s father, Rupert Murdoch, who turned 90 on March 11, had long desired a relationship with a sitting U.S. president of the kind he’s had with leaders in the U.K. and Australia. He made at least a bit of headway with Barack Obama in the run-up to the 2008 election. It included a series of Sunday-night phone conversations that August, focusing on topics like education and the economy, according to someone with knowledge of the 45-minute calls, who told me Murdoch “was impressed with Obama. He saw the benefits of access to power and what it could mean for his company.” It wasn’t until Trump came along that Murdoch finally forged his long-coveted Oval Office alliance. Fox News and its sister channel, Fox Business Network, became mouthpieces for the Trump administration through their opinion hosts, even as Trump was challenged by journalists involved in Fox’s news coverage. The mythical stolen-election narrative that fueled the Stop the Steal sideshow got plenty of oxygen from the likes of Fox personalities like Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, and Lou Dobbs, and the company was hit with defamation lawsuits from two voting-systems firms to a combined tune of $4.3 billion. The network called the suits “meritless” and “baseless” and said, “Fox News Media is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism.” While some of the opinion hosts gleefully spread Trump’s election disinformation, other Fox figures were tethered to reality. It was the network’s decision desk, after all, that had enraged Trump by calling Arizona for Biden. Numerous Fox journalists told the audience there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Carlson did a memorable segment demanding that unhinged Trump attorney Sidney Powell furnish proof of the alleged election theft. The most devout Trump viewers didn’t like what they were seeing. In January, Fox News slipped into third place for

the first time in two decades, even after closing out 2020 as the most watched cable news network for 19 years straight. There were now other channels whose hosts were telling the MAGA faithful exactly what they wanted to hear. The more formidable of these was Newsmax, a seven-year-old competitor that no one ever thought would beat Fox in any metric until it actually did. “We’re here to stay,” Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy said in December when his channel first eked out a narrow victory over a Fox News show one night. Like everyone else, Newsmax’s ratings fell back to earth after all the drama cooled down, but for Ruddy, it was still a win. “When I started getting into TV in 2014,” he told me, “I just thought, if we just get a small percentage of Fox’s market share, we’ll be successful. We’ve more than gotten that now. We’re going to continue to grow.” As Biden took office to the dismay of loyalists like Hannity and Ingraham, Fox’s dayside arm was eager to put Trump behind them. Someone in touch with staffers there told me the feeling heading into the new administration was, “It’s over, the viewers were pissed at us, let’s go back to doing the news.” In the evenings, when the fire-breathers come out, Fox started giving its viewers the red meat they craved as the country veered in a direction that looked increasingly threatening to them. The hosts took up arms in the culture wars, whether it was Hannity bemoaning the “cancellation” of Dr. Seuss or Carlson fulminating on the “privileged” life of New York Times tech reporter Taylor Lorenz and raging about immigrants supposedly diluting his voting power, a segment that was condemned by the Anti-Defamation League. Carlson in particular, with his nativist bona fides, intellectual pedigree, and willingness to go against the grain, had become a total Fox News phenomenon— not just the network’s highest rated host, but someone buzzed about as a 2024 hopeful. Fox signed up Trumpy contributors like Mike Pompeo, Lara Trump, and Kayleigh McEnany (Newsmax has Jason Miller, Sean Spicer, and Andrew Giuliani), and it was inevitable that Trump himself wouldn’t be able to quit Fox for too long. On March 16, he gave a call-in interview to Bartiromo, evincing a rare show of genuine public service by encouraging his vaccine-skeptic voters to get the coronavirus jab: “It’s a great vaccine!” The ratings have rebounded.

As with CNN, the future of Fox News’s ownership is the stuff of fervid speculation. Lachlan Murdoch’s center-left younger brother, James, departed the family business in 2019 to start an investment fund, and his antipathy toward Fox News is well known. As Rupert Murdoch became a nonagenarian in March, a pair of articles in the Financial Times and the Economist floated the prospect of James teaming up with the elder Murdoch

people land as we venture further into the post-Trump landscape? “I’m not looking to have a prescribed direction,” MSNBC boss Rashida Jones told me. “It’s no secret that some of our hosts lean into a progressive point of view. People are not looking for us to advocate. We’re still in the early stages of this administration, but I think your best examples are the Nicolle Wallaces of the world. I have no doubt that as this

“HOW DO WE MAKE PEOPLE FEEL LIKE THEY UNDERSTAND BETTER WHAT’S GOING ON IN THEIR COUNTRY, AND NOT JUST BE OUTRAGED BY IT ALL THE TIME? THAT’S THE POST-TRUMP CHALLENGE.” sisters, Elisabeth and Prudence, to re-exert influence over the network after their father dies. (The same gossip was aired in Brian Stelter’s Fox News book last year.) Asked about the chatter, someone in the Murdoch orbit told me, “James has no desire to oversee Fox News, but he does recognize that the property is a menace to democracy.”

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referred to MSNBC as the “loyal opposition,” the network fired back with a statement: “Our role, and the role of any legitimate news organization, whether it includes an ‘opinion section’ or not, is to hold power to account, regardless of party.” It is the Democratic Party, of course, that aligns with MSNBC’s audience, as well as the network’s own ideological leanings. A question for MSNBC moving forward is whether its programming will reflect the fissures now tearing at the Democrats themselves. How will the network position itself in the intraparty battle? Will it lean further to the left, or less so? Is it the network of Biden, or of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? Some of MSNBC’s biggest names, like Joe Scarborough and Nicolle Wallace, not to mention an array of the network’s paid political analysts, are erstwhile Republican heavyweights who drifted from the GOP as it was consumed by Trumpism. Where will these

administration goes on, Nicolle will continue to ask questions, continue to poke at things that don’t make sense, and to highlight things that are good for the country. I don’t think any of that changes.” Jones was promoted to the top job in December at age 39, making her one of the youngest network news presidents in the history of American television. She’s also the first Black woman to run a major TV news network. We were on a video call one Thursday afternoon in March, Jones’s first interview since succeeding longtime MSNBC president Phil Griffin. She was speaking to me from an office at 30 Rock outfitted with some nice-looking exposed brick that might have scored points with Room Rater, or Leslie Jones, for that matter. If CNN has edged a bit closer to the MSNBC vibe in prime time, as some would argue, MSNBC has begun to look more like CNN during the day. For the past few years, the network has been trying to make itself more competitive on breaking news, and Jones is now doubling down on that mandate. This spring, dayside coverage was rebranded “MSNBC Reports” to differentiate it from the distinctly opinionated prime-time lineup. I asked Jones if MSNBC viewers see the network in those terms. Is that really what they’re tuning in for? “We’re continuing to narrow the gap with CNN in our hard news coverage, and part of that is being disciplined and

reinforcing to the audience that we are a place to go when breaking news happens,” she said. (CNN says its breaking-news ratings are still well ahead of MSNBC’s.) “The audience needs to know what to expect from us. There’s got to be a clear understanding both ways.” Jones is also pushing MSNBC more into premium documentaries and originals. It’s a space in which CNN has been highly successful under Zucker’s leadership, most recently with Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy, which is now the most watched series in CNN history, bigger even than Anthony Bourdain. MSNBC wants to capture some of that same mojo, but “only projects that fit our brand, that fit our identity,” Jones said. The Trump presidency gave rise to lots of new faces at MSNBC. But at the end of the day, the two biggest franchises are Morning Joe and Maddow. And in reality, a lot of people would say that it’s really all about Maddow, who has the highest ratings and most rabid fan base of the whole bunch. What if she decides she’s ready to just chill at her 19th-century farmhouse in western Massachusetts, spending her days fishing, writing some more books? As Trump’s wild ride begins to look like a distant memory, as more viewers cut the cord, as the Maddows of the world become fewer and farther between, what then? “The eyeballs may shift to different platforms and people may shift to consuming content in different places,” Jones said. “We have a strong bench, an incredible slate of people. At any given moment, we’ve got an army that we could move up in the ranks.” On March 30, the networks put out their ratings for the first quarter of 2021, which included the Capitol insurrection, Biden’s inauguration, and Trump’s second impeachment trial. Fox News said it was “the most-watched network in primetime in all of basic cable” during the period, and CNN was “#1 in all of cable this quarter among adults 25-54,” according to their respective press releases. MSNBC’s bragging rights were that it was “#1 across all of cable in total viewers” for the first time ever. Such were the spoils of peak cable news. I circled back to Jones with a follow-up: Will MSNBC ever see a milestone like that again? Is this as good as it gets? “It’s a great feather in our cap,” she said, “but going forward, the metrics we’ll all be measuring ourselves by will be much broader than just how many people are watching us on TV.” n AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

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BEWITCHING

Photographed in Culver City, California, on March 20, 2021. Clothing by Moschino Couture.

