VANITY FAIR

Volume 51 Number 12

December 1988

Features

Hall of Fame: Annie Leibovitz focuses on eleven big names of 1988, from the First Couple to Robin Givens. 151

Compromising Positions: Why did Bess Myerson, the former Miss America, throw all her New York City political power away for an adulterous affair with a sewage contractor twenty-one years her junior? Marie Brenner reports. 170

Good-bye to All That? As the era of conspicuous consumption dwindles, is the party really over?. 178

Objects of Desire: For Man Ray, women were the Surreal thing. By Billy Kliiver and John Richardson. 182

Very Veronese: Mark Stevens spotlights the old master. 188

Who Killed Libby Zion? After the teenager's mysterious death, her journalist father blamed the doctors at New York Hospital, but, reports M. A. Farber, the real story is full of surprises. 190

Public Princess, Private Princess: The double life of Caroline of Monaco, photographed by Karl Lagerfeld. 196

Life After Balanchine: The continuing dramas at the New York City Ballet are not just a tempest in a tutu. Stephen Schiff goes behind the scenes. 200

Sigourney Diva: Photographed by Helmut Newton, Sigourney Weaver finds that blondes do have more fun .206

Columns

Editor's Letter: Slow fade .8

Letters: Readers bite back. 20

Mixed Media: James Wolcott on shocking girl novelists .38

Feuds: John Davidson on the war between the Kecks. 62

Movies: Jesse Kombluth on Rain Man's Barry Levinson .94

Art: Anthony Haden-Guest on the art buyer to the stars. 102

Postscript: Nicholas Goldberg on Ben Chaney and the aftermath of the Mississippi K.K.K. murders . 112

Cars: Mark Ginsburg, Merchant-Jaffrey, Mercedes 300 SEL. . 208 Wine: Joel L. Fleishman on vintage gifts. 212

Fanfair

Booking Olivier... A Hitchens time. . . Out of India. . . Christmas tome. . . Erwitt wit. . . Brooks looks.. . Rattle around. . . Dear Godley and Conran. . . Swell Nelligan. . . Night-table reading. . .Flashback: Fay Wray, 1930. 133

Credits: page 232.