VANITY FAIR

FEATURES

96 TEEN ENCINES: RIDING WITH THE KID CULTURE They're everywhere, and they're targeting a teen near you! Mark Seliger captures 28 girl-power goddesses (think the Olsen twins, Hilary Duff) and cute-boy wonders (Bow Wow, A. J. Trauth), while Krista Smith pops a quiz on their crushes and pet peeves. Plus, James Wolcott decides that the kids of this Millennial generation—wired from birth, allergic to phonies, and reverential about Brad—really are all right.

114 BUSH'S BRAIN TRUST In from the political cold, the neoconservatives took control after 9/11, when George W. Bush found himself in need of a muscular foreign-policy doctrine. Sam Tanenhaus focuses on the movement's intellectual troika: Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, controversial ex-official Richard Perle, and Weekly Standard publisher William Kristol. Portraits by Nigel Parry.

120 REALITY KINGS As shows such as The Bachelor, American Idol, and Joe Millionaire blanket the networks, viewers have two men to thank—or blame. Mark Seal tunes in the masters of reality TV, Fox executive Mike Darnell and independent producer Mike Fleiss, close friends and arch-rivals, for whom restraining orders, scornful critics, and arrest records mean only one thing: a ratings bonanza. Portrait by Jason Schmidt.

126 AMERICA'S WRITING FORCES Timothy GreenfieldSanders and Matt Tyrnauer salute the nation's greatest living World War II novelists—Norman Mailer, Kurt Vonnegut, and Gore Vidal—for their loyal opposition to the latest war.

128 DEVASTATING LUXURY Neighbors rant about the monstrosity of Ira Rennert's mansion—"the house that ate the Hamptons"—but that offense pales next to the damage his mills and mines have done in towns in Missouri, Utah, and Peru. How, with his empire shrinking, does Rennert appear closer than ever to his retirement dream of a billion in the bank and the largest new private compound in the country? Michael Shnayerson investigates.

134 THE LURE OF TIM BURTON Mary Ellen Mark and Bruce Handy preview Tim Burton's heartwarming but (rest assured) fancifully bizarre Big Fish, starring Billy Crudup, Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, and Jessica Lange.

136 A FIRST-CLASS AFFAIR The drama behind the making of Terence Rattigan's 1963 jet-set glamourfest, The V.I.P.s, was at times more sensational than the movie itself. Sam Kashner reconstructs the off-camera turmoil, when Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, coping with the media glare thrown on their scandalous liaison, clashed and got smashed amid co-stars including Louis Jourdan, Maggie Smith, and Orson Welles.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12

FANFAIR

39 31 DAYS IN THE LIFE OF THE CULTURE The Brothers Polish—Krista Smith on Mark and Michael Polish's Northfork. Hot Reels: Bruce Handy reviews 28 Days Later and The Legend of Suriyothai; Coming Attractions—Walter Kirn swashbuckles with Pirates of the Caribbean. Lisa Robinson's Hot Tracks. Brian Thomas Gallagher on the Long Island ladies of Northern State.

COLUMNS

52 LINGERING SHADOWS Dominick Dunne has given away his duct tape and consumed his bottled-water reserves. In other words, the war is over, and the diarist is busy—lunching with Johnnie Cochran, eyeing the Laci Peterson case, and tracking Alfred Taubman. Portrait by Antoine Le Grand.

68 TRIBECA LIGHTS At the opening of the second annual Tribeca Film Festival, Krista Smith and VKs camera squad caught the dazzle of America's other film capital.

72 PALM BEACH'S BAREFOOT PRINCESS It began as a warm-weather wardrobe solution and became an all-American status symbol. The paradise-colored Lilly Pulitzer shift once again rules beach clubs, following a decade-long hiatus, and Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau herself, at 71, is back in business. Laura Jacobs profiles a high-society classic. Portraits by Jonathan Becker.

VANITIES

89 BE LIKE MIKE Suggested presidential backdrops; Out & In—pork bellies look good. Henry Alford's translation quiz. George Wayne with the original Sex and the City girl, Candace Bushnell.

ET CETERA

22 EDITOR'S LETTER Moneyman

24 CONTRIBUTORS

34 LETTERS The Battle over Botox

166 CREDITS

170 PLANETARIUM Get reconciled, Cancer

172 PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE Arnold Schwarzenegger

TO FIND CONDfi NAST MAGAZINES ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB. VISIT www.epicurious.com.