Full Sunday cover for my interview with La Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, El Tucci and director David Frankel. Stunning images by @theatraff , fabulous headline by @andrewlavallee . Gift link in bio. That’s all. 💅👠
Happy pub day (and birthday 🎂!) to Melissa Auf der Maur @xmadmx . I wrote about her striking new memoir, “Even the Good Girls Will Cry,” which explores her artistic life as the bassist for Hole and Smashing Pumpkins. Required reading for any fan of 90s rock, or of women. Gift link in bio.
“Sinners” cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw may make history this weekend, as the first woman to win an Oscar for cinematography. She already achieved a few other firsts, as the first woman of color to be nominated as a DP - and even the first to shoot a movie in full format IMAX. (She operated the 65-lb camera herself, with writer-director Ryan Coogler by her side.) Link in bio for more on this badass of cinema and beyond. UPDATE: She won! Congrats @addp ✨
Sex, debauchery, addiction, aggression: Billy Idol spilled it all, when I hung out with him at his Hollywood Hills lair. But the bad boy of 80s rock is more introspective these days, and his roots in London punk and the NYC club scene are deeper than you think. Gift link in bio. 💪
A for-profit prison company houses nearly a quarter of the country’s ICE detainees, who complain of poor medical care, even as the company, CoreCivic, boasts record profits. Front-page story with Katie Thomas and @jessicasilvergreenberg . A family of five we interviewed was recently released after more than four months in detention.
I spoke with mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani about his cultural diet. Turns out the onetime rapper was also an improv student and UCB fan; a typical NYC kid who loved the Museum of Natural History; and a smart aleck who snuck trash TV when his parents weren’t looking. As someone who grew up around creativity, “his love for what people make themselves — whether it is a thing or an idea, that’s what he’s charged by,” his mother, the filmmaker Mira Nair, told me. Gift link in bio.
Is it a pile drive or is it performance art? It’s both! Wrestling is making inroads into the art world, with matches and wrestling exhibits popping up at galleries and museums. My piece featuring the stars of @choke.hole (drag wrestling) and @aew (pro wrestling). Gift link in bio! 💪
Cover for my profile of Jeremy Allen White, a convincing Springsteen, in Asbury Park. What I learned over lunch with him: he’s a real Brooklyn boy made good, but he also got up to some shenanigans. Link in bio for the hyper-local tea.
Haven’t laughed and cried this much in an interview in a while. Also the only one where we talked about fish guts and Elton John. Thanks to Brandi Carlile for telling me about recording her stellar new album, about how she charted her path out of aloneness (with an assist from Aaron Dessner of the National and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver). So worth a listen. Gift link in bio to read.
Cover spot for my piece on Ben Stiller, “one of the greatest comic actors to ever live” according to his friend Chris Rock, as he takes stock of his life and his famous parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, in a new documentary. Gift link in bio.
Spending a few hours in the company of Jane Goodall was one of the great honors of my life. Here she is demonstrating a chimp call for the audience at the end of our talk in 2017. (Link in bio for the full convo.) Being in her presence felt like being around a supernatural deity, one who toted stuffed animals, told punchy jokes and still enjoyed a sizable shot of whiskey. People routinely burst into tears when they met her; she called it “the Jane Effect.” In another conversation, I asked her what she was afraid of. “Not death, per se,” she said. “Because it’s either nothing, or something, in which case that’ll be very exciting.”
She re-oriented our understanding of the whole natural world, and found hope in humanity to the end. Thank you @janegoodallinst 🕊️
Soundtrack of our era: the girls are screaming. With Florence Welch, Olivia Rodrigo, the Broadway hit “John Proctor is the Villain,” and more. Link in biooooo 🙀🙀
