ON A SPRING day in Rome, 1957-the season of Pope Pius XII's Ash Wednesday Mass, wisteria blooming by the Spanish Steps-30-year-old Bruno Lunenfeld gave one hell of a presentation. What he said had the potential to shape the course of history in ways even the Vatican couldn't foresee.
Inside an imposing L-shaped building that stretched down Via Casilina and then along Via L'Aquila, in a wood-paneled library distinguished by rows of leather-bound books and cream floor tiles spangled with stars, the dozen or so board members of a pharmaceutical company listened as Lunenfeld described his findings. For four years he had been developing a therapy that would induce ovulation in women struggling with infertility. What he needed now was the support of the Istituto Farmacologico Serono, whose own staff scientist, Piero Donini, had been working on a similar endeavor, and who had facilitated Lunenfeld's trip from Israel to Rome. The men listened politely, but at the end of the presentation they told him, with regret, that they couldn't help. They believed certain hurdles to be insurmountable. It seemed unlikely, for instance, that Serono would be able to procure the vast quantities of one specific essential substance without which the drug couldn't be made.
Lunenfeld left the library. Nearly 70 years later, looking back, he won't be able to remember whether or not he was crying. What he does recall is that a member of the board by the name of Don Giulio Pacelli-pictures will show the Italian prince to have had the strong features and thick dark hair, receding sharply at the temples, of a Fellini heartthrob-approached him in his despair. Lunenfeld wasn't Italian or Catholic. He didn't realize the currency of Pacelli's name in a city like Rome and certainly couldn't have understood his connection to the pope. Still, the prince had something else to offer, equally potent and instantly recognizable: belief.
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Jenna Ortega's Year of Wonder - The breakout star of Wednesday settles into fame and with a Beetlejuice sequel on the horizon gets ready for more of it
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SETTING THE STAGE
Before they conquered Hollywood, George Segal, Peter Falk, Roy Scheider, and Wayne Rogers were some of the finest-though perhaps not the finest-stage actors in New York. WAYNE LAWSON, who knew them when, revisits a golden era that revolutionized American theater
HOPE AND CHANGE?
As the threat of another Trump presidency looms, AMERICA TURNS ITS EYES TO THE OBAMAS, who remain two of the most important politicians in the world-whether they like it or not
The Natural
Comedy, singing, scandal, attempted murder: Meghann Fahy, the breakout star of The White Lotus and now The Perfect Couple, can do it all
FULL-COURT PRESS
Microsoft made him one of the richest men alive. Now STEVE BALLMER is chasing one of the few prizes money (alone) can't buy: an NBA championship for his team, the Los Angeles Clippers, whose staggeringly expensive state-of-the-art arena opens this summer
THE TWISTED LOVE STORY OF JOSE AND LADDY BETTY
A 95-year-old diamond heiress and her much younger genderfluid spouse became social media stars. Was theirs a feelgood romance for the agesor something far darker?
CONSIDER
NO ONE KNOWS CANDIDATE ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.'S PROBLEMATIC HISTORY BETTER THAN HIS FAMILY. JOE HAGAN TALKS TO THAT RELUCTANT INNER CIRCLE ABOUT KENNEDY'S PAST AND THE STAKES FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE
Paris When It Sizzled
IN 1973, FIVE AMERICAN DESIGNERS AND 36 MODELS DESCENDED ON THE CITY OF LIGHT FOR WHAT WOULD BECOME AN ERA-DEFINING FASHION SHOW-AND WITH THEM WAS PHOTOGRAPHER BILL CUNNINGHAM. HERE, AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK AT HIS TREASURE TROVE OF LARGELY UNSEEN PHOTOS, PUBLISHED TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME
Playing It STRAIGHT
Dynamic young stars have broken out in queer roles. Should their own sexuality matter?
Another COUNTRY
Searching for James Baldwin in the South of France
