THE CHOOSING ONES

The saga of my Jewish conversion began twenty-five years ago, when I got engaged to my first husband.

CHOPPED AND STEWED

The other day, at a Nigerian restaurant called Safari, in Houston, Texas, I peeled back the plastic wrap on a ball of fufu, a staple across West Africa.

NO WAY BACK

The resurgence, in the past decade, of Paul Schrader as one of the most accomplished and acclaimed contemporary movie directors is part of a bigger trend: the self-reinvention of Hollywood auteurs as independent filmmakers.

ENEMY OF THE STATE

Javier Milei's plan to remake Argentina begins with waging war on the government.

HELLO, HEARTBREAK

Heartbreak cures are as old as time, or at least as old as the Common Era.

OBSCURE FAMILIAL RELATIONS, EXPLAINED FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Children who share only one parent are half siblings. Children who have been bisected via a tragic logging accident are also half siblings, but in a different way.

PRIMORDIAL SORROW

\"All Life Long,\" the title of the most recent album by the composer and organist Kali Malone, is taken from a poem by the British Symbolist author Arthur Symons: \"The heart shall be weary and wonder and cry like the sea,/ All life long crying without avail,/As the water all night long is crying to me.\"

TOUCH WOOD

What do people do all day? My daughter loves to read Richard Scarry's book of that title, though she generally skips ahead to the hospital pages.

NOTE TO SELVES

The Sonoran Desert, which covers much of the southwestern United States, is a vast expanse of arid earth where cartoonish entities-roadrunners, tumbleweeds, telephone-pole-tall succulents make occasional appearances.

STAR STRUCK Hollywood 2025

It's the MOST AUDACIOUS ACTORS who POWER HOLLYWOOD and THRILL AUDIENCES. VF TOASTS 12 of the INDUSTRY'S BRIGHTEST LIGHTS

MC QUEEN'S GAMBIT

IS STEVE MCQUEEN A HOLLYWOOD DIRECTOR WITH A THRIVING FINE ARTS PRACTICE OR A THRIVING FINE ARTIST WITH AN IMPECCABLE HOLLYWOOD STREAK? HIS WORLD WAR II EPIC, BLITZ, IS ANOTHER VIRTUOSO WORK IN A CAREER FULL OF THEM

MURDER AT HAMMERSMITH FARM

Two months before his assassination, JOHN and JACKIE KENNEDY wrote, directed, and acted in a James Bondinspired home movie in which the president was \"killed.\" VF reveals the story behind the spoof, along with neverbefore-seen footage from that day

ALL HER OWN

Joan Didion's marriage was one of the most revered in American letters. But before there was John Gregory Dunne, there was Noel Parmentel Jr.-the man who broke her heart. As LILI ANOLIK reveals in this excerpt from Didion and Babitz, the devastation lasted a lifetime

The Tie That BLINDS

When the news broke that Matthew Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, would face up to 15 years in prison for illegally procuring the ketamine that led to the actor’s death, a shudder went through assistants all over the entertainment industry.

All the Pretty Little Horses

When he was 42, CORMAC MCCARTHY fell in love with a 16-year-old girl he met by a motel pool. AUGUSTA BRITT would go on to become one of the most significant-and secretinspirations in literary history, giving life to dozens of McCarthy's characters across his celebrated novels and Hollywood films. For 47 years, Britt closely guarded her identity and her story. Until now

KAREN READ'S FIGHT

Prosecuted for her police officer boyfriend's mysterious death in a wild case that ended in a mistrial, the former equity analyst has maintained her innocence. Moreover, she claims that law enforcement has conspired to frame her. As her retrial looms-calling into question the concept of double jeopardy-Karen Read speaks out

The Art of THE DEAL

What it took to get my movie about Donald Trump and Roy Cohn in front of an audience

HUGH GRANT

The star of Heretic on his dearest loves (dishonesty, his barbecue) and greatest nemeses (scissors, Colin Firth)

NOW YOU SEE ME

John Singer Sargent's strange, slippery portraits of an art dealer's family.

WILD SIDE

Is Lake Tahoe's bear boom getting out of hand?

ANTI HEROES

\"The Franchise,\" on HBO.

LET'S MAKE A DEAL

\"Death Becomes Her\" and \"Burnout Paradise.\"

THE TEXAS EXODUS

Amid stringent abortion laws, ob-gyns are fleeing the state.

GETTING A GRIP

Robots learn to use their hands.

PARIS FRIEND - SHUANG XUETAO

Xiaoguo had a terror of thirst, so he kept a glass of water on the table beside his hospital bed. As soon as it was empty, he asked me to refill it. I wanted to warn him that this was unhealthy - guzzling water all night long puts pressure on the kidneys, and pissing that much couldn't be good for his injury. He was tall, though, so I decided his insides could probably cope.

FELLOW-TRAVELLERS

The surprisingly sunny origins of the Frankfurt School.

BADDIE ISSUES

\"Wicked\" and \"Gladiator II.\"

WITHHOLDING SEX FROM MY WIFE

In the wake of [the] election, progressive women, who are outraged over Donald Trump's victory at the ballot box, have taken to social media with public, vengeful vows of chastity. - The Free Press.

DEADLINE EXTENSION

Old age, reborn.

A LONG WAY HOME

Ordinarily, I hate staying at someone's house, but when Hugh and I visited his friend Mary in Maine we had no other choice.