VANITY FAIR

FEBRUARY 1998 NO 450

Features

GREAT DANES 106

At 18, Claire Danes has her own architect, dates rocker Ben Lee, and commands $3 million per picture. Riding Disneyland's Splash Mountain roller coaster with the busy star of U-Turn, The Rainmaker, Les Miserables, and Polish Wedding, Kevin Sessums gets to the root of an astoundingly mature talent and a so-called life few teenagers could fathom. Photographs by Annie Leibovitz.

DISNEY'S NEW STAR 114

Annie Leibovitz and Mimi Kramer spotlight The Lion King director Julie Taymor, the eclectic genius behind Disney's surprisingly unsugary Broadway hit.

THE CHOSEN ONE 116

Albert Gore Jr. perfected the role of dutiful heir, first inside his family and then inside the White House. Those fund-raising calls? It was what he was supposed to do. But beneath the careful exterior, Marjorie Williams reports, the vice president has the oddest relationship with politics of any man in Washington. Portraits by Annie Leibovitz.

BOYS' TOWN 124

At their quadrennial jamboree, David Kamp finds the Boy Scouts of America still going four million strong, while Bruce Weber captures the fresh faces of old-fashioned patriotism.

JAZZ AGE GREATS 132

"Celebrity Caricature in America," a new show at Washington's National Portrait Gallery, sparks James Wolcott's bow to the 1930s artists who lightened a dark decade.

SOUL OF A NEW MACHINE 136

As the Metropolitan Museum showcases the early photographs of Paul Strand, Ingrid Sischy spotlights an artist who saw the passion and possibility in a fledgling technology.

LIGHT FANTASTIC 138

From the Odeon to Pravda to Balthazar, Keith McNally's restaurants have provided a movable feast of New York chic. But, as Matt Tyrnauer discovers, McNally's private labor of love for the past 20 years has been his 1,100-square-foot SoHo hideaway. Photographs by James Mortimer.

MORRISON'S TRUE WEST 144

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and Christopher Hitchens spotlight Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, whose new novel, Paradise, recalls an Oklahoma the musical forgot.

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THE OUTLAW CHAMP 146

With his killer left hook and trademark scowl, heavyweight champion "Sonny" Liston was a fighting legend. Revisiting the Chicago underworld of the 50s and 60s, Nick Tosches reveals the dark forces behind Liston's rise, his losses to Cassius Clay, and his mysterious death.

Columns

PAPER MONSTER 46

Plowing through the full-color heft of the expanded New York Times, James Wolcott argues that, pound for pound, most of the new sections may not be worth the weight. Photograph by Josef Astor.

HALL OF FAME 54

Buzz Bissinger nominates Philadelphia mayor Edward G. Rendell, for restoring instinct to politics and hope to a dying town. Portrait by Jonathan Becker.

SCHOOL FOR GLAMOUR 56

Once deemed the "backdoor Ivy," Brown University has become a me.cca for celebrity offspring, plucking its students from the elites of Hollywood, Park Avenue, and Europe. On the Providence campus, Jennet Conant learns why Brown is golden.

MOUNT SINAI'S DEADLY TREASURE 74

In an excerpt from his new book, The Gold of Exodus, Howard Blum follows the hunt of two American explorers for the real Mount Sinai, which some scholars believe has been misidentified for generations. Inviting controversy, Blum's explorers say the actual sacred mountain stands in the midst of a Saudi Arabian military installation.

Vanities

MOL FOR ONE 93

Irish-wise playwright Martin McDonagh's American debut; George Wayne rummages with Anna Piaggi; desperate Oscar campaigns.

Et Cetera

EDITOR'S LETTER: Fathers and sons 32

CONTRIBUTORS 36

LETTERS: Angels and insects 40

CREDITS 173

PLANETARIUM: Stay cool, Aquarius 174

PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE: Tracey Ullman 176

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