Either you started loving her when you saw her light up WandaVision, or you’ve loved her forever. V.F. talks to one of our most spellbinding actors By AMY WALL ACE

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when she appeared at the Williamstown Theatre Festival for the first time. It was 1998, and the ensemble she was part of tried a warm-up exercise that involved running as fast as you could toward a wall, then stopping short, as close to the wall as possible. Other actors nailed it, decelerating to stick the landing. When it was Hahn’s turn, she hit the wall full force, and broke the big toe on her left foot. “I was a sobbing mess,” she tells me. “I was finally doing something legit. I was like, ‘Oh, I’m in the Berkshires. I’m going to make some experimental theater. There’s Ethan Hawke over there!’ Then I frickin’ broke my toe right off the bat. Couldn’t stop myself.” Hahn is 47 now, but to study her career is to realize that she’s spent two decades throwing herself at every role she’s had. Our interview starts with her welcoming me into the bedroom she shares with her actor-writer-producer husband, Ethan Sandler. It’s a cloudy afternoon in Los Angeles—“pretty moody weather,” Hahn says, her dark hair falling wildly around her face. Even pixelated on Zoom, Hahn is beautiful, but in an oversized oatmealcolored sweater and big, black-rimmed glasses, she projects an off-kilter sensibility that feels comfortably familiar, like you already know her. Right away, she tells me that the green chair she’s perched on is supposedly haunted by the ghost of an old man. K AT H RY N H A H N WA S 24

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“It’s a benign presence, but I guess we’re not alone,” she says, explaining that she is sitting “right in his lap.” When I remark that a haunted setting is perfect, given that we are going to discuss her beloved turn as a witch in Disney+’s WandaVision, she nods, but keeps talking about the ghost. “I definitely am sending him nothing but good energy,” she says. Since her first major studio role, in the 2003 light comedy How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Hahn has become known in Hollywood as “a Think.” A Think is a script-writing device that defines a new character by referencing a particular actor, as in: “Enter CASSIE. She’s a whirling dervish of nervousness, and it somehow makes her super attractive. Think: KATHRYN HAHN.” But despite her growing fame, Hahn’s talent has often been put to best use in edgier, alternative fare (Amazon’s I Love Dick, for example, in which she played a neurotic filmmaker who becomes obsessed with an art prof, played by Kevin Bacon). It took WandaVision—the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first show for Disney+—to make her mainstream. Suddenly, we are all thinking Kathryn Hahn.

run, viewers learned that its sitcominspired pseudo-reality was constructed by superhero Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) to bring her ARLY IN WANDAVISION’S

synthezoid soul mate Vision (Paul Bettany) back from the dead. And yet, while the show was ostensibly built around the couple’s story, it was deeply femalefocused. Unwittingly, it seemed, Wanda was using her superpowers in the service of her own deep emotions (in particular, her grief ) by re-creating Vision inside a New Jersey town that she’d also turned into her own TV show. And of course, Wanda’s nemesis was female too: Agnes, a classic “nosy neighbor” who turns out to be Agatha Harkness, the witch played deliciously by Hahn. Immediately, a debate raged between people who were first discovering Hahn and fans who’d long ago deemed her an icon. Many pointed out that after countless zany-best-friend and secondfiddle roles, Hahn had received a 2017 Emmy nomination for depicting a rabbi in Amazon Studio’s Transparent. At one point, the TV producer and writer Rachel Shukert encapsulated the chatter, tweeting: “Wasn’t Kathryn Hahn… already very famous?” Still, as WandaVision’s anthem “Agatha All Along” rocketed up the charts, Hahn’s reputation grew on social media. Giddy Hahn lovers imagined how great it would be if she teamed up on a sitcom with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, say, or did a buddy movie with Laura Dern or Catherine O’Hara. Some called for Hahn to host Saturday Night Live. Others yearned for Aaron Sorkin to have Hahn (not Nicole Kidman) play Lucille Ball in his upcoming biopic, Being the Ricardos. A self-described technophobe, Hahn didn’t see any of this. She has no Facebook or Twitter accounts, and prefers to read things on paper, not online. She still uses a Filofax and only recently bought her very first laptop so that she could write and engage with the world without borrowing her kids’ devices. But for a while there, she was doing so much press, and the resounding drumbeat was so loud, that the adulation couldn’t help but reach her. “I am tickled by it,” she says when I ask how that feels. “The part I was lucky enough to play…was just a ball. An absolute ball.” Agatha’s relationship with Wanda was complicated, she says, in all the best ways. Instead of being “just antagonist-protagonist,” it was “in the gray, which I always love. I felt like her mentor, her mother, her sister, her best friend, her frenemy. Lizzie [Olsen] would

be up on the wires in that full-on costume and I was just like: goosebumps. Like: I can’t believe how magical this is.” Magical too was the fact that the show explored not just a “Salieri-Mozart” relationship between two women, Hahn says, but mid-20th-century feminine archetypes in general (WandaVision spoofed The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, and The Brady Bunch, among others). Whenever possible in her work, Hahn has tried to illuminate the parts of being female— infertility, say, or a single mom’s sexual reawakening when she becomes an empty nester—that typically get short shrift from Hollywood studios. To explore female tropes through “these big genre swings” (and to end up a sorceress, no less) was exhilarating, she says. I tell Hahn that Olsen calls her “the pelvic floor of WandaVision.” Olsen had told me how in rehearsing the pilot, which was filmed in front of a studio audience, an egg accidentally splattered on the floor during a highly choreographed kitchen scene. Unfazed, Hahn quickly ad-libbed, “Wow! My jade egg! Excuse me!” “It was just like a lack of shame,” Olsen had said. “But also spot-on humor that is inclusive to everyone on the set and in the crew. Kathryn was this constant reminder of the most basic principles of acting, like [knowing] your want and your action in the moment. She was this pivotal person of strength. A female grounding force. I knew she had my back.” Hearing these words, Hahn crinkles her nose. “I mean, that is so super flattering. And I could say the same about that beautiful human,” she says. “I’ve

been really lucky. People talk about chemistry…but I don’t think that I’ve ever not had chemistry, really, with anybody. I love actors so much, and I’m always in awe of performers. I constantly feel privileged.” Don’t be fooled, however: Hahn has definitely made her own luck. When I reach Paul Rudd, who has worked with Hahn six times, he says that if she were a band, she’d be like Radiohead—an indie group with a small, passionate following that worked steadily for decades before, all at once, everyone was listening. “Kathryn is often not only the best person for the part, but also the best person on the set. Her personality is so joyous. With no attitude,” Rudd says. “Kathryn goes for it in everything.” DOUBLE VISION

Hahn on WandaVision, as a next-door neighbor and as a full-blown villain.

in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, the oldest of three (she has two younger brothers) in a middle-class home that used humor as a defense. “That was definitely our way of parrying from, ‘Don’t look closer,’ ” she tells me. Her father, who owned a computer ribbon and supply business, was known for being so cheap that on special occasions, he’d go to Baskin-Robbins and buy the cake that no one had picked up—“the cake that said, ‘Happy Birthday, Charles!’ because he got a discount,” Hahn says. “That was not funny to my mom.” The acting bug bit her in kindergarten, in a performance workshop at her Catholic school. “I had always been deep into pretend,” she says. That led to acting classes at the Cleveland Play House, and then to her starring role, at age 11, on a local show called Hickory Hideout. She played a girl in a tree house who talked to two puppets, AHN GREW UP

Nutso and Shirley Squirrely. (“That was on my résumé until, like, 2011,” she says, with a snort-laugh.) In high school, when she was home recovering from mono, she watched the John Cassavetes film A Woman Under the Influence for the first time and was riveted by what she would later call Gena Rowlands’s “open-faced sandwich, raw, no-meat-on-the-bone” performance, she says. “Just the naked nerve endings of her.” It set the bar for what Hahn wanted to do. She applied to Northwestern, even though her parents could only afford a state school. When she won a spot, she AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

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Jumpsuit by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello; boots by Givenchy. Throughout: hair products by Davines; makeup by Chantecaille; nail enamel by Chanel Le Vernis.

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cobbled together scholarships and loans, working odd jobs to make up the difference. Soon, she would be “swimming in debt,” she recalls. She and Sandler, her husband, met as freshmen, and quickly became “like an old married couple,” he says. He still remembers the first time he saw her perform, in David Mamet’s Edmond. “She just dunked on me,” he says. “I really was under the impression that I was a real actor. Like, I was one of those dudes. Then I saw her, and it was like, a) she’s doing something that I am not doing, and b) I’m totally in love with her, so no hard feelings.” After graduation, Hahn and Sandler moved to New York City to try to break

To report a profile on Hahn is to hear countless stories about this kind of gusto. There’s the one about how, in her second major film role (playing a barmaid in 2004’s Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!), she was so determined to shine that she studied and got a license to be a bartender. (In the finished film, she admits, “I never had a chance to even make a cocktail.”) There’s the one about how, toasting Mark Rylance onstage in Boeing Boeing, the only play she’s done to date on Broadway, she slammed her glass into his with such force that it shattered, drawing blood. And then there’s the time she was asked to appear naked from the waist down in Private Life, Tamara Jen-

H A I R , M A R I L E E A L B I N ; M A K E U P , F I O N A S T I L E S ; M A N I C U R E , A L E X J A C H N O ; TA I LO R , C L AY G . S A D L E R ; S E T D E S I G N , D A N I E L H O R O W I T Z . P R O D U C E D O N LO C AT I O N B Y D I S C O M E I S C H . F O R D E TA I L S , G O T O V F. C O M / C R E D I T S .

