Vanity Fair UK - 10.2019

Vanities Culture

TALK OF

THE TOWN

C

alf ’s liver. Jellied consommé. A

martini with a “sidecar” of the

second pour on ice. Musso &

Frank Grill has earned a devot-

ed dinership serving such holdover

classics, and this month, Hollywood’s

oldest restaurant marks its centen-

nial—an achievement in a town of

fickle fad dining. What’s the grill’s

secret ingredient for success? Keith

Richards might describe it best:

“tradition.” The waiters’ red jackets

match the leather booths at the family-

owned institution, where legends past

and present have sat: Fitzgerald, Faulkner,

Garbo, and Tarantino, who featured Mus-

so’s in his recent film Once Upon a Time...in

Hollywood. And to ring in its 100th birth-

day, The Musso & Frank Grill book—part

guest book, part cookbook—by V. F. con-

tributing editor Michael Callahan, is out

this month. —BRITT HENNEMUTH

Clockwise from

top: Paulette

Goddard and

Charlie Chaplin in

the mid-1930s;

diners circa 1950;

Musso & Frank’s

signature martini is

stirred, not shaken.

I

Musso & n

of wond

IknowIam

a great t

about to exp

Musso & Frank

—Francis For

Donna Tartt’s tale of love and fakery, The Goldfinch (2013), may have

won the Pulitzer Prize and sold over a million copies, but it was

also deemed Not Art by certain highest-brow literary critics. Its twisty

plot seems made for the big screen, where it lands this month from

Warner Bros., starring Ansel Elgort and Nicole Kidman. Elsewhere on

the stylistic spectrum, A.J. Finn’s 2018 best-selling debut thriller, The

Woman in the Window, gained a bleaker notoriety after allegations of deceit

and plagiarism by the book’s author. The Fox adaptation, starring

Amy Adams, has hit its own speed bumps—following reshoots, the film’s

original fall release has been pushed to next year. —KEZIAH WEIR

Ê

Screen Tests Two divisive

best sellers get the Hollywood treatment

Proceeds from Gucci’s

most political new

pieces benefit the brand’s

Chime for Change

initiative, which, since its

inception in 2013, has raised

more than $15 million

in the service of women and

girls worldwide. And for

no money at all, one can pick

up the second issue

of Chime Zine, a galvanizing

force for gender equality

that’s available at select Gucci

stores and bookstores.

CHANGE

Agents

36 VANITY FAIR ILLUSTRATION BY KATHERINE MOFFETT

PAGE 36: PHOTO

GRAPHS BY ALLISON SCHALLER (BOOKS), JOSEPHINE

SCHIELE (T-SHIRTS), FROM SHUTTERSTOCK

(MARTINI). PAGE

37: PHOTO

GRAPH

BY JOSEPHINE SCHIELE. FOR DETAILS

, GO TO VF.COM/CREDITS