VANITY FAIR

Features

THROUGH THE STARDUST | 146 While other young stars are choosing nightclubs, Natalie Portman is weighing Harvard vs. Yale and Hollywood against any number of careers. This month, as the 17-year-old brings her uncanny maturity to George Lucas's Star Wars prequel, Leslie Bennetts enters Portman's paradoxical world. Photographs by Annie Leibovitz.

MR. DUNNE GOES TO WASHINGTON I 152 Beginning with the whispers of his friend Lucianne Goldberg and even after the Lewinsky scandal broke, Dominick Dunne maintained his allegiance to Bill Clinton. But after covering the impeachment trial from the Senate gallery and dining in Georgetown with the likes of Kay Graham, Vernon Jordan, and Sidney Blumenthal, Dunne was left with chilling theories and no illusions.

STORM WARNING I 158 On December 26, 115 sailboats, helmed by everyone from billionaires to locksmiths, crossed the starting line of the 54th Sydney-Hobart race. But when a vicious storm whipped the waves to 80 feet, the quest for glory on the high seas turned into a desperate fight for survival that left six men dead. Bryan Burrough reports.

SPORT OF QUEENS I 166 Hugh Hales-Tooke and Dominic Lawson spotlight three reigning queens of the chessboard—Hungary's Polgar sisters.

BRICE MARDEN'S ABSTRACT HEART I 168 As the recent, ecstatic work of Brice Marden tours the United States, John Richardson traces the forces that led the greatest abstract painter of his generation from a wild Greenwich Village apprenticeship to marriage to a strong-willed beauty, to this moment of triumph. Photographs by Bruce Weber.

MARK OF TRIUMPH | 178 Lorenzo Agius and Amy Fine Collins spotlight Alber Elbaz as he turns Yves Saint Laurent's pret-a-porter line, Rive Gauche, into a must-have label for chic young Parisians.

MISSISSIPPI QUEEN | 180 The author of 13 books and winner of virtually every literary prize, Eudora Welty has lived as many stories as she has crafted. At her childhood home, the grande dame of American letters takes Willie Morris through 90 years of dreams and discoveries.

A HEAD FOR HORROR I 184 Mary Ellen Mark captures the cast of Sleepy Hollow, Tim Burton's film of the legend of the Headless Horseman—a tale, writes David Kamp, that might have been plucked straight from the director's own imaginative mind.

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A JAZZ OF THEIR OWN I 188 The bond between Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhom made for such classics as "Take the 'A' Train" and "Satin Doll"—and an enigmatic relationship. On the 100th anniversary of Ellington's birth, David Hajdu reveals how the legendary jazz king and Lothario gave voice to a soft-spoken, gay composer and found in him the truest partner he ever had.

Columns

I'LL NEVER EAT LUNCH IN THIS TOWN AGAIN | 72 When Christopher Hitchens wanted to call the president a liar, he was forced to challenge the testimony of an old friend—igniting furious charges of betrayal. Just what was he thinking?

THE PENTAGON'S TOXIC SECRET I 82 A crusading immunologist believes she has linked some cases of Gulf War syndrome, a cruel and undiagnosed condition plaguing thousands of veterans, to an anthrax vaccine. Following a Pentagon paper trail, Gary Matsumoto investigates the mystery behind the illness. Photographs by Harry Benson.

HALL OF FAME I 108 Katharine Marx nominates violin teacher Roberta Guaspari-Tzavaras for bringing the sound of music to 1,200 inner-city children. Portrait by Anders Overgaard.

DICK SNYDER'S TARNISHED CROWN I 110 How did Dick Snyder, the visionary chairman of Simon & Schuster, end up losing his job, then running his new venture, Golden Books, into the ground? Michael Shnayerson has the page-turning rise and fall of a publishing king. Photographs by Gasper Tringale.

Unities

MIGHTY MENA I 131 Party line—Washington novelist Christopher Buckley's speed dial; George Wayne and Donny Osmond share some milk and a smile; barking doggerel—Laura Jacobs and Hilary Knight's ode to the Westminster Dog Show.

Et Cetera

EDITOR'S LETTER: Profiles in courage | 48

CONTRIBUTORS52

LETTERS: This boy's life | 62

CREDITS212

PLANETARIUM: Toughen up, Taurus | 214

PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE: LeoCastelli 216

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