“WHATEVER IT IS YOU’RE DOING, SHE’S KIND OF THE MVP,” SAYS PAUL RUDD. “I MEAN, SHE DOES THAT CRAZY WITCH CACKLE AND YOU BUY IT. YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO DO A CRAZY WITCH CACKLE?” into the theater. They ended up in a fourth-floor walk-up in Hell’s Kitchen and joined experimental acting troupes, paying dues they could barely afford to appear in other people’s plays. “I got a lot of nonpaying, off-off-off-Broadway plays, or the plays you could only do if you brought 12 paying customers,” Hahn says. “No great shakes.” To pay her rent, Hahn was a receptionist at a fancy beauty parlor, whose staff threw in together one Christmas to give her a hairbrush. “They were like, ‘You work at a hair salon. You have to brush it before you show up in the morning,’ ” she says, pointing to her wild hair as if to say: Nothing’s changed! In the summers, meanwhile, she and Sandler would decamp for the Williamstown Theatre Festival. A lot would happen to Hahn at Williamstown. Later, when she was nearing the end of her studies at Yale’s School of Drama, a talent showcase there would bring Hahn to the attention of her first agent (to this day, Lindsay Porter still represents her). But before that came the fractured toe, which Sandler—who was there—believes epitomizes his wife. “That’s what it is to be in a scene with her,” he says. “In the moment, I was like, ‘Goddamn, again she’s dunking on me.’ ”

kins’s 2018 Netflix film about a couple struggling to have a child. While onscreen nudity is usually negotiated in advance, Jenkins tells me she got the idea at the last minute for Hahn to go “commando” in a scene with Paul Giamatti, who plays her husband. The scene: As the couple gets ready for a visit from an adoption-agency social worker, they discuss whether they’d make a better impression if they removed a painting of a vagina from the wall over their couch. In the script, Hahn’s character was fully clothed, but Jenkins suddenly saw it would be funnier if she could feature a pants-less Hahn and the painting in the same frame, “like a double vagina.” “So I nervously approached her,” Jenkins says, “and she didn’t go, ‘Let me think about it. Let me talk to my agent. We have to change the paperwork.’ She just went, ‘Oh, yeah.’ It was such a, like, shrug.” That’s Hahn, Jenkins says. “She’s so game and wants to be in the experiment of whatever it is she’s doing. She wants to be thrown off-balance. She finds that exciting.” Over the years, Hahn has often talked about the “sacred space” she always hopes to find when she is working. “I’m always looking for that feeling of connectedness,” she tells me. “Like: We’re all there. We need each other. We’re setting

up the circus tent together. When everybody sets the same intention, those are the times I’m the most satisfied as a performer. You can just be.”

fall, months before WandaVision launched the thousand memes that signaled the dawning of a worldwide “Hahn-aissance,” Hahn was hard at work on a Los Angeles soundstage with two men she loves and admires: Rudd and Will Ferrell. She’d collaborated with both men before—most famously in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, 16 years earlier. But Hahn had been a supporting player then, albeit a scene-stealing one. Now, on the Apple TV+ limited series The Shrink Next Door, she was one of the leads. The Shrink Next Door, a dramedy adapted from the popular podcast of the same name, is about a sketchy psychiatrist (Rudd) who takes over the life of a longtime patient (Ferrell), even as the patient’s sister (Hahn) puts up a fight. With just days to go before they’d start shooting, Ferrell, Rudd, Hahn, and director Michael Showalter toured the newly built sets. Then, they sat down together to talk through the scripts one last time. This is a particular moment in a production— a final pause before the creative storm breaks—that can feel like standing on a high dive, getting ready to jump. So at day’s end, Showalter asked the group: “Anyone want to say anything?” Hahn didn’t hesitate. “Okay, I’m just going to say some stuff,” she says, launching into a speech that was part pep talk, part challenge. “Can we just go for it? Please, can we just trust and let go and let everything kind of find its way organically?” Then Hahn, whose lack of vanity often veers sharply toward the self-deprecating, interrupted herself and apologized. “Oh, wait, Paul? Will? Do you want to say something?” she asked, flustered. “I’m sorry!” No apologies were necessary, Ferrell tells me. He loved what he describes as Hahn’s “call to all of us to be free to take chances.” In a few words, Hahn—who Ferrell calls “just a pure delight”—“set the tone for everyone to explore every quirk of what this series could be.” When Hahn finished, all Ferrell said out loud was, “I second that!” To himself, though, he thought: Yeah, this is going to be fun. Rudd, meanwhile, says that Hahn reminds him C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 1 3 4 NE AFTERNOON LAST

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America’s obsession with home renovation is a cash cow for streamers— though the neighbors might complain

the particular fascination of my household became Home Again With the Fords, a new HGTV series from the sisterbrother designer-contractor duo Leanne and Steve Ford, who work interior wonders in their native Pittsburgh. Leanne recently moved back to her hometown from Los Angeles, echoing a trajectory of many Americans her age who—either because of children or pandemic or both— decided to return to the nest and set up a more comfortable life close to family. No less stylish a life, though. Leanne’s designs are by far the sleekest on HGTV, casual-chic dreamscapes full of warm earth tones and the satisfying convergence of different aesthetics—SoHo loft blending with Scandinavian rustic to alluring effect. As a TV personality, Leanne is offbeat and charming, though her banter with her brother is teasing and affectionate enough that the hashtag #SiblingsNotSpouses sometimes runs at the bottom of the screen. Partnerships on HGTV shows are always a little cloying like that. The Fords, though, manage to keep it mostly cool. Home Again is a rich source of almost impossible aspiration; the gorgeous, fashionable remodels are expensive, and the lovely furniture we see in the final reveals ARLY IN 2021,

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usually isn’t even part of the budget. “It is staged,” says Leanne. “But they can keep it if they want. It is what I hope to fix if we do future seasons, so that it is soup to nuts. The hard part is that people use all their money on the construction. That one’s a tough one for me, as a designer. I want to leave and it all stays there.” This complicates the fantasy, money inevitably coming to bear as it does in nearly all things. Genially, Leanne encourages me to see the somewhat more limited possibilities of my own apartment. “I love the rental tricks,” she says. “You can change the lighting, you can actually take off the uppers. That being said, don’t expect to get your deposit back.” Were I to follow Leanne’s suggestions, I would by no means be alone. An estimated $465 billion will be spent in the home-improvement industry in 2022, with owners (and, yes, some renters) taking sledgehammers and color swatches to their spaces in the hopes of living a better, prettier, more camera-ready life. Or, you know, just finally fixing the back L E T T E R I N G BY DAV I D

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flagship product, its success helping to hasten migration to Waco, bringing with it the attendant issues of gentrification and housing inequity that always arise— or are further highlighted—when a city suddenly becomes the locus of a trend.

the city of Laurel without ever physically looking at the house.” Might all this national attention— bringing with it waves of migrants looking for their dream house and chasing a bit of the Home Town glow—badly alter the

GET ORGANIZED IS A MADDENING AND GRIMLY SATISFYING TESTAMENT TO CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION, VALIDATED BY CELEBRITY CLIENTS. deck that your cousin put a foot through two summers ago. HGTV has become the mascot and chief spiritual leader of this economy. The network was watched by some 60 million people per month in 2020, more viewers than anything else on cable that isn’t the relentless scream of 24-hour news networks. They are by no means the only builder on the block. YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram are vast repositories of aspirational home content; swiping through a carousel of manicured stills or watching an echoing-audio home-tour video offers a more immediate version of HGTV’s delicate balance of invitation and alienation. And there are emerging competitors in the TV market, like the upcoming Magnolia Network—a television outlet under the lifestyle company started by former HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines— and Netflix, which is swiftly erecting

structures on the territory first settled by HGTV. If one wanted to, as I often have, one could spend whole weeks awash in nothing but discourse about marble countertops versus quartz ones, bearing happy witness to the ongoing wars between 120

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Shaker cabinets and the equally craved and dreaded open shelving. (Dreaded by me, anyway; I could never abide such a constant invitation to gaze at my own disorganization.) The domestic-design media boom has turned the idea of home into something terribly adaptable, full of possibility and never quite nice enough. These shows are often described as harmless fluff, soothing and diverting entertainment free of all the prickly politics of the world outside. But, as happens with all growing phenomena eventually, home-design programming has taken on an actual weight, moving through the world with real consequence.

HERE IS THE story of Waco, Texas,

F O R D S : C O U R T E S Y O F H G T V. G A I N E S : C O U R T E S Y O F M A G N O L I A N E T W O R K . P R E V I O U S PA G E , H O U S E : M A R C U S G A A B / T R U N K A R C H I V E . F O L LO W I N G PA G E , M C G E E S : TAW N E E M A D L E N / N E T F L I X .

where Chip and Joanna Gaines lay their scene, under the banner of Magnolia. Their HGTV series Fixer Upper was long Magnolia’s and HGTV’s

The Gaines empire has been forced into a consciousness about its role in the city— the company has, of late, been consulting with the local chapter of the NAACP and the Community Race Relations Coalition on racial-justice matters and given $200,000 to the cause—but their growing footprint has undeniably shifted the balance of the city and brought it the glare of the spotlight. Other home-reno shows have had sizable impacts, affecting housing markets and reshaping neighborhoods in their respective communities. Husbandand-wife duo Ben and Erin Napier have completely transformed the faded southern city of Laurel, Mississippi, with the success of Home Town, which pairs locals with an affordable house and then gives it a dream makeover. Erin’s designs are graceful and homey, Ben’s carpentry is Nick Offerman–esque gentleman-builder artisanship. Small as Laurel is—population 18,000-ish and growing—the city’s post–Home Town story has been huge, the downtown once again bustling and prosperous, tourists and prospective home buyers flooding the area. The mayor of Laurel, Johnny Magee, says the Napier effect is nothing short of “amazing.” “We have people that have bought houses in

social fabric of a town like Laurel, where the median home price hovers around $100,000 and the median family income is only $30,000? When I pose the question of gentrification to the Napiers, they are surprised that the issue even comes

with it,” adds Ben, “because I think it’s about trying to push a certain group out of an area. And we’re not trying to do that. When we do get to work in areas that are lower income, we’re trying to improve it for the people who live there. That’s really

the non–construction workers in the audience? “I think that shows do have a responsibility,” says Roth. “And we do try to show as much as we can. But there’s only so much that we can show, and at the end of the day some of the things that

HOUSE PARTY

important to us. Magee concurs. “We still are very modestly priced,” he says. “The cost of living and the cost of homes is still probably lower than most places in the state. People that want to buy homes can afford to buy homes.” The Napiers will soon apply their revivifying skills to a different municipality, Wetumpka, Alabama, in a new series somewhat ominously titled Home Town Takeover. Oftentimes the home-reno industry’s impact is hyperlocal, helping lay waste to viewers’ own homes. In response to such follies, HGTV has two new series about doomed DIY-ers in need of help from the very network stars who inspired their failed projects. Prolific Detroit home restorer Nicole Curtis hosts Rehab Addict Rescue, featuring homeowners who’ve attempted Curtising their own careworn gems but find themselves in way over their heads. It’s riveting, as long as you can overlook online rumblings about Curtis’s controversial vaccination views. In and around Huntington Beach, California, laid-back contractor-designer Jasmine Roth tends to disasters in Help! I Wrecked My House, a show that serves as a careful reminder to invested viewers that home repair and remodeling are not as easy as they look on TV. How aware does HGTV need to be about what they’re communicating to

have to happen don’t make good TV. So we’re not going to include those, because you’d change the channel.” There are, at least, these service-y new series, stepping into the flow of information to remind people of the perils of self-taught plumbing and electrical and roofing work. It’s a fascinating development, that the ecosystem of the network, its stars, and its fans has become so total and immersive that it is now in reactive dialogue with itself, a community newly in need of regulation and civic safety practices.

