KLMNO
Style
MONDAy, MARCH 2 , 2020. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/STyLE eZ re C
MOVIES
How Anya taylor-Joy tapped
her horror movie past and
love of Jane Austen for the
title role in “emma.” C2
THEATER REVIEW
fine acting lifts playwright
dani stoller’s “easy Women
smoking loose Cigarettes”
at signature theatre. C3BOOK WORLD
Joshua Hammer’s “the
falcon thief” is a lively true
story of a merciless robber
of avian treasures. C4CAROLYN HAX
How can a parent help a
teen daughter in a bad
romance? listen quietly,
question strategically. C8Mike Bloomberg deploys his billions to make a point. It shows what kind of president he would be.
illustrAtion by ClAire rollet for tHe WAsHington PostBY SARAH ELLISON
AND ROXANNE ROBERTSnew york — When Mike
Bloomberg ran the city of new York,
he ate hot dogs on the street, was a
regular at K nicks games and rode the
subway, as a relatable mayor should.
But his billionaire lifestyle lifted
off at helipads around the city, and
he sometimes used one on the east
River at 34th street, where
Bloomberg piloted his own helicop-
ter out of Manhattan during hours
the city declared off-limits.
Irked by the din of the helicopter
engine and the odor of its fuel, a
disgruntled neighbor recorded
Bloomberg’s comings and goings in
2012 and gave the video to a local
ABC news station.
The new York press corps
pounced. When asked about the illic-
it weekend travel, Bloomberg said he
would no longer use that particularhelipad, but his irritation was clear:
“Don’t k now why it’s s uch a big deal,”
he told reporters. “If that’s the news
that’s fit to print in this day and age,
it’s a sad day.”
Bloomberg’s wealth is the defin-
ing feature of his presidential bid, a
massive asset and political target. He
had an estimated net worth of
$60.5 billion as of Jan. 29, according
to Forbes, making him the ninth-
richest person in the world and the
wealthiest by far to seek the oval
office. He’s richer than the poorest
125 million Americans combined, a
fact Bernie sanders calls “wrong”
and “immoral.”
If the 2020 election is a referen-
dum on how Americans feel about
money, Bloomberg is either the ulti-
mate expression of the American
Dream or one symbol of a corrupt
system. In either case, the way he
spends his money is one clue as to
see bloomberg on C2Follow the money
toni l. sAndys/tHe WAsHington Post
mike bloomberg before a campaign event in Virginia. To many, the
billionaire entering the race is either the ultimate expression of the
american Dream or just one symbol of a corrupt system.Among the many
outlandish
statements
President Trump
has made since
taking office, one
in particular
stands out for me.
speaking in
Kansas City, Mo., in the summer
of 2018, he urged the attendees
of the VFW annual convention
to ignore the journalism of the
mainstream media.
“Just stick with us, don’t
believe the crap you see from
these people, the fake news,” he
said. “What you’re seeing and
what you’re reading is not
what’s happening.”
In other words, if you didn’t
hear from me or my minions, it
isn’t true.
Chico Marx memorably
expressed a similar idea in the
1933 comedy “Duck soup”:
“Who ya gonna believe — me or
your own eyes?”
It’s a dumbfounding notion,
especially given Trump’s proven
propensity for lies and
falsehoods. But now as a deadly
disease, the coronavirus,
threatens to turn into a full-
blown pandemic, it’s not simply
bizarre in a way that can be
easily shrugged off. It’s not just
Trump being Trump.
And it’s definitely not funny.
It’s dangerous.
Trump and his chosen
spokespeople are attempting to
dramatically play down the
seriousness of the coronavirus
and to blame the legitimate
news media for doing their jobs
of informing the public.
In reporting what Trump has
to say, the news media has a
see sullIVan on C4
Pandemic
of lies calls
for a truth
sandwich
Margaret
Sullivan
BY MATTHEW GUERRIERIWhen will Mozart’s “Don Gio-
vanni” stop being topical? 2065,
maybe — matching the list of the
Don’s sexual conquests his long-
suffering valet, Leporello, has du-
tifully catalogued?
For over 230 years, t he libertine
has been pursued to hell by his
victims: Donna Anna, goading
her fiance, Don ottavio, to re-
venge after Giovanni assaults her
and kills her father, the Commen-
datore; Donna elvira, seduced
and spurned but still carrying a
torch; the peasant girl Zerlina,
cornered by the Don’s power on
the eve of her wedding to Masetto.
And yet, Giovanni returns, per-
petually resurrected, perpetually
relevant. Washington national
opera’s credible and cogent new
production, which opened satur-
day at the Kennedy Center,
doesn’t have to work very hard to
make him feel familiar.
The Wno last mounted “Gio-
vanni” in 2012, in a high-concept,
ornate staging; this version was
comparatively streamlined. er-
hard Rom’s minimalist sets — ab-
stract enough to do double duty
for “samson and Delilah,” open-
ing sunday — became screens for
s. Katy Tucker’s stylized projec-
tions.
The characters roamed in peri-
od costumes, many recycled from
the late Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s de-
signs, first seen at Wno in the
1980s (with new additions by Lyn-
ly A. saunders). Director e. Loren
Meeker’s main conceptual notion
was a silent cohort of white-clad
women, the Don’s past conquests
haunting the stage, shifting the
see wno on C3
OPERA REVIEW
WNO’s ‘Don
Giovanni’
is a timely
monster
BY ROBIN GIVHANparis — T he designer Virgil
Abloh stands at the edge of a
precipice. He is precariously
perched atop a segment of the
fashion industry where someone
like him is a rare sight: a black
man with a megaphone and ev-
eryone’s attention.
Abloh is the man behind the
off-White label. He also is the
designer of Louis Vuitton’s mens-
wear. But off-White is his baby;
it’s the project that propelled him
to this peak. It’s how he made his
name as a new kind of designer —
one who is not tethered to cloth-
ing as his sole creative medium.
Abloh is a disc jockey, consultantand industrial designer. He is a
promiscuous collaborator. He h as
conjured up products with every-
one from Ikea and nike to evian.
Fashion, for Abloh, is not a desti-
nation. It i s more of a means to an
end, with that finale being a char-
ismatic, divine expression of cre-
ativity — and a satisfyingly lucra-
tive payday. The eyes of the fash-
ion industry are upon him.
Until suddenly, they are not.
Until suddenly, the people come,
but in the back of their minds
they’re wondering why they made
such an effort. This happens in
fashion, with brands that ride in
on a tide of zeitgeisty buzz: Zac
Posen, Hood by Air, Kanye. It
happens a lot to designers ofcolor, but maybe that’s simply
because there aren’t that many of
them that ever breathe fashion’s
rarefied air, and so when it hap-
pens to a couple of them it feels as
though it happens almost all the
time.
Abloh is on that edge.
This ebb and flow isn’t a mea-
sure of commercial success —
though it often is. People buy
what they want to buy regardless
of what some gatekeepers in a
glass tower say. It’s more a reflec-
tion of the industry’s willingness
to invest in a narrative about
technical skill and originality —
based more on a whim than evi-
dence. It’s fashion putting truth
see fasHIon weeK on C3PARIS FASHION WEEKVirgil Abloh, on the edge but not leading
JonAs gustAVsson/MCV PHoto for tHe WAsHington Post
I n his off-white fall-winter 2 020-2021 collection, Virgil abloh
gives something that’s already been done a shout-out.