The McCon-aissance is old news. The question is, what do we call the phase he’s in now? The one in which he not only out-Gekkos Gordon Gekko (The Wolf of Wall Street) but turns in one of the most transformative performances in memory (Dallas Buyers Club)? The Pax-McConaughey? We’re going with the McConaugh-reign. Long may it last! So […]
A Very Dangerous Boy
Last week, a judge in California finally decided the fate of a violent and damaged child who murdered his neo-Nazi father a few years ago, when he was just 10 years old. Amy Wallace reports on the tragic, impossible case of Jeff and Joseph Hall A son kills a father and the question is why. […]
Tempting Kate
How do you become the iconic bombshell of this generation? If you’re Kate Upton, enviable curves are only the start “Funny story,” a guy who knew Kate Upton in high school wrote not too long ago on the message board for Gamespot.com, a site for video-game news. “She dated a guy our age we knew […]
20/30 Vision
Warby Parker has trained its sights on the stylish, “post-wealth” millennial set—as customers and employees. Early one morning this summer, a gaggle of fresh-faced twentysomethings streams into an elevator at the Puck Building on Houston Street. “I like your shoes,” one girl tells another, smiling with a first-day-of-school shyness. They could be mistaken for NYU […]
Hammer Time
With his turn as the eponymous character in this month’s The Lone Ranger, Armie Hammer is primed for Hollywood’s A-list “Hi, are you…?” inquires a baritone voice from above. When I look up from my seat to see Armie Hammer leaning over me, well, let’s just say I now understand what it means to swoon. […]
Must Cats Die So Birds Can Live?
All winter, Peter Marra’s children had been pestering him to get a cat. It was ironic, he thought as he walked up the snowy path to his modern farmhouse in Takoma Park, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. Especially now, when the country’s cat lobby had him pegged as the Josef Mengele of felines. In his […]
The Oracles of Google
“Part of the reason we wrote the book is we were really tired of the debate that is going on, is technology good or is it bad,” says Jared Cohen, Google’s chief of ideas, sitting alongside Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman. The company’s unofficial motto is, famously, “Don’t be evil,” which makes their offices above […]
177 Minutes With Jackie Siegel
“This I copied from the Louvre,” Jackie Siegel says, pointing to the pyramid-shaped structure jutting off the back patio of her partially finished dream home known as Versailles. She tosses a ringlet of streaky blonde hair over her shoulder and pads into the grand ballroom, her bejeweled flip-flops glinting against the dusty concrete floors. “We’re […]
The King of Oontz Oontz Oontz
Four years ago, he was just some Swedish kid named Tim who liked messing around on his laptop at home. One iTunes-dominating dance hit (“Levels”) later, he’s Avicii, world’s hottest DJ, making $250,000 a night to keep the Ecstasy-dosed, champagne-soaked masses moving. Jessica Pressler spends a wild week jetting around with Avicii and his Oontz-a-Loompas, […]
Entertainment for Women
When it launched, Playboy was a literary power, nude photos or not. Its offices also happened to be an interesting place to work—for women. For years I’ve known that my mother lived in New York City in the early 1960s and was a secretary before she married my father. Recently I was reminded that she’d […]
Invasion of the $10 Wardrobe
It seemed at first like a strange Japanese version of Gap. Towers of denim bathed in LED light, sweaters saturated in every color, and armies of sales pixies flitting about like bees in flight. But then the clothes sold. And sold. And continued to sell (even through the recession, when sales actually increased). As Uniqlo […]
It’s Good to Be Michael Lewis
He could have made a fortune in business. Instead, he made a fortune writing about it. Plus—a fortune for everyone he writes about. Collins Tuohy has told this story before, and by now her delivery is spot on. It was Thanksgiving morning, and her family were on their way to pick up breakfast. “Because in […]
A Holly Golightly for the Stripper-Embezzlement Age
After the crash, financier Ken Starr was revealed to be one of the greatest hustlers of our time. But he had nothing on his fourth wife, Diane Passage. The Grand Havana Room is good, if you can get past the doorman. The Oak Room at the Plaza is the easiest game in town; just go […]
“It’s Too Bad. And I Don’t Mean It’s Too Bad Like ‘Screw ’Em.’”
Embattled Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein just can’t understand how he got cast as the Dr. Evil of Wall Street. Lloyd Blankfein cleared his throat and moved away from the podium. Grasping a glass of water, he looked down at the long table where his top executives were facing the crowd at the Goldman Sachs […]
What Does It Take for a Female Tycoon to Get Noticed Around Here?
Lynn Tilton is one of the wealthiest financiers on Wall Street. She’s also on a spiritual journey to save America’s manufacturing base. But she’s having trouble getting the respect she believes she deserves. Lynn Tilton doesn’t think women should have to act like men to be successful in business. “I think women too often give […]