Vanity Fair US - December 2021 - January 2022

Rags and Riches

Television's über-wealthy communicate their status through looks both flashy and deceptively casual

The Hangover

Billions in losses. Sweeping layoffs and restructuring. A writers strike. Now that the streaming bubble has burst, the TV industry has woken up with an excruciating headache

LOST ILLUSIONS

IT WAS A GRIPPING, GROUNDBREAKING LOST DEVOLVED INTO SUCH SMASH, BUT LOST DEVOLVED INTO SUCH A TOXIC PRODUCTION THAT EVEN CO-SHOWRUNNER DAMON LINDELOF NOW SAYS OF HIS LEADERSHIP: \"I FAILED.\" IN A POWERFUL EXCERPT FROM HER NEW BOOK, MAUREEN RYAN OPENS THE HATCH

PLAZA SUITE

Yes, she can play deadpan millennial chaos like nobody else. But AUBREY PLAZA has shown all kinds of range on the road from PARKS AND RECREATION to THE WHITE LOTUS. Now she's in league with both Marvel and Francis Ford Coppola

MACHINE DREAMS

The creator of the beloved cult hit Dickinson on how she learned to stop worrying and love AI

OBJECT LESSONS

A tribute to the inanimate key players in four major Emmy contenders

BATTLE HYMN

Long before Ron DeSantis made the regulation of college curricula a stump-speech talking point, WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR. launched a conservative crusade to transform universities into bastions of right-wing ideology

Such a Fun Age

INSIDE THE PLAN TO CONVINCE VOTERS THAT JOE BIDEN CAN HANDLE FOUR MORE YEARS

THE OLIGARCH'S PASSPORT

IN 2015, PORTUGAL OPENED ITS DOORS TO FOREIGNERS WHOSE JEWISH ANCESTORS HAD BEEN EXPELLED DURING THE INQUISITION. RUSSIAN BILLIONAIRE ROMAN ABRAMOVICH USED HIS HERITAGE TO GAIN ENTRY TO THE COUNTRY AND AN ALL-ACCESS PASS TO THE EU-EXPOSING DEEP FLAWS IN A WELL-INTENTIONED POLICY

AN idol MIND

AS THE WEEKND, Abel Tesfaye LEVERAGED AN AUTEUR-SCALE VISION TO BECOME AN UNLIKELY MEGASTAR. WITH A SEAMY HOLLYWOOD FANTASIA OF AN HBO SERIES ON THE WAY, HE'S REALIZING HIS GRANDEST AMBITION