NEW WORLD ORDER

Letters

Establishment Types

I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed reading "The New Establishment" [by David Halberstam, Nicholas Lemann, and Elise O'Shaughnessy, October]—and not just because I was in it.

In an innovative way, you actually did capture a lot of what is going on in the world in which I and the others live. I thought the story was one of the most interesting that I have read on the entertainment world.

SUMNER M. REDSTONE New York, New York

The October issue of Vanity Fair is a must-read for any student of American history. The Special Report on the New Establishment is a mind-opening examination of what is driving the engine of today's world train. It's brilliant, incisive, clear, and full of the microscopic data we seem to plow through at warp speed in contemporary American society! Kudos and bravos to O'Shaughnessy, Lemann, and Halberstam as well as a brilliant V.F. staff.

GEORGE DICENZO Marina del Rey, California

The October Vanity Fair is a powerful issue. Congratulations!

JOHN WEITZ New York, New York

Whoever conceived the idea of the New Establishment Special Report, please tell him or her it was brilliant! In all the years I have been reading Vanity Fair, this is the most interesting and informative piece I have ever read. Congratulations to you and your magazine for a job well done.

PAUL BLOCH Los Angeles, California

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Regarding your article on the New Establishment: Just because these people fly in their own Gulfstream jets 45,000 feet above the Grand Canyon does not mean they are closer to God. It is a principle of physics.

ANTHONY F. PROVENZANO, M.D. Bronxville, New York

I took exception to all of the negativity on Henry Kissinger. Our paths crossed once, during a private tour of the White House. I said, "Gosh, I've always admired you." Kissinger's response: "You have good taste." So he does, at least, have a quick sense of humor!

VIRGINIA KATIMS Seattle, Washington

Annie Leibovitz "catches the faces of change" in her "Portfolio of Power," but unfortunately for women some things will never change. The serious expression on Barbra Streisand's face is not in sync with her chosen attire. I wish someone would tell Barbra, "It's not about your chest, it's about your brains and talent." Even if her office is at home, I doubt she works out deals in her slip.

LIZA COLEMAN New York, New York

I find it completely disheartening but not at all surprising that some 24 years after the rebirth of feminism there are only two women who wield power in the New Establishment and only one nonwhite person. Oh yeah, she's one of the women. How about a no-boys network?

LISA ANN ROBERTSON Columbus, Ohio

The most exciting event around here is the day my Vanity Fair arrives.

I especially enjoyed your Special Report, "The New Establishment." The men in the photo on pages 212 and 213 must be doing something right: our family ditched cable TV two years ago, in favor of books and classic videos, yet even I recognized 13 of the 16 faces! Their reach far exceeds the "information superhighway."

PATRICIA M. ARNOLD Kingston, Ontario, Canada

I see the members of the New Establishment as certainly no more powerful than the original Hearst or Luce was in his day. The individuals V.F. singled out have influence, but only indirectly in the areas that really count: geopolitical/socioeconomic-policy development. I think that each is interested more in making money than in anything else.

NED BROWN New York, New York

Cruise Missiles

Your article on Tom Cruise ["Cruise Speed," by Kevin Sessums, October] tops all articles from the past about him. I have finally read something that goes beyond his acting career. He is genuine and uninhibited and I feel that makes him shine the way he does.

KELLI SCHWABE Warrington, Pennsylvania

So Tom Cruise has a good head on his shoulders—like any other good little hypnotoid in Scientology. After my brush with Scientology, I think I'd have been better off with vampires.

KATHLEEN RAINE Ithaca, New York

Many people just see Tom Cruise as a pretty face with an outrageous body, but Kevin Sessums's article brings out the real Tom. He's a great guy and I have always loved him. The pictures are some of the best I've seen.

CHRISTIE ORDOYNE Thibodaux, Louisiana

I have watched Tom Cruise grow up on the silver screen and I've been a fan from the beginning. Thanks to Kevin Sessums's article I now know that I was right all along; there's so much more to this man than a beautiful face and sexy body. Tom Cruise is a kid at heart with a very old soul. He seems to have found peace in the chaotic and often crazy world of movie stardom he's chosen to live in. I wish him all the best in the brilliant future I know he's going to have.

