VANITY FAIR

January 2001

No. 485

Feadures

GLAMOUR, WITHOUT APOLOGIES Catherine Zeta-Jones’s unabashed sexiness caught the attention of Hollywood—and of Michael Douglas. Now the “black Welsh” beauty and new mother stars with her husband in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic. Leslie Bennetts finds there’s one thing missing from Zeta-Jones’s childhood dream: an Oscar of her own. Photographs by Mario Testino.82

THE COUNTERFEIT ROCKEFELLER Under various identities, Christopher Rocancourt allegedly conned new “friends” out of millions, from Bangkok to Los Angeles. Then he hit the Hamptons as a Rockefeller, which led the F.B.I. to his trail. Bryan Burrough provides a portrait of the audacious grifter.90

THE GREAT SURVIVOR Bill Clinton leaves office with sky-high approval ratings, but David Halberstam contends that the phenomenal political talent that won him two terms was deployed to a single end: his own survival.96

WANTING TO EXHALE In 1998, after her success with Nickelodeon, Geraldine Laybourne started the Oxygen cable and on-line network as the antidote to traditional women’s TV. But it can’t get on the air in New York or most of Los Angeles. Is Laybourne in danger of becoming a one-hit wonder? David Margolick reports.100

STEPPENWOLF'S TRIBAL WAVE Annie Leibovitz and Laura Jacobs spotlight Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, which for 25 years has given birth to such talents as Joan Allen, Gary Sinise, and John Malkovich.106

THE IMPORTANCE OF PEEING, ERNST From foul language to public urination, the recent behavior of Prince Ernst August of Hanover, Princess Caroline of Monaco’s third husband, has raised royal eyebrows. Judy Bachrach finds aristocrats wondering if the princess has made her biggest marital mistake so far.110

SHOOTING PAST 80 Henri Cartier-Bresson, Joe Rosenthal, and other photographers took their cameras into the great arenas of the 20th century. In a portfolio of 18 of these surviving masters, David Friend learns how they captured those moments that will live forever.116

VANISHED OPULENCE Saul and Gayfryd Steinberg, the stout corporate raider and his wife, whose over-the-top parties made them poster children for 80s excess, are fending off rumors that Saul has lost his fortune. Suzanna Andrews delves into the checkered past and clouded future of Nouvelle Society’s former king and queen.136

Columns

VISIT TO A SMALL PLANET North Korea's Kim Jong II may make the world quake with nuclear threats, but his people are starving. Christopher Hitchens goes from Pyongyang to the wasteland of the Demilitarized Zone, gauging the effect of total isolation on a nation’s psyche.50

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TWINKLE, TWINKLE, DARREN STAR Surpassing his former mentor, Aaron Spelling, as the reigning master of prime-time soaps, Darren Star has followed his HBO hit,Sex and the City, with the WB’s Grosse Point and, now,The Street on Fox. But Star’s edgy subversion of traditional values, James Wolcott argues, is all desire and no heart.64

Vanities

HIGH CLIVE Speed Dial: downtown fashion designer Molly Stern; Bruce Handy wrestles New York muscle cars to the ground; Ed Coaster pads out his contract .... 75

Fanfair

31 DAYS IN THE LIFE OF THE CULTURE Pushing the art-pop boundaries with Fischerspooner. Hot Reels: Chris Mitchell on Ed Harris’s Pollock and David Mamet’s State and Main; Walter Kirn spends two minutes with Miss Congeniality. Elissa Schappell’s Hot Type. Bay Area conductor Kent Nagano conjures “El Nino.” Ronin Ro on L.A. rap savior Xzibit. A. M. Homes on the reflective photography of Tierney Gearon .167

Et Cetera

EDITOR'S LETTER.. 26

CONTRIBUTORS... 28

LETTERS: Boogie Days 42

CREDITS. 165

PLANETARIUM: Sit back and relax, Capricorn 176

PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE: Mitch Miller 178

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