Vanity Fair UK - 12.2019

Contributors

2 3 45

2

1

Abigail

TRACY

“The Super Speaker,”

p. 86

“When I left Nancy

Pelosi’s office, the

historical gravity

of the moment really

settled in,” says

Tracy, who has been

writing about

Congress and foreign

policy for Vanity

Fa i r’s Hive since it

launched in 2016.

“Pelosi never wanted

impeachment, but

she seemed at peace

with her decision.”

Karen

VA L BY

“The Ballad of John &

Chrissy,” p. 64

“Some public people

are even better than

you hope them to be,”

says Valby, who

profiled John Legend

and Chrissy Teigen

for this month’s cover

story. “They kept

returning to subjects,

even difficult ones,

because they’re

interested in what

each other has to

say. I missed my plane,

because I couldn’t

bear to leave

the conversation.”

Jason

BELL

“Empire State of Mind,”

p. 76

Bell, the acclaimed

British portrait

photographer, shot

the actor Edward

Norton in crowded

public places. “He

seemed to enjoy that

frisson as much

as I did,” Bell says.

“It gave the shoot

a fast sort of ‘smash

and grab’ energy,

which he jokingly

said had something

in common with

his directing style.”

Marie

BRENNER

“The Education of Billy Barr,”

p. 78

William Barr “seems

to have an overdue

need for father-son

retribution,” says

Brenner, a V. F. writer

at large and a

producer of Where’s

My Roy Cohn?

“Does he really think

his father—a Catholic

intellectual who

quoted St. Thomas

Aquinas—would

approve of his son

turning into

the lackey for this

president?”

André

ACIM A N

“An American in Paris,”

p. 104

“My whole life is an

excavation of various

texts,” says the author

and professor of

comparative literature

at City University of

New York. By contrast,

it took only 14 months

to write Find Me, the

follow-up to his

2007 novel Call Me

by Your Name. “It was

rather hasty. But the

characters have been

living with me, and

they’ve gotten old.

And I was getting old.”

5

1

3

DECEMBER 2019 VANITY FAIR 33

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALEX BO

ARD (3), SI

GRID ESTRAD

A (5), EMMA FISHMAN

(1),

LEAH MUSE (2). ILLUSTRATION BY TIM SHEAFFER