MARY CALI Syracuse, New York

To set Tom Cruise's mind at rest, no one is saying that Scientologists are not "decent, good individuals." Surely, Cruise is free to worship at the altar of whatever church he wishes. However, if he chooses to use such loaded statements as "read a book about it" in a highly regarded, nationally distributed magazine (we all know what book you're talking about, Tom), then the forum becomes open, one hopes.

What does seem unfathomable to some of us is that, for all his looks, fame, power, money, and intelligence, Cruise should depend on a psychological life-support system that emanated from the pen of a well-known sci-fi writer, the late L. Ron Hubbard.

PETER MILLINGTON Minneapolis, Minnesota

Tom Cruise spent this past spring in Toronto while his wife, Nicole, was filming a movie there. He enrolled their daughter, Isabella, in a "Parent Tot" gymnastic program. Fortunately for my two-year-old son and me, we enrolled in the same class, an experience I shall never forget. He participated with great enthusiasm as we did the "Hokey Pokey" dance and sang Barney songs with our children. As your article suggests, he truly is unaffected, and his normality was not what us common folk would expect from a big star.

KAREN TRESHAM Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I was really moved by your article about Tom Cruise because it is so nice, but rare, to see someone (especially a celebrity) who has so much perspective that he can appreciate life itself, can stand up for what he believes in regardless of the consequences, can refrain from placing strong judgments upon others, and who knows what is most important—family. It gives me hope to know that there are still good, genuine people out there.

VONNY Y. ICHIHO Torrance, California

Reynolds Bap

Thank you for interviewing Debbie Reynolds ["Debbie in the Desert," by Leslie Bennetts, October]. In my opinion, she's the best thing in Las Vegas. I became one of her most ardent fans after seeing her show on New Year's Day 1994. By the way, not all of Debbie's fans are gray-haired. Those, like myself, who belong to Carrie's generation are just as wowed by this generous, gorgeous, and supremely talented lady. Go get 'em, Debbie!

REBECCA MERLICK Hutchins, Texas

One of my first movie recollections is of Debbie Reynolds's duet with Carleton Carpenter—"Aba Daba Honeymoon." How in the world could a community of high-paid stars let Ms. Reynolds sink? Doesn't anyone have that friendly feeling everybody sang about in The Unsinkable Molly Brown? My goodness, Merv Griffin alone could bail the lady out. I for one want to see those costumes and lose a few quarters.

LINDA SCHWARTZ Portland, Oregon

"Debbie in the Desert" left a bitter taste in my mouth, and it wasn't cheap wine! It's not only the silver foxes that love Debbie, you know. I'm 38 years old and I'm planning a trip to Vegas to see Debbie perform. She has handed down her chutzpah and sense of humor to Carrie and Todd. Give her a standing ovation.

HOWARD SHAPIRO

New York, New York

Smoking Bullets

Regarding Christopher Hitchens's "Smoke and Mirrors" [October]: Please advise of time and date of rebellion. Count me in.

PATT B. HART La Quinta, California

I once pointed out to a nonsmoking colleague that in World War II all the victorious leaders used tobacco. Roosevelt smoked cigarettes, Churchill, cigars, and Stalin, a pipe. In addition, Patton puffed on cigars, MacArthur had his corncob pipe, and, it is reported, Eisenhower smoked 80 cigarettes on D-day. The vanquished Hitler, as Mr. Hitchens pointed out, was a notorious nonsmoker. Without a moment's hesitation my friend replied that all the Allied leaders are dead but Hitler is still alive and living in Brazil. To discuss any aspect of tobacco with antismokers is to pee into the wind.

ROBERT TERMUENDE Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Mr. Hitchens defends smoking by using the rather touching argument that it allowed Kenneth Tynan to write. Brendan Behan and countless others made the same claim for alcohol. But leaving all other comparisons between these two gentlemen aside for a moment, I would much rather have occupied a barstool next to Mr. Behan—whose alcohol intake would have been his own business and certainly different from mine—than sat next to Mr. Tynan under the same circumstances, since his intake of tobacco smoke would have regrettably become my business.

