CAMPUS CONFIDENTIAL

LETTERS

A sex scandal shakes Los Angeles's Marlborough School; Hollywood legends deliver a formalwear master class; Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews re-unite for one night only; and more

As a Marlborough School alumna, I am deeply ashamed of my school, specifically the board of trustees, which has thrown all the blame onto head of school Barbara Wagner (“The Prep School and the Predator,” by Evgenia Peretz, March). Not once, even in their report, did they mention any of the board members—specifically John Emerson, who was president of the board at the time and the person Wagner approached with Mikaela Gilbert-Lurie’s allegations against Joseph Koetters. The victims deserve to have everyone who knew about the allegations identified publicly.

WHITNEY STAMBLER

Los Angeles, California

Evgenia Peretz was perfectly on point: how is Barbara Wagner, a visionary in education who helmed a girls’ school credited with the sixth-highest S.A.T. scores in the country, and beloved by a majority of the school community, solely responsible for how Koetters was handled? She did not work in a vacuum or make decisions unilaterally

How could members of the board of trustees put one another’s interests ahead of their ethical duty to the Marlborough community at large?

And the biggest question of all: Did our current ambassador to Germany, John Emerson, knowingly let a pedophile free to teach at another school so as not to damage his own reputation?

PATRICIA MANZE

Sherman Oaks, California

The last line of the Marlborough article is a quote from one of the school’s former board members: “We all failed to notice that times were changing.” So, if times had not been “changing,” then it would have been acceptable to throw the victimized students into the grinder so as not to tarnish Marlborough’s reputation?

STACEY COBBETT SAWYER

Genoa, Nevada

My daughter attended Marlborough School in the 90s. Barbara Wagner was the head of school then. In many ways, she did a wonderful job, but I know from personal experience—in particular, one potentially dangerous situation involving students and faculty on a school trip—that her management of staff, or lack thereof, and her desire to keep uncomfortable situations out of public view resulted in a failure to act and in long-term adverse consequences for students. Your article gave her a “pass” that was not deserved.

STANLEY P. WITKOW

Westport, Connecticut

It seems reasonable to conclude that the I Marlborough board studied the Penn I State Manual of Trusteeship.

MARY L. AGLIARDO

Venice, Florida

FOUR AFTER SIX

While all of the subjects featured in George Hamilton’s piece on ▼ ▼ the tuxedo (“Every Man a Star,” March) looked wonderful, it is this reader’s opinion that none of them could compare with the sartorial splendor of the four gentlemen in Slim Aarons’s 1957 “Kings of Hollywood” photo: Clark Gable, Van Heflin, Jimmy Stewart, and—excuse me if I swoon here—Gary Cooper.

Relaxed. Effortless. Perfection.

CHARICE REARD-CHARTIER

Caledonia, Ontario

THE CAPTAIN AND MARIA

What a wonderful Valentine’s gift Vanity Fair gave us with its 21st ▼ ▼ Hollywood Issue: the joy of seeing the forever beautiful Julie Andrews and extraordinary Christopher Plummer together again. After 50 years, the most beloved family in motion pictures is still around, making our lives happier with their fond memories, fantastic sense of humor, and witty remarks. You’re damned right, Vanity Fair the music never stopped, and it never will!

WALDEMAR LOPES

Sao Paulo, Brazil

MADE IN MANHATTAN

I enjoyed “The Manhattan Project” I (March), but I was sorry to see that your list of the best films about New York stalled in the 1930s.

In 1927, my grandfather Harold Lloyd, the comedic Everyman in glasses, who rivaled Keaton and Chaplin, became the hrst Hollywood star to take his cameras and crew to New York, to him Speedy. In Speedy, which will be screened in April with a newly restored print at the Tribeca Film Festival, New York was almost Lloyd’s co-star: Times Square, Coney Island, Yankee Stadium, Pennsylvania Station, Central Park, Washington Square, the Plaza hotel, Sutton Place, the U.S. Customs House, and the Lower East Side were all on glittering display.

Today, the him serves as a time machine, transporting us back to 1920s New York in all its glory. As The New York Tunes said in its 1928 review of Speedy, “The introduction of the city itself is done in a fashion that will make every New Yorker proud of the Empire City.”

SUZANNE LLOYD

Los Angeles, California

CORRECTION:

On page 247 of the March issue (“The Manhattan Project”), the actress on the right in the bottom photograph was misidentified. She is Dylan Hundley.

Letters to the editor should be sent electronically with the writer's name, address, and daytime phone number to letters@vf.com. All requests for back issues should be sent to subscriptions@vf.com. All other queries should be sent to vfmail@vf.com. The magazine reserves the right to edit submissions, which may be published or otherwise used in any medium.All submissions become the property of Vanity Fair.A number of the letters included here originally appeared as comments submitted to VF.com.

More from the V.F. MAILBAG

This month, we begin with Sinatra love: “Bravo to V.F. for this wonderful article,” says Linda Beuerle, of Lansing, Michigan, regarding “Nancy with the Lasting Faith,” by A. J. Lambert, granddaughter of Nancy Sinatra Sr. “Thank you for the excellent article. . . . As a devoted fan of Frank’s for 70-plus years, I often wondered about Nancy and her life.” So says Dee Hunsicker, of El Paso, Texas. “What a delight to see ‘Senior’ looking so fabulous at 97,” writes Natalie Skalla, from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Nancy Powers, from Taylor, Michigan, echoes that (“She is amazing and looks absolutely wonderful!”) and wonders, “What are her children Nancy junior, Tina, and Frank junior up to? What is Amanda [A.J.’s sister] doing?”

But mainly the mail was about what was missing from the issue (in addition to, apparently, several Sinatras).

Brits were missing from our Hollywood Portfolio—Brits such as Michael Fassbender (“One of the best of the Brits”—Judy Slattum, Capitola, California); Ioan Gruffudd (“He’s handsome and has a charming Welsh accent!”—Becky Derych, Germantown, Tennessee); Idris Elba (“Paste in his passport picture, at least, O.K.?”—Fran Fruit, Winnetka, Illinois); Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman (“I take it [they] were not available to be photographed”—Pam Lohman, Fishers, Indiana); Steve Coogan (“Would have been perfect if you included [him]”—Candace Serviss, Loda, Illinois); Colin Firth and Emma Thompson (“How could you [omit them]?”—Diana Jelinek, New York, New York); and, for good measure, Tom Hardy again (“Luscious”—Sunny Merry, San Francisco).

And, according to some readers, certain New York–centric movies were missing from “The Manhattan Proj ect,” V.F.’s list of the top 100 films set in that city: Week-End at the Waldorf (Paul Ross, Lexington, Massachusetts); After Hours and The Panic in Needle Park (Lisa Gilroy, New York, New York); The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (James R. Mc- Carney, Oakville, Ontario); The Pope of Greenwich Village (Richard Roswell, Studio City, California); Frankie and Johnny (Anna Kovac, Little River, South Carolina); The Boys in the Band, Auntie Mame, and Bright Lights, Big City (David Rison, Chicago); and The Warriors (Jon Carver, North Potomac, Maryland, “via Brooklyn, New York”).

Finally: “At the price of perforce appearing to cajole . . . ” It’s not often that we receive a letter (no, wait, not “letter”: missive, communiqué, dispatch—something!) that begins, um, thusly, and that goes on to include such delights as “foci,” “amiss/wrong,” “apropos,” “thespians,” and “the persons there pictured.” For this, Richard Halpern, of Delray Beach, Florida, has our profound appreciation. And not just our appreciation— our gratitude, our thanksgiving, our gramercy . . .