Joanna and Chip Gaines on the sixth season of Fixer Upper—its first airing on their own network. Below: Steve and Leanne Ford on the set of Home Again With the Fords.

up, telling me that it is the first time they’ve ever been asked about it. “Gentrification’s not really a thing here,” says Erin with a laugh. “No one’s trying to improve property values.” “Gentrification has a negative context

to address its own shadow, other entities are elbowing into the homedesign space. Fixer Upper, once HGTV’s crown jewel, has been plucked out and reset in a new diadem: the Gaineses’ very own Magnolia Network, which will launch digitally in July and replace the DIY Network on the cable lineup in January. A redux of Fixer Upper will anchor the fledgling channel, joined by a host of other programming covering home, food, and other domestic genres. The launch of Magnolia was delayed by the pandemic, though Discovery+ made a sampling available during quarantine, most notably a cooking show from Joanna Gaines called Magnolia Table. It’s an awkward transition so far—Gaines S HGTV TURNS

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seemingly following recipes from other people rather than offering new culinary inventions. She’s better suited to Fixer Upper: Welcome Home, a continuation of the original program that made her a star. According to Discovery’s 2020 earnings report—accounting for the successes

validated all the more by the celebrity clients who appear on the series. If Reese Witherspoon can have her memorabilia closet ordered so beautifully, why can’t your linen closet follow suit? Less zeitgeist-y but no less compelling is Dream Home Makeover, hosted by designer

were doing. We were just so flattered that someone was interested in us. We went through the process of filming a sizzle reel and it was a disaster. Everyone tells you, ‘Be yourself, be yourself.’ And then they were asking Syd to pretend to be a contractor. They would call us on the

OFTENTIMES THE HOME-RENO INDUSTRY’S IMPACT IS HYPERLOCAL, HELPING LAY WASTE TO VIEWERS’ OWN HOMES.

of HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Magnolia, and other brands owned by the company—Discovery+ had a healthy start. About 12 million subscribers currently pay to access a trove of programming, including an endless stream of House Hunters episodes, essentially operating as its own single-service channel. (Reader, I have drifted down that river of home buying for days at a time.) The strategy has worked so far, further reifying HGTV’s brand dominance. The Magnolia Network, which will do linear and streaming, is more complement than HGTV rival, adding to the tight, cohesive synergy of Discovery’s various brands. (One does wonder, though, where viewer loyalty will shift given the cultish adoration the Gaineses have engendered since they first started covering the city of Waco in shiplap.) Discovery+ is a tiny blip compared to the world’s biggest streamer, Netflix, which seems not content to merely rule over all other television arenas. The platform has waded into the real estate and design market in the last two years and plans to do much more. Thus far, there is the wildly popular— though somewhat ironically watched—real estate series Selling Sunset, about a group of Los Angeles Realtors trying to unload dreamy-ridiculous mansions. Get Organized With the Home Edit takes the ethos of the popular Instagram account the Home Edit and translates it to the TV makeover-reveal model. That ethos is, essentially, to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on clear plastic tubs (now Home Edit–branded and available at the Container Store) to organize your closets, pantries, and refrigerators. The show is a maddening and grimly satisfying testament to conspicuous consumption, 122

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Shea McGee and her husband, Syd. The couple—good-looking and youthful, but anodyne and apolitical—reign from their Insta-ready mansion in Utah, having moved there from California because, like in pioneer days, they saw vast land to build upon—and a growing client base of

way to filming and be like, ‘Hey, could you just pick up a sledgehammer on the way?’ It was not authentic to us, and I’m sure it read that way. It wasn’t a great experience.” Then Netflix came calling, and everything fell into place. “We’re not going to have Syd pretend to be a

homeowners eager to give their cookiecutter homes some gentle pizazz. The McGees found themselves on Netflix after one particular false start, Shea tells me. “We were approached by a production company to pitch to a well-known design network,” she says vaguely, though we can probably guess which network. “We had no idea what we

STU-STU-STUDIO

Shea and Syd McGee filming Dream Home Makeover, their Netflix show and the latest jewel in the Studio McGee empire.

contractor,” Shea says. “When we had those meetings with Netflix, we made our own sizzle reel.” While the McGees’ core business is high-end, foundation-to-finish home

design, on Dream Home Makeover Shea is content to do just a few rooms. I first became familiar with the McGees through their YouTube channel, where they posted tours of each room of their new house, a gleaming, gabled palace looming over the scrub desert outside Salt Lake City. Shea’s taste is soft and clean; she plays with muted patterns but otherwise keeps things milky and serene, glowing just enough to pop on Pinterest but not glaring with anything as unmarketable as individuality. Her designs are soothing, offering a glimpse into a world where there are never spills, never stains, never clutter, only beautiful expanses of creams and copper and lush fabrics. This could be your life, too, if only you could get your shit together—organizationally and financially. The McGees have a thriving e-tail business, selling that lifestyle—or furniture-size pieces of it—to happy consumers.

by the McGees and many of their HGTV counterparts is blindingly white and often affluent, a grim reflection of the realities of home ownership in America. According to the most recent census, the homeownership rate for Black alone householders is just 44.1 percent, a huge drop from the 74.5 H E I MAG E C R AF T E D

percent for white alone. There is also the matter of age: Homeownership among the under-35 demographic is just 38.5 percent, something these networks and platforms will have to be conscious of as they program for the future. HGTV is cognizant of a lack of diversity in its roster. “We feel like we have probably not done the best job in terms of our talent, and it’s time for that to change,” says HGTV president Jane Latman. “We have, over the last year and a half, been actively diversifying.” That initiative has yielded some tangible results, with this spring’s premiere of $50K Three Ways, with Tiffany Brooks, and the upcoming Sister Fixers, with Courtney Robinson and Leslie Antonoff, among other series in development. As for economics, Netflix says it wants its home content to run the gamut, from the impossible glitz of Selling Sunset to Marie Kondo urging everyone to throw

Indianapolis. On Windy City Rehab, brassobsessed Chicago developer and designer Alison Victoria grapples with the legal, financial, and public relations fallout of her former business partner’s alleged misdeeds. It has been jarring to see personal struggles suddenly invade once relatively conflict-free programming. There will be more of it to come, says the network, though producers can’t exactly plan for lawsuits from angry home buyers or the duplicitous business practices of shady, largely off-camera associates. Those are just unhappy, or happy, accidents. A refrain I often heard from people I spoke to across these channels was that they are in the business of storytelling, rather than just showing us what people’s homes look like—and what ours could, too, someday. Which might be alarming for loyal viewers, like me, who have always enjoyed the home genre for its near absence of story. Or at least for the

out whatever belongings they have. The gleaming sock bins of Get Organized might fall somewhere in the middle. Those who don’t own homes might also be drawn to HGTV by its recent infusions of real-life drama into some of its series. In 2020, we saw Mina Starsiak Hawk, cohost of Good Bones, deal with fertility issues while fixing up houses in a little corner of

spare design of its narratives: A problem is addressed and made better, a material want is met with tangible results. That’s long been quite enough. But it seems the powers that be have done their own reassessing during this troubled time, looking around at their environs and figuring that—as so many of us have—it all could be so much more. ■ AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

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In 1987, one of the most influential shows on TV was born. The stars, writers, and producers look back on their years at Hillman College

DIFFERENT WORLD

By L E AH FAYE CO O P E R

OPENING ACT

Lisa Bonet, Dawnn Lewis, and Marisa Tomei on set in the first season. AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

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1. SCHOOL TIES

1. Although Bonet appeared for only one season, she left her mark. 2. Writers and producers Yvette Lee Bowser, Susan Fales-Hill, and Debbie Allen pose together. 3. Kadeem Hardison and Darryl M. Bell in a still from the season five “The Cat’s in the Cradle” episode. 4. An off-screen friendship with Bonet was what initially brought Hardison onto the series.