KATHLEEN CAIN Seattle, Washington

I'm quite sure that if you put a poor rat in an unventilated jar and pump smoke into it 24 hours a day it will probably develop health problems. However, I have yet to see a shred of evidence that if Representative Waxman leaves his smoke-free home in his smoke-free car to spend eight hours in his smoke-free office he is in any danger of expiring prematurely from spending a couple of hours in a restaurant or bar where a few patrons are smoking.

SARA HART San Jose, California

The "glamour" previously attached to smoking has long since disappeared. If Mr. Hitchens wants proof, let him follow me as I visit patients devastated by the myriad of smoking-related diseases, and ask those patients just how glamorous they feel when they can't breathe.

I have heard all the arguments made by smokers in their own defense. They say, "I have to die somehow." Yes, but you never want to die from the horror that is smoking-induced lung disease— you don't die right away, but instead suffer through months or years of breathlessness and wasting away, more often than not begging to be allowed to die. And "I know lots of people who smoke and have never gotten lung cancer or emphysema." Sure, but do you really want to take that chance? I know people who practice unsafe sex and haven't gotten AIDS, but I'm not sure I'd try it.

Those of us in the private practice of medicine only run the risk of hurting our business by stopping the smoking epidemic, since it produces so many of the patients we treat.

WARREN BOTNICK, M.D. Los Angeles, California

All I can ever say when confronted by a rude nonsmoker is "Butt the hell out." Now I will carry copies of Christopher Hitchens's article to give them.

I reside in a suburb of Cleveland. The city built a new stadium this year. The stadium was partially funded by a socalled sin tax on cigarettes and alcohol. And now, of course, it's a nonsmoking stadium.

ROBIN WYATT Macedonia, Ohio

Listening to Congressman Waxman at hearings brought back memories of Senator Joseph McCarthy's statements at the HUAC hearings of long ago. The subject may have been different, but the rhetoric was the same.

GLORIA K. DUGGAN Jensen Beach, Florida

While Waxman et al. may be willing, even eager, to see my "right to be let alone" go down the drain, I wonder if they ever stop to think that theirs might be the next to go. Get ready to kiss your pre-dinner cocktail(s) goodbye as well as that tender, marbled, rare roast beef. A baked potato with butter and sour cream? You've got to be kidding! And just one more thing: Don't even think about wearing shoes made out of leather.

NORMA J. MELILL Temecula, California

As a resident of San Francisco, I am painfully familiar with the fascism of the anti-smoking movement. Thanks to Angela Alioto, our caring Board of Supervisors president, S.F. will be smokefree in 1995.

One thing Christopher forgot to mention: though smoking-caused lung cancer is a drain on Medicare, surely it is a boon to Social Security. Think of the money Social Security saves when someone dies of lung cancer at or near retirement.

Christopher: If you are in San Francisco in or after 1995 and need a place to stay, you are welcome at my apartment. We'll pull my blackout curtains and smoke away!

GINA FALDETTA San Francisco, California

Christopher Hitchens makes a logical case for smokers' rights until he mentions Melina Mercouri and how cigarettes were part of her "style." Didn't she die from lung cancer? He neglected to give out that bit of information.

J. NEILSON Boca Raton, Florida

I would like to share Christopher Hitchens's article with my co-workers, but your magazine is not allowed in my workplace, thanks to a ban on perfume in the halls. Maybe I could fax it in, while on my cigarette break.

CARLA HAMILTON Medford, Oregon

Fads and trends are known to be short-lived in the U.S. Is Mr. Hitchens's refreshing piece an indication that the backlash against anti-smoking is Finally here? I always enjoy your magazine.

MARIE-HELENE FALCK Zumikon, Switzerland

I've got a deal for these "We're so concerned about the health of our employees" corporations that ban smoking in the workplace: When they stop poisoning our waterways with the tons of contaminants they dump into our rivers and streams every minute, when they stop polluting the atmosphere with deadly chemicals spewed from their round-the-clock smokestacks, when they manufacture vehicles that don't emit noxious fumes, I'll put my Winstons down with nary a mutter.

