Correspondence

"It was creating performance art out of one's own aspirations." —John Green, Washington, D.C.

Connecticut Convict

Your two August stories about the travails of hedge funder Chip Skowron and Purdue Pharma's David Sadder were similar in that both were rewarded with big paydays for doing wrong [" Look Homeward, Hedgie," by Chris Pomorski; "Bitter Pill," by Bethany McLean]. Skowron, who served time for securities fraud, and Sadder, whose family rode a tidal wave of OxyContin profits to the Forbes World's Richest List, both plead their cases in your pages—and both fail. Skowron, who now feels most comfortable in prison, albeit one that he leaves each night after visiting his former cellmates, might be the same old "Hedgie" if his neighbors in Greenwich had not cast him out socially. And Sadder, who is upset that his family is being blamed in part for the more than 400,000 U.S. opioid deaths over the past 20 years, feels angry and aggrieved by the situation in which he and his family find themselves. A little advice to both: Look in the mirror. You were complicit in the actions that brought you to the present. Be grateful that you still have the money to do as you please.

David Comden Ventura, California

Paris Is Burning

Having lived a bit of the D.C. version of ballroom culture, I enj oy your revisiting of Paris Is Burning ["Paris Is Burning Is Back—And So Is Its Baggage," by K. Austin Collins, VF.com]. It wasn't so much about drag as it was creating performance art out of one's own aspirations. In the NYC scene they would dress as rich New Yorkers or upper-middle-class kids. We had our versions: "White Woman From Chevy Chase" was a favorite, "Diplomat's Daughter" another. I wonder if we ever stopped. As I drive today through tony D.C. neighborhoods, it seems the entire neighborhood of meticulously curated homes is performance art as an expression of people's aspirations. Upper Northwest as a reenactment of Paris Is Burning. White women from Chevy Chase throwing shade.

John Green Washington, D.C.

90 YEARS AGO

Photograph by Edward Steichen, 1928.

Greta Garbo, on the set of the film A Woman of Affairs

WroteV.F.: Garbo primped, complaining, "Oh, this terrible hair." Steichen asked her to repeat the gesture. The result: a classic V.F. portrait (October 1929 issue)

Social

"The Idris Experience," by K. Austin Collins, August 2019

OMG the new @VanityFair has @idrisElba on the cover #swoon

@DebbieMonterrey

This must be a cooking magazine 'cuz DAMN, look at that dish. @idrisElba @VanityFair

@SunAndSeaSalt

Just got my Vanity Fair with that fine specimen of a man Idris Elba on the cover. Nice read. But did y'all read the Receipts story? Whitney coinage the phrase people. Wasn't that a fucking crazy interview with Diane Sawyer?? A great read in the August issue.

@Jesusch22375337

Coming Soon

The Musso & Frank Grill, by Michael Callahan, out this month from Story Farm

CORRECTION

On page 152 of the September issue ("Screen Share"), Caitriona Balfe's name was misspelled.