EARLY ON TUESDAY, August 4, 1987, writer

and producer Yvette Lee Bowser pulled out her diary and started an entry:

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It’s 2:52 a.m. Today, I begin my first real job as an intern writer with a new NBC sitcom. I’m so excited I can’t sleep. Right now, I’m organizing myself for my big day. I can hardly believe that it’s really happening. I’m going to make something happen with this opportunity, I really am. God knows my heart and how determined I am to make change in this world. Not only in my life, but for others. Bowser shares this over Zoom from her home office in Los Angeles as one of more than a dozen cast and crew talking about their days on A Different World. The seminal Cosby Show spin-off was developed by Bill Cosby—an indelible fact. But unlike his namesake show, Cosby wasn’t a key player on A Different World, and its

orbit of the fictional Hillman College, an HBCU in Virginia, evades any shadow in memory, as enjoyable as ever in Amazon Prime syndication. On September 24, 1987, A Different World aired its wildly popular pilot, whose ratings surpassed every other program except The Cosby Show. The NBC sitcom originally starred Lisa Bonet, already known to the world as Denise Huxtable, for one season. Fans remember the show as much for its cultural relevance as they do for its laugh-out-loud comedy and talented cast. Among them were the nerdy but confident Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison); silly playboy Ronald “Ron” Johnson (Darryl M. Bell); bougie southern belle Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy);

7. 5. Bonet wraps Lewis in a hug. 6. Jasmine Guy, Bell, and Allen in makeup. 7. Hardison, Guy, and Cree Summer behind the scenes. 8. Clockwise from left: Bell, Lou Myers, Summer, Glynn Turman, Charnele Brown, Lewis, Hardison, Sinbad, and Guy.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: CARSEY-WERNER CO. BONET: NBC . LE WIS AND BONET: NBC . HARDISON AND BELL: GENE TRINDL . C A S T P H O TO A N D A L L I M AG E S F RO M E V E R E T T C O L L E C T I O N . G U Y , B E L L , A N D A L L E N : C O U R T E S Y O F DA R RY L B E L L . HAR D I S O N AN D B O N E T : N B C U P H O TO BAN K / G E T T Y I MAG E S . HAR D I S O N , G U Y , AN D S U M M E R : CAR S E Y - WE R N E R CO. / N B C /A L A M Y. B O W S E R , FA L E S - H I L L , A N D A L L E N : C O U R T E S Y O F Y V E T T E L E E B O W S E R .

and free spirit Freddie Brooks (Cree Summer). Other characters, such as jocular dorm director Walter Oakes (Sinbad) and grumpy on-campus restaurant owner Vernon Gaines (Lou Myers), helped round out the picture of college life. In the 34 years since its debut, A Different World has become one of television’s most influential shows, inspiring everything from dissertations and lectures to Halloween costumes and social media fan accounts—while motivating countless young people to attend college, specifically HBCUs. Along with The Cosby Show, it laid the groundwork for shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Family Matters, and Living Single—itself created by Bowser—and featured

numerous Black actors long before they were famous, including Halle Berry, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Keenen Ivory Wayans. When actor and producer Lena Waithe first joined Instagram in 2011, her handle was @hillmangrad. Today, Hillman Grad is the name of her production company. That A Different World was never nominated for a Golden Globe and never won an Emmy is both unsettling and indicative of how Black shows rarely receive the praise they deserve. Almost 30 years after that final episode, Bowser, Hardison, Guy, Bell, Summer, Sinbad, Debbie Allen, Susan Fales-Hill, Dawnn Lewis, and others recall the stories of A Different World in their own words.

Fales-Hill, who had been a writer for The Cosby Show, was tapped to write a spinoff, originally titled Stepping Up to Step Out. Shortly after, Bowser joined the team. Meg Ryan was initially cast as Maggie but decided to pursue her film career; Marisa Tomei took her place. Lewis, who was also pursuing a musical career, landed the role of Jaleesa. Loretta Devine played dorm director Stevie Rallen.

YVETTE LEE BOWSER

(writer and producer): I didn’t have aspirations to write for television, but in watching The Cosby Show I felt like there was an opportunity for a voice like mine and a life experience like mine. I tracked down someone that AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

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BELL: I think there were three of us, maybe

four, that went to network for the part of Dwayne Wayne. Kadeem went in first and you could hear the laughing outside in the hallway while the rest of us were waiting.

After School Daze, Jasmine Guy, who had also appeared in Fame with Debbie Allen, was performing on and off Broadway. She had auditioned for the role of Jaleesa during the first round of casting and was called back when the show added more characters.

JASMINE GUY

FUNNY BUSINESS

(Whitley Gilbert): The second time I went in there, I said, They have a certain perception of what I can do, so I want to be something totally different. What do I have to lose? That’s when I came up with the accent for Whitley.

Sinbad; Jada Pinkett Smith; and Tomei. Opposite: Guy—here with Bell and Hardison—starred as Whitley Gilbert following Bonet’s departure.

SUSAN FALES-HILL

DAWNN LEWIS

(Jaleesa Vinson): I had just finished the tour of a Broadway show, The Tap Dance Kid, with Hinton Battle, Harold Nicholas, and Dulé Hill. The same people who cast the play were casting A Different World. I asked if I could audition, and they told me no for about three months, saying, “We love what you’re doing in the Broadway show, just keep singing and dancing.” The tour ended and I had one more unemployment check left. Then, out of the blue, on a Wednesday, they called and said, “Are you still interested in the audition? Can you come in tomorrow? Great.” Within 10 days I had booked the costar spot and written the theme song. Neither the musical director nor the casting director knew that they hired the same person. Unfortunately, once everyone realized I was the same person that had just been cast to be in the show, I was no longer allowed to sing the theme song. 128

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They were like, “That’s a little too much attention on you, and it’s not your show.”

KADEEM HARDISON

(Dwayne Wayne): I had just finished filming School Daze [with Jasmine Guy and Darryl M. Bell], and I’d come to L.A. to visit some friends. Since I knew Lisa, I went and saw a taping of A Different World. It was just her, Dawnn, and Marisa, and I thought, This could use something.

DARRYL M. BELL

(Ron Johnson): Through School Daze, Kadeem and I got really close. He’s a big gamer now, but he had never played video games until we were filming in Atlanta, where I’d brought my Nintendo. He would be in my room every night playing video games. Two weeks after I went to the taping, I got a call that they were auditioning people for extra characters. I auditioned and then I got a call from Darryl. He was like, “You heard about this Cosby spin-off audition?” I was like, “Yeah, I just went in.” He was like, “I just went in.” I was like, “Oh, for who?” “Dwayne Wayne.” And I was like, “You went in for Dwayne Wayne? I went in for Dwayne Wayne.”

Me, Dawnn, Marisa, and Lisa shot the credits one weekend, which were amazing, but there was no Whitley, and we didn’t even know there was going to be a Whitley. We got to work for the first table read on Monday, and Jasmine had just finished auditioning 20 minutes beforehand. They brought her right down and I was like, “Oh snap, that’s my homie.” HARDISON:

SINBAD

(Walter Oakes): I heard they were looking for a stand-up comic to warm up the studio audience, so I met with the producers, and Bill Cosby was there. I lied so much. They asked me if I’d done stand-up for a studio audience before and I said, “Yes, for Magnum, P.I.” They said, “Magnum, P.I. didn’t have a studio audience.”

HARDISON:

Cosby offered Sinbad the stand-up role anyway, and a guest spot on The Cosby Show. After that appearance, he was cast in A Different World. LEWIS: We kept parts of the episodes that

we had already shot and then shot new scenes that had got melded in so that the whole cast would appear from the very first episode.

S I N BAD : D O N CAD E T T E / M P T V I MAG E S . CO M . P I N K E T T S M I T H : N B C U P H O TO BAN K / N B C U N I V E R S AL / G E T T Y I MAG E S . TO M E I : E VE RE T T CO L L EC T I O N . G U Y , BE L L , AN D HAR D I S O N : CAR S E Y - WE R N E R CO. / E VE RE T T CO L L EC T I O N .

I knew who introduced me to Dr. Cosby, and he said, “Go to law school. I have nothing for you out here.” I showed him some stories that I’d written and he chuckled a little bit. Then he gave me an opportunity to be what he called an apprentice writer, which is essentially an intern. It was unpaid.

(writer and producer): I can’t even remember anyone else who auditioned because [Jasmine] just came in and owned it.

HARDISON: I thought, This thing might

run six or eight weeks, then they’ll cancel it and then I can go on to being a movie star, which is what I wanted to be. I thought of myself as a film actor.

Bell appeared for the first time in episode four, as an unnamed student. BELL: My character was talking to Whitley

and he had to turn to her and say, “I knew it could be done.” When it came time for me to say it, I tried to stretch that line out as long as I could. They were like, “Okay, my man, do you want to shorten that up?”

It wasn’t the best line reading, but we loved him and were like, “We’ve got to find something for Darryl to do.” BOWSER:

Soon after, Bell accepted an offer to be Keshia Knight Pulliam’s stand-in for an episode she was appearing in. (Because minors could work only a limited number of hours, she wasn’t allowed to attend all of the

rehearsals.) In the episode, Rudy Huxtable visits Denise at Hillman and becomes enamored with Whitley. They got me some hockey pads so I could get on my knees and be Rudy’s size for the camera. And Rudy had adopted Whitley’s accent, so I spent the entire week playing an eight-year-old girl with a southern accent, climbing into bed with Jasmine Guy and Lisa Bonet. Everyone thought it was so funny. BELL:

LENA WAITHE

(writer, producer, and actor): My earliest memory of A Different World is it being used as a punishment…that’s how serious it was. If I didn’t do well on a test or if I got in trouble at school, I remember my mom saying, “You ain’t going to be able to watch A Different World if you keep acting up.” Bonet (who was not available to comment for this story) married musician Lenny

Kravitz on her 20th birthday, November 16, 1987, and announced her pregnancy the following May. Though some advocated for the pregnancy to be written into the show—a scenario that many young women could relate to—it’s been widely reported that Cosby and others disagreed. Bonet subsequently left A Different World but rejoined The Cosby Show after the birth of her daughter, Zoë. BELL: Lisa doesn’t get enough credit for A

Different World. It was all because of her popularity that Mr. Cosby had the idea to do this spin-off. And I know it was a lot of pressure, particularly when she and Lenny started dating. The amount of press and paparazzi that hounded and followed them…they were 20-year-old kids. Anyone who has suggested that Lisa was unprofessional or difficult to work with, it’s just not true. GUY: I felt like Lisa was diminished in her

ability to look natural. Everybody said, “Well, that’s just her.” Do you know how

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hard it is to make your reality truth? In front of a camera?

show that we knew A Different World needed to be.