MARY ELLEN THOMASON Bardwell, Kentucky

Having been invited to Christopher Hitchens's home and enjoyed his considerable hospitality, I can attest that ashtrays are available. I can also confirm that he asks before smoking, and that as a nonsmoker it is a pleasure to give permission.

I'm sure that Hitchens finds it as odious as I do to agree with Senator Jesse Helms about anything, but surrendering the right to smoke with the permission of others would be a defeat for civil liberty as well as civility. I might prefer that Hitchens not smoke, for his sake, just as he might prefer that I drive more slowly or eat and drink differently. We would both prefer to stay out of bed with Helms. Damn Waxman for having sent us there!

WILLIAM E. RAY West Palm Beach, Florida

Christopher Hitchens's implication that nonsmokers are boring and smokers are risktakers is obviously flawed. Smokers are less risktakers than addicts. If you want to do something really risky, try to write after 24 hours sans cigarettes.

DONNA HOUSMAN Arlington, Washington

What I fail to understand is a basic fact of human nature: people need someone to persecute. Who will be next after smokers?

PAMELA C. ADAM South Hamilton, Massachusetts

I really don't care about Christopher Hitchens's health, but I do care about mine. That's why I don't inhale secondhand smoke, his or anyone else's. And I'm in the majority.

THELMA L. PIERCE Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Below the Beltway?

Whether or not people in Washington knew that Richard Holbrooke's distant relatives practiced Judaism was an irrelevant tangent in an otherwise fine profile ["Mr. Holbrooke Builds His Dream Job," by Marjorie Williams, October]. I can't help but wonder, had Mr. Holbrooke's nonpracticing forebears been Lutherans rather than Jews, would your author have noted that "inside Washington, almost no one had known that Holbrooke was ..." Lutheran? I think not.

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HALLEY BLAIR New York, New York

I met Richard Holbrooke only once after he was appointed ambassador to Germany. I was impressed with the manner in which he expressed his personal feelings on being appointed ambassador to the country that under the Nazi regime was responsible for the Holocaust. When he assumed his position, he clearly identified himself as a proud American Jew conscious of the terrible past.

JACQUES TORCZYNER New York, New York

Culture Vultures

I particularly like the piece on Culture Victims in your October issue ["Hype & Glory," by Henry Alford]. It's the attitude of that piece that will keep me as a subscriber.

CHRISTINE GODIN Overland Park, Kansas

Please ask Henry Alford for what reason we, whom he sneeringly calls "Culture Victims," should be living our lives if not for culture. After all, what else is there separating us from dumb beasts?

WILLIAM R. GILL JR. Roanoke, Virginia

Model Citizen

I got very angry when people were trashing Cindy Crawford in the October "Letters" column. It is a shame when people are so critical of someone who has made it to the top, like Cindy, and admits that money alone does not solve all your problems or necessarily make a person immune to conflicts in his or her life. I have only one thing to say about Cindy Crawford: she has a heart of gold! My son was almost killed in an accidental shooting last year, when one of his friends didn't think a shotgun was loaded and pointed it at his face point-blank. He came close to dying many times and is a living miracle.

I personally wrote to Cindy Crawford at her modeling agency and told her about my son Chris, and what a fan he was of hers, and how it would really cheer him up if she could do something for him. Three weeks later she mailed him a Cindy Crawford calendar and wrote a few words and signed it. It was so thrilling to see a smile on his face again! Then, about a month later she sent him another autographed picture. When a supermodel takes time out of a hectic schedule to do something like this for someone she doesn't know she must be a very special person! My family thinks Cindy Crawford is wonderful!

JONNIE CALTON Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Letters to the editor should be sent with the writer's name, address, and daytime phone number to: The Editor, Vanity Fair, 350 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10017. Address electronic mail to vfmail@vf.com. The letters chosen for publication may be edited for length and clarity.