VANITY FAIR

JANUARY 1998 No 449

Features

LEONARDO TAKES WING 70

At 23, Leonardo DiCaprio found himself at the center of the most expensive movie ever made, James Cameron's magnificent Titanic, a logistical nightmare of gigantic cranes, bungee cords, and water tanks the size of city blocks. As the $200 million high-tech epic hits the screen, Cathy Horyn explores why its international heartthrob star is still happiest at home. Photographs by Annie Leibovitz.

HEARTS ON FIRE 76

In an excerpt from his long-awaited second book on the civil-rights movement, Pillar of Fire, Taylor Branch examines the extraordinary personal dramas behind the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act—J. Edgar Hoover's machinations, the bullying idealism of Lyndon Johnson, and the courageous, tortured leadership of Martin Luther King Jr.

PARIS MATCH 86

Gendarmes with guns, horn-blowing heralds, and 1,200 jet-set guests all took part in the three-day, $1.7 million wedding of Prince and Duke Pierre d'Arenberg and Silvia de Castellane. Along with the New York Concorde pack and a platoon of European royalty, Bob Colacello ran the mad social marathon from Versailles to Paris to Bourges. Photographs by Jonathan Becker.

FRAN LEBOWITZ ON AGE 94

The young are different from you and me because they have no money. Why, then, asks the noted humorist, does everyone want to be 23?

DEVIL IN A BESPOKE SUIT 96

Legendary for his impeccable tailoring, wicked wit, and club-hopping stamina, 74-year-old Ahmet Ertegun has made Atlantic Records the industry's top label, signing artists such as Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, and the Rolling Stones. As Ertegun's rock V roll empire turns 50, Leslie Bennetts lends an ear to the man behind the music, his elegant wife, Mica, and friends including Henry Kissinger and Mick Jagger. Photographs by Annie Leibovitz.

MYSTERY TRAIN 104

As the Musee d'Orsay sends forth a new exhibition, "Manet, Monet, and the Gare Saint-Lazare," Laura Jacobs spotlights the masterpiece that inspired it.

TRUE COLORS 106

Annie Leibovitz and Dee Dee Myers take an inside look at the cast of Mike Nichols' Primary Colors, based on Joe Klein's controversial roman a clef about a couple not unlike Bill and Hillary Clinton.

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A PERFECT STAR 112

A year and a half after the death of the legendary Claudette Colbert, at 92, Amy Fine Collins uncovers the personal drama of Hollywood's most private actress—the fear behind the impeccable makeup; the passion for Clark Gable, her co-star in It Happened One Night; and the iron will she displayed by exiting the screen at the perfect moment.

Columns

SCENES FROM AN EXECUTION 30

Friendly prison officials, coffee and doughnuts, and three quick injections have turned capital punishment into an antiseptic "procedure." But watching Samuel Lee McDonald be killed, Christopher Hitchens saw the evil beneath the banality.

CNN'S BIG NEWS BEAR 46

After 18 years of producing ABC's top news shows and boosting stars such as Diane Sawyer and Ted Koppel, Rick Kaplan is poised to remake CNN's domestic operation—if his relationship with Bill Clinton doesn't get in the way. David Margolick reports. Portrait by Danny Turner.

HALL OF FAME 62

Osborn Elliott nominates activist Episcopalian bishop Paul Moore, whose memoir illuminates a life devoted to the poor and the oppressed. Portrait by Gasper Tringale.

Vanities

LA FEMME NATASHA 65

Brian Stokes Mitchell sings Ragtime; V.F. Camera: night falls on Manhattan.

Et Cetera

EDITOR'S LETTER: The hundred-year war 20

CONTRIBUTORS 22

LETTERS: The world according to Gore 28

CREDITS 145

PLANETARIUM: Take a break, Capricorn 146

PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE: JamesL. Brooks 148

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