[The creators] wanted to go in a different direction culturally, which meant Marisa was also gone. She and Lisa are incredible women, and they were so much fun to work with. It was sad for me—because we had started this journey together—for them to not be there anymore.

Bowser, Fales-Hill, and fellow writer Thad Mumford went on an HBCU tour, visiting students at Spelman, Morehouse, Howard, and other HBCUs to talk to them about college life.

LEWIS:

ALLEN: I had been asked to work on Fam-

ily Ties, but then I got this call from Bill

“I WANT TO BE SOMETHING TOTALLY DIFFERENT. WHAT DO I HAVE TO LOSE? THAT’S WHEN I CAME UP WITH THE ACCENT FOR WHITLEY.”

LORETTA DEVINE

(Stevie Rallen): One day I came to work and my whole apartment was gone. It was just a door. That was sort of a clue [that my character wasn’t coming back]. It was one of the tragedies of my career. I was devastated. I thought everything was just over. [Kadeem and I] were like, “Are we coming back next season?” Because people were getting fired a lot. It was a very tumultuous time; we never knew who was going to leave or why. GUY:

While A Different World finished its first season rated number two behind The Cosby Show, the writers and cast believed that the story should more accurately portray student life at an HBCU.

DEBBIE ALLEN

(director and executive producer): My sister [Phylicia Rashad] was a guest on A Different World, and she observed some problems behind the scenes in terms of the storytelling. I think she had a conversation with Mr. Cosby, and then he had conversations with [producers] Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner, and Caryn Mandabach. They decided they needed a voice that understood historically black colleges. I went to Howard University, and it was everything in my growth and my self-discovery from young teenager to woman. There was a real opportunity between seasons one and two to do the BOWSER:

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and he said, “You know we need you to come and get out your broom; clean it up and bring reality to it.” So that’s what I did. I made that choice. It was in our second season with Debbie as our director and executive producer that we really started to find our own voice. FALES-HILL:

CREE SUMMER

(Freddie Brooks): The girl that was my competition lived in England, and Debbie asked if she could stay with me. So I had my competition sleeping on my couch, and the two of us drove to NBC together. I remember Kadeem walked by and I thought, Oh, God, he is so fucking fine. FALES-HILL: We created Freddie’s charac-

ter after a trip to Spelman and Morehouse. Several students asked us, “Why don’t we see anybody who’s from a mixed marriage on your show?” I’m from a mixed marriage myself, but I didn’t think people wanted to talk about that or see it. I was fascinated. ALLEN: One of the first things I did was

take everybody’s fake nails and hair weaves off to make them a little more natural. And we had to put hot sauce on the tables. Administratively, a lot of barriers came down. This was a time when it was perceived that the writers were gods and the actors [should just] do what they’re told. But any show that works is a real collaboration.

BELL: When Debbie came on board, after

every rehearsal we’d have a note session with the writers and producers, and we could talk to them about what we liked and didn’t like. Then they would make changes and come back to us. So it wasn’t us versus them, it was us together. HARDISON: All of a sudden [the show] got

real, then it became amazing. The change was night and day.

Under Allen’s leadership, A Different World remained comedic, but no topic was offlimits. Rape, racism, AIDS, and colorism were all among issues the show explored. FALES-HILL: I was able to share something

that a lot of people didn’t know, which is that there were Black people in America who owned slaves, particularly in Louisiana. That was an episode that dealt with colorism, and I remember after our first table reading we had a two-hour conversation because everyone had their own story of being otherized because of the color of their skin, whether it was considered too light or too dark or whatever. It was one of those moments where we knew we really hit the mother lode, because it ran so deep. If there’s an episode that was remarkable, it was the AIDS episode. It’s remarkable that it even got on the air. We were under a microscope. I don’t think the network wanted us to do it, and advertisers pulled out, but it was just the time. I got Whoopi Goldberg to play a teacher—[and] I knew she was going to win the Academy Award that year for Ghost—and she was amazing. Tisha Campbell played the young girl who had been infected with AIDS, which was also the first role on the show Jada Pinkett auditioned for. ALLEN:

The number one episode for me is easily “Cat’s in the Cradle,” when Dwayne and Ron go to a football game and these white dudes spray-painted the N-word on Ron’s car. Then they got into a fight with them and they all got thrown into jail together. It was so well written, and it was all about listening to each other. HARDISON:

An episode that I don’t think gets talked about enough is when [Jada Pinkett Smith’s character] Lena’s father comes back into her life. She’s in a writing class and she writes a story about WAITHE:

her dad that isn’t true. He shows up and he’s not the guy that she wrote about. [It examines] the relationship between Black fathers and their daughters, and how sometimes Black fathers have demons that, unfortunately, their children have to deal with. SUMMER: Debbie was always so ahead of

her time. Date rape had just been defined in the culture; we had just named it. And it had been happening all over campuses. I remember feeling very empowered that we were going to be brave enough to talk about it. And I love that episode so much because of the healthy, platonic relationship between Dwayne and Freddie. And that was a wonderful thing about A Different World—a lot of the platonic friendships were so healthy. FALES-HILL: [After the date rape episode]

we got a call from the attorney general of Pennsylvania. There was a little girl who had been raped by her neighbor while selling Girl Scout cookies. She was seven years old and she didn’t tell her parents. Six months later she saw the episode and it gave her the language to understand what had happened to her. They brought the case to the prosecutor. When you’re writing for TV, there are a lot of moments where you say, “What am I doing with my life? There are so many problems in the world and I’m not solving them.” But moments like that made you realize there’s something that you can do.

Something told me to stop and go over, so I did. I stood there and said, “Look at me. You stop this. Both of you. Stop this.” They looked and they said, “My God, it’s Colonel Taylor.” And they stopped. There’s definitely talk about “We only want to see happy Black people” or “We don’t want to see trauma in our entertainment,” but the truth is I got both with A Different World, and I think I turned out okay.

Dwayne and Whitley would eventually become one of television’s most iconic couples. But the onscreen chemistry between Hardison and Guy was hard-fought— initially hampered by “a little crush” Hardison says he had on Guy.

WAITHE:

As the story lines developed, so did the characters, which the cast and audience grew to love. I loved that Dwyane was smart and I love that he was from Brooklyn. And I liked that math was his thing because it was my thing until they put letters in it. He was easy to love. He was a good guy. He had a good heart. HARDISON:

I couldn’t do a lot of things I did on that show without Charlie [Charnele Brown, who played Kimberly Reese], Cree, Kadeem, and Mary Alice [Lettie Bostic]. Because of them as actors, I was able to do and say all the things that I, as a person, totally disbelieve. But I understood Whitley, and I understood why she became what she was and the journey that she had to go on. GUY:

W I L B E K I N : Dwayne Wayne really reminded me of so many of my friends

I think I was walking into The Pit, and he just kept eating his ice cream. I was like, “When I walk into the room, you better look at me.” We had to build this up to a reality. I said, “Do you know the term sexual tension?” And he didn’t. GUY:

She was like, “Let’s flip it. I’ll be you, and you be me.…” And then it clicked. It was never the same after that. You felt like they were in love. HARDISON:

I love watching [Dwayne and Whitley] go from being awkward teenagers to more mature Black people in love. We just hadn’t seen that. To go from watching Dwayne relentlessly pursuing Denise to becoming this articulate, genuine, compassionate, caring guy who vies for Whitley’s heart…and to see Whitley also mature past being this dilettante into someone who could actually allow herself to be loved by her soul mate, Dwayne, it just felt so real. BOWSER:

Among the most memorable episodes were two consecutive shows that culminated with Whitley and Dwayne getting married, during what was initially Whitley’s wedding to

EMIL WILBEKIN

(journalist and founder of platform and advocacy group for Black, gay, and queer men Native Son): The show premiered when I was a sophomore at Hampton University. In many ways, A Different World helped a lot of us who were in college or just out of college process what was going on in the world. It was a safe space for us, and in some ways created a form of therapy. We were seeing ourselves portrayed in a positive way, but also in a very thoughtful human way, and dealing with a lot of trauma that we were dealing with in our real lives.

GLYNN TURMAN

(Colonel Taylor): Here’s how influential Colonel Taylor was. I was driving down the street one day—in the hood, so to speak—and I saw two young men, teenagers, in a brawl.

“I REMEMBER KADEEM [HARDISON] WALKED BY AND I THOUGHT, OH, GOD, HE IS SO FUCKING FINE.”

at Hampton. He’s really cool, but he’s really corny; he’s so confident, but he’s really insecure. You can’t tell him he’s not going to win, but there’s a vulnerability to him as well. Whitley reminded me of a lot of the women that I grew up with in Cincinnati and in Jack and Jill, and women who attended Hampton. There were a lot of women who came from privilege, who were light-skinned, and who felt high and mighty. But there was also the struggle for Whitley to find her voice as a woman, and I thought that that was very powerful.

Byron Douglas III, played by Joe Morton. Neither Hardison nor Guy thought the Graduate-esque story was a good idea. FALES-HILL: Originally, we had written it

in a much more staid way, and everyone had a civilized, polite conversation about Whitley and Byron not working out. And then, I think it was Debbie and Joe who said, “This needs to be The Graduate... Dwayne shows up. It’s all in the middle of the wedding. It’s not deep, it’s messy and crazy.” AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

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PHOTO FINISH

Wardrobe designer Ceci used Polaroids to create a visual timeline for the show. Opposite: Lewis, Summer, Hardison, Guy, and Brown gather in a Radford Studios parking lot.

