Monica Lewinsky on Survival; an Incredible Kayak Voyage; Crescent City Saviors

Stories of Hope and Perseverance from the Vanity Fair Archive View in your browser | Update your preferences     A daily digest of things to discuss over drinks January 02, 2021   Shame and Survival She tried public appearances. She tried being reclusive. She tried leaving the country, and she tried finding a job. But the epic humiliation of 1998, when her affair with Bill Clinton became an all-consuming story, has followed Monica Lewinsky every day. After 10 years of self-imposed reticence, and now hoping to help victims of internet shaming, she critiques the culture that put a 24-year-old through the wringer and calls out the feminists who joined the chorus. R E A D  M O R E »   Incredible Voyage With Germany in tatters, his small business bankrupt, Oskar Speck got into his kayak in 1932 for what would become an epic, seven-year journey—30,000 miles—packed with hero's welcomes and near-death escapes, all the way to Australia. But as Speck battled sharks, hostile locals, and malaria, Hitler rose to power and WW II began. William Prochnau and Laura Parker unearth an adventure nearly lost to history. R E A D  M O R E »   Wonder Boys When Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins met, 75 years ago, they were young men hungry for their Big Break. Together, composer and choreographer created a groundbreaking ballet, Fancy Free, which they then retooled as a sensational Broadway musical, On the Town, and followed with the genre-defying West Side Story. Laura Jacobs revisits that explosive partnership. R E A D  M O R E »   Hell and High Water American Apocalypse: New Orleans 2005 Faced with the greatest natural disaster in modern American history, Washington fumbled and failed. But the Red Cross, the doctors and nurses of Woman's Hospital, the Texas Army National Guard helicopter crews, and the ad hoc bartenders at a Bourbon Street sports bar were among the many who fought to comfort, protect, and save. Photographer Jonas Karlsson and reporter Ron Beinner capture New Orleans's suffering and its saviors, while David Halberstam confronts Hurricane Katrina's most disturbing revelations. R E A D  M O R E »   What Lies Beneath Deep below the streets of New York City lie its vital organs—a water system, subways, railroads, tunnels, sewers, drains, and power and cable lines—in a vast, three-dimensional tangle. Penetrating this centuries-old underworld of caverns, squatters, and unmarked doors, William Langewiesche follows three men who constantly navigate its dangers: the subway-operations chief who dealt with the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, the engineer in charge of three underground mega-projects, and the guy who, well, just loves exploring the dark, jerry-rigged heart of a great metropolis. R E A D  M O R E »   Kingdom by the Sea When Jeremy Irons decided to buy and restore a long-abandoned 15th-century Irish castle, in 1997, it may have been the result of a midlife crisis, a creative need, a leap of faith, or all of the above. The outcome, however, is an indisputable reflection of the British star's singular tastes. Visiting Kilcoe Castle, David Kamp learns how Irons and his motley band of dedicated amateurs turned a ruin into a magical retreat. R E A D  M O R E »   Married, With Tigers Fifty-five tigers, 16 lions, and the fantasies of two immigrant German boys—these are the key ingredients in the phenomenon of Siegfried and Roy, Las Vegas's highest-paid performers, whose 500 sellout shows a year at Steve Wynn's Mirage resort have grossed half a billion dollars over the past decade. Matt Tyrnauer visits the flamboyant illusionists amid the cascading waterfalls and Sistine Chapel–ceiling replicas of their eight-acre Jungle Palace, to look behind the liquid smoke, lamé, and lasers. R E A D  M O R E » Get on the list Subscribe to our Hollywood newsletter for your essential industry and awards-season news, every day. Sign Up Now     This e-mail was sent to you by VANITY FAIR. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, vanityfair@newsletter.vf.com, to your address book. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.