I was not a fan of that whole idea. I just thought we had done so much stuff that was grounded in reality, and this was a complete leap. [And] it felt like such a snake-in-the-grass thing to do to some other guy who you were friendly with. I 100 percent didn’t buy it. Up until the last day before we shot it, I was asking the writers to please fix it. HARDISON:

GUY: After we did the reading, I said, “Are

y’all going to do that? That is whack. That is so corny.” A compromise was made and the writers added a scene where Dwayne tries to talk Whitley out of the marriage the night before. His grand gesture of interrupting the wedding stayed in the script, though. I was doing the vows and I messed up and I panicked. I just said, “Baby, please.” That wasn’t [Jasmine’s] cue, and I know what a boss she is, what a pro she is. She was going to wait for her cue, but I wasn’t going to get to it. I was like, “Baby, please!” The second please was a please for her—say your line, say your line, because I’m out right now, and this is just going to get worse and worse if we have to do more takes. And she said, “I do! I will!” We kept going with the scene and Debbie said, “Got it. Moving on.” One take. HARDISON:

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VA N I T Y FA I R

In the show’s fourth season, Ceci was tapped as the lead costume designer. She would go on to create some of the show’s most recognizable looks, from Freddie’s texture-heavy boho ensembles to Whitley’s polished suits. CECI: I remember standing in my living

room watching A Different World and saying, “I’m going to do that show.” Not even a week later the show’s tailor contacted a mutual friend who was a costumer and said, “Girl, they’re looking for a new costume designer on A Different World.” I fucking live for wardrobe [and] Ceci was heaven on earth. Wardrobe was my room. Freddie was wearing oxblood Doc Martens laced up to the knee…Fishbone T-shirts, Frank Zappa T-shirts. I remember wearing moccasins that I brought from home. Because I had a character that didn’t give a fuck about what other people thought, I really got to explore. SUMMER:

[Ceci] had Whitley down. When you’re a costume designer, when you’re doing makeup and hair, you’re part of creating this character. You’ve read the scripts, you understand the character dynamics. GUY:

Shows, and particularly Black shows, didn’t really have an enormous budget, so I always had to be creative with Whitley to make her wardrobe look CECI:

opulent. It wasn’t like she was wearing YSL or Gucci. While Hardison wasn’t a fan of Dwayne’s colorful style, early on the wardrobe department gave him free rein to order sneakers from Nike. When Ceci arrived, however, he asked if he could retire Dwayne’s signature flip-up glasses. CECI: I didn’t like them either, quite frank-

ly. I thought that they were very corny. It was a battle that I had to wage and ultimately we won. The network thought that was part of his image and they were very reluctant to change it. But I thought that he could evolve into something else, and he did. He became more sophisticated throughout the years, and his look needed to reflect that. When the show wrapped, Hardison was given one of the two pairs of Dwayne’s glasses from the set. In a move he now regrets, he donated them to a charity auction; what charity, he can’t recall.

That was stupid. But Joanne Curley Kerner, she was one of our producers, and she has the other pair. She said I can have them, because I want to send them to the National Museum of African American History in D.C. That’s where they should be. HARDISON:

Not long after the show first aired, a litany of guest stars began appearing.

The supporting actors that came through our show were just insane. Patti LaBelle…Gladys Knight…Ron O’Neal… Blair Underwood. I mean, the list just went on and on and on…. My absolute favorite episode of my five and a half years with that show was the Gladys Knight episode where I got to be a Pip. LEWIS:

There were a lot of Black performers, especially of a certain generation, who wanted to be on the show because they loved what it was saying and what it was doing. Diahann Carroll was my mother’s best friend. She was like my second mom. So when we decided we wanted to meet Whitley’s mother and we knew we wanted Diahann [to play her], I literally drove up to her house in Beverly Hills and said, “You need to come do this show.”

BELL:

Lisa was on The Cosby Show, so she was accustomed to being in the atmosphere of a juggernaut. The rest of us, we were not. To have that kind of attention on you at 20-something years of age, it was different.

soul sisters and I became the godmother of Zoë. A Different World really altered the molecules in my soul and my destiny…. Jasmine and I, oh, my God—when I think of the first time I met Jasmine, love at first sight.

My sister and I were out in Atlanta having beignets, and she said, “I don’t know why this girl keeps staring at me, but I’m about to cuss her out.” Then we realized that I was being recognized.

GUY:

FALES-HILL:

Patti LaBelle and I are friends from my early dance days in New York. She was singing, I was dancing. She was a big fan of A Different World, and she said, “Debbie, you gotta put me on the show, I want to be on the show.” I was like, “Patti, it’s done.” I think it was Susan who said we’re going to make her Dwayne Wayne’s mama. That was everything, because we already had Diahann Carroll. Pitting them against one another, you don’t have to do much. Just point the camera. ALLEN:

C A S T : C O U R T E S Y O F DA R RY L B E L L . A L L O T H E R S C O U R T E S Y O F CE C I .

FALES-HILL: The first time Diahann came

HARDISON: Towards the end of the first

season, I was driving home and I saw about two dozen kids on my lawn. I kept going and I had the car phone at the time, so I called Glynn Turman’s wife, who’s a Realtor. I was like, “Jo-An. I got to find a new house.”

I wish that people got as excited about Black television as they did for Cheers, which was right down the road from us, but I don’t think we ever felt a real overwhelming sense of celebrity. SUMMER:

FALES-HILL: We were really a family, with

all that that implies. Sometimes you’re getting along really well and sometimes you’re not, but you always love each other. I can’t tell you how many parties Debbie hosted with all of us there. She was so effusive and welcoming. BELL:

I met Lilakoi Moon, formerly known as Lisa Bonet, and we became SUMMER:

We had so much fun off-camera that I only remember episodes based on what was going on in our lives during that time. And what people never saw was how funny everybody was. Of course Sinbad, but Glynn Turman, Lou Myers…just a witty, savvy group of people. One of my favorite nights was the night that Magic Johnson broke the all-time assist record. There’s a picture of myself, Kadeem, Eddie Murphy, and Magic Johnson at a party that was in People magazine. That was emblematic. That to me encapsulates the best of that time. BELL:

BOWSER: The cast, they were our peers.

We worked together, we hung out together, we talked about life together. We all grew up together.

[Debbie Allen’s husband] Norm Nixon was playing for the Clippers during our second season. Debbie would go to games and Kadeem and I would join. The Clippers were awful, so we could just walk right down and sit in the front row. Then Kadeem and I bought courtside seats. So for all the time that we were on A Different World, we were like the Jack Nicholson of the Clippers. C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 1 3 4 BELL:

to do the show, she gathered everybody, and she said that when she had started on a soundstage in Los Angeles, there was absolutely no one of color except for her. She said, “Look around—your director is Black, your writers are Black. This didn’t exist before. You need to really honor that.” When Halle Berry did the show, she was not yet a star, she hadn’t done any of her big movies. We cast her as Ron’s girlfriend and it was a one-shot deal. Then she became the Halle Berry we know now. FALES-HILL:

With the success of the show came a level of fame that, while moderate in comparison to the visibility of young actors in today’s more diverse, social media–fueled industry, was an adjustment for the cast. AWA R D S I N S I D E R !

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Kathryn Hahn All Along

of his friend Olivia Colman in that “the temperature in the air changes when she’s in the room to a much more comfortable 72 degrees and sunny. Kathryn is such a bright light. Whatever it is you’re doing, she’s kind of the MVP.” Rudd didn’t miss a single episode of WandaVision, he adds, and is still reeling from “how good she was. I mean, my God, who else could do what she did? She does that crazy witch cackle, and you buy it. You know how hard it is to do a crazy witch cackle?” Joey Soloway, the writer-director who gave Hahn her first leading role in a feature film in 2013’s Afternoon Delight, says, “Watching her face feel things is an experience unlike any other actor I can think of, in the way that I only was able to ever really pin on Meryl Streep growing up. It’s like, ‘There’s something about her.’ The technique is 100 percent invisible.” Though it’s not obvious at first, there’s another actor too whose career sheds light on Hahn’s: Tom Hanks. Like Hanks, Hahn started on television, in recurring and bit parts (her first network TV gig: playing a grief counselor on the NBC drama Crossing Jordan). Both actors first set themselves apart in comedic roles that drew attention away from their considerable dramatic chops. Just as Hanks, who is 17 years older, spent the early part of his career seeming almost indistinguishable from Steve Guttenberg, Hahn had a period where she seemed to compete for every role with the similarly underappreciated Judy Greer. And just as Hanks is America’s everyman—funny, intelligent, attractive, hardworking, and decent to the core—“Kathryn is incredibly everywomanish,” says Jenkins, the director. Hahn’s gender brings particular constraints, of course. For male and female actors alike, success in Hollywood often means getting pigeonholed into certain types of roles. For women in their 30s and 40s, though, this typecasting has until very recently tended toward two extremes: leading ladies or loopy sidekicks. Especially for women at mid-career—too old to be an ingenue, too young to be a grandma—that can mean fewer opportunities. “You’re a piece that’s put on the board. But the board has been inadequate,” says CON TIN U ED F ROM PAGE 117

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VA N I T Y FA I R

Jane Cho, a former actor turned diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant who has known Hahn since they were both freshmen at Northwestern. To understand Hahn’s career, Cho says, you must appreciate that she is in sync with her times: “The culture has started to reimagine and challenge itself a bit in terms of what a woman can be. For sure, the roles that Kathryn has created were part of that. But the stirring of that questioning has also allowed what Kathryn is capable of to come forward.” After How to Lose a Guy, Hahn spent some 10 years playing best friends and sidekicks. This was a period that she says is best summarized with the help of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. “I’m [mis]quoting [her] right now, but I definitely wasn’t living the life I was singing about in my song,” Hahn says. “I just would show up and try to do the best that I could with the work that I was cast in—and had worked really hard to be cast in, and met lovely human beings. But creatively, I felt hollow.” Hahn says her career is bifurcated into “before and after” Soloway, who uses the pronouns they/them. “They could see something in me that I knew was in there, but I didn’t ever think that I would find it in this medium. I thought I would have to go back to the theater.” Together with Soloway, who is best known for the streaming series Transparent, Hahn spent a lot of time thinking about female-centered storytelling. She noticed that she had felt far more self-conscious in past roles that required her femininity to be artificially buttressed—with push-up cutlets, a spray tan, and “Spanx for days”—than she did playing long, extended sex scenes in projects with Soloway. Hahn and Sandler have two kids, a 14-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter, and Hahn told me she thinks being a parent factored into this career evolution as well. “The most fearless or unselfconscious I’ve felt has been post [having] children,” she says. Hahn had been told that having kids would probably forever relegate her to playing supporting roles. “Then, all of a sudden, it was like, ‘No. Fuck that.’ There was like a sharper clarity to what I could bring. I just didn’t want to waste any more time.” So what does the future hold? To the fans clamoring for an SNL hosting gig, Hahn replies, “That is something I would love to just jump off a cliff and do.” The Shrink Next Door will be coming at some point to Apple TV+. And amid relentless speculation, she says she is absolutely eager, if asked, to reprise her role in the Marvel universe. Now, Hahn can only hope that WandaVision will make it easier to set the course of her own career. When Tom Hanks was in his 40s, after all, major movie studios featured his everyman persona in a string of huge movies that lured moviegoers by the

millions. It’s more difficult for an everywoman, of course. (Think: Tom Hanks, if he had to lug a 200-pound pack on his back.) Hahn is developing “a bunch” of projects, including an adaptation of “Five Women,” a This American Life episode about several women who worked for the same harassing boss, and a New York magazine article she’s optioned about how late-onset schizophrenia can sometimes be triggered by menopause. “I certainly don’t want to frame it as just a menopause movie,” Hahn says. “Yet I do think that menopause is a psychedelic period, no pun intended—a mystical, dark, crazy chapter that is as profound as adolescence that we just don’t talk about at all.” “I’m feeling really greedy right now,” Hahn says, and I can see through my computer screen that she is glowing. “There are so many roles left that I haven’t met yet. There are definitely nooks and crannies of a woman’s experience that still need to be told.” n

A Different World

CON TIN U ED F ROM PAGE 133

ALLEN: I used

to cook for [the cast and crew] to keep that family feel. We were having a read-through at my home when it was announced when Magic Johnson had HIV. We were devastated. Juggling an increasingly demanding stand-up career and also looking to get into film, Sinbad left in season four. Lewis and Bowser both left in season five. While they didn’t plan it, both landed at Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper. SINBAD: I was doing a tour with Luther Van-

dross and Anita Baker, I was hosting Showtime at the Apollo, and I was doing A Different World. I was always on a plane going somewhere, or driving somewhere. It was my decision [to leave] because I was working so much, doing too many things. I said, “I can’t cheat them.” LEWIS: It was my request to be let go. Origi-

nally, the show was about three women. By the time season five came, I think there were 14 people that were considered principals. BOWSER: I just felt like emotionally and creatively, it was time for me to go. Sometimes, when you grow up in a certain place, you have to leave the nest to truly soar. Little

did I know how truly tough and oppressive the world would be outside. The little insulated group at Carsey-Werner and A Different World was such a female-friendly and Blackfriendly environment, and the world outside was racist and misogynist, to say the least. I’m not really one to suffer fools, so I became more determined to create my own work environment. That’s what set me on the path to create Living Single. By season six, Dwayne, Kimberly, Ron, and Whitley had all graduated from Hillman, and a new group of students joined the cast in main and recurring roles. ALLEN: Jada Pinkett auditioned for the

young girl with AIDS in season four. When she walked in that audition room she said, “I’m the next Debbie Allen.” I was like, “Damn right!” I said, “We’ve got to put her on the show. Where did she come from? She’s amazing!”

FALES-HILL: We didn’t have a character who

was from the hood, and wanted to address that experience. [Jada] was brand-new to Hollywood and she was just magnificent and magical, and had an extraordinary story herself.

BUMPER ROBINSON

(Dorian Heywood): I remember the Tupac episode in particular, because he was super cool and had street cred, and my character was the church boy. I was like, “Damn, how can I be cool in this episode too?” But I realized then how important my character was to show those sides, those layers of us, as Black people.

Despite consistently high ratings—often number two behind The Cosby Show and sometimes number one—A Different World was never nominated for a Golden Globe. The show garnered just three Emmy nominations (Carroll and Goldberg, both for outstanding guest

actress, and outstanding technical direction) and took home none. FALES-HILL: I’m not somebody who beats

her chest about oppression, but when you see the way certain white shows at the same time frame were assessed versus the way we were assessed, it had everything to do with color. BOWSER: If I allow myself to feel slighted

by the lack of recognition, it would be a very sad life. I wouldn’t have been able to move forward, quite frankly. A Different World definitely should have been more lauded and acknowledged for its popularity and its contribution to society, but we were making a show for the people, not for the accolades.

While filming season six, NBC announced to the cast and crew that A Different World wouldn’t be renewed for a seventh season. ALLEN: There were a lot of politics going on behind the scenes, and none of us will ever truly know all of it. [Though] I have to say, I witnessed a great deal of resentment towards Bill Cosby’s power, and Marcy and Tom. Six years is a nice, good run, [but] I didn’t like how it ended. It went off the air unceremoniously. It was not nice. And it was very hurtful to my entire company—the cast, the writers, the producers, the cameramen. For us to go off the air so unceremoniously, I don’t know. I’ll let the powers that be… they’ll live with that. SUMMER: I don’t think the network really

gave a shit about A Different World. [You know when] you just don’t feel the love. If you’re driving down the street, are there any posters for our show? Why aren’t we on the cover of anything? Where’s the P.R.? Where’s the love?

FALES-HILL: The saddest part was getting

letters from teachers and principals from public schools in underserved communities

who were saying, “Without you on the air, I can’t tell my kids that they can aspire to anything and go to college.” BELL: If you watched the last episode, when

Whitley and Dwayne are getting ready to walk out of frame, Debbie ends the shot on my face. You can see Ron breaking down in tears. That was Darryl coming unglued, because that was the last shot of the night, and it was over. That was it. Few television shows have an impact as enduring as A Different World. B OW S E R : Applications to college, and

HBCUs in particular, spiked exponentially as the result of the show. That’s a huge reward. Who needs more validation than that? HARDISON: I live for the moments at the

gas station when a grandmother tells me her baby wanted to be an engineer because of me. BELL: [The cast] was in Detroit on our way

to do an interview at a radio station, and this woman saw us in the street and lost it. She started crying and shaking and we were like, “All right, honey, don’t die on us.” But she was like, “You just don’t understand—I’m a doctor now, I’m married to a lawyer. None of this was possible for me before I watched A Different World. I just didn’t know it was a thing.” It’s remarkable to know that you can still have that kind of effect on someone 30-plus years after the fact. BOWSER: Sometimes when I get interviewed

people ask me, “Well, how do you write or create such iconic shows or iconic characters?” And the truth is, you don’t create iconic shows or iconic television or iconic characters. The audience decides what really lives with them, what really sticks with them. n For extended interviews, visit vf.com

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JUNE 2021

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P roust Questionnaire

NORMAN LEAR

The prolific television producer looks back on happy times in Italy, and forward to his 100th year

What is your idea of perfect happiness? Waking up in the morning is as perfect as anything gets. What is your greatest fear? The greatest fear I can remember is coming back from WW II and being amazed that I was more afraid to audition for a job than I was flying 52 missions. On what occasion do you lie? Every time I relay my weight. What do you dislike most about your appearance? The part that makes me look my age. Which living person do you most despise? The person who most admires Donald Trump. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? The rare moment I don’t believe in myself enough. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Dishonesty and insincerity. What is your greatest extravagance? I may be a little more extravagant than I should be in my affections. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Hi. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? A good personality with little behind it. Who are your heroes in real life? Ben Bradlee and Muhammad Ali. What is your greatest regret? That I can’t age downward for the next 20 years. What or who is the greatest love of your life? My wife, six children, and four grandchildren. If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be? I would have them all living closer. When and where were you happiest? I was the happiest every time we landed in Foggia, Italy, after a bombing mission during World War II. Which talent would you most like to have? I’d like to have sung like Pavarotti. Which historical figure do you most identify with? 136

VA N I T Y FA I R

The political journalist I.F. Stone. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Not being true to one’s word. How would you like to die? Of record-breaking old age. What is your favorite occupation? Laughing. What is your most marked characteristic? Being true to my word. What do you most value in your friends? The same thing. Who is your favorite writer? Ralph Waldo Emerson. Who is your favorite hero of fiction? As a boy, Frank Merriwell. What is it that you most dislike? Anything and anyone phony. What is your current state of mind? I’m looking forward to my 100th year. If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be? I’d like to come back as a boy to do it all over again. What is your motto? Over and next. When something is over, it is over, and we are on to next, and if there was a hammock in the middle of those two words, that would be the best definition I know of living in the moment. n

I L L U S T R AT I O N BY R I S K O

JUNE 2021

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