Meet Meghan Markle’s Family; the Shocking Murder of an Environmentalist; Becoming Meryl Streep

A special delivery from the Vanity Fair Archive View in your browser | Update your preferences A daily digest of things to discuss over drinks April 23, 2022 A grab bag for your Saturday reading pleasure: the family drama of an American princess, the tales of a society swan, a deadly crime against an environmentalist, and more. Meet the Markles "They're like a Monty Python sketch," said Meghan's father about his new royal in-laws. "I'm like, What is this, Joan Crawford speaking?" said Meghan's half sister. A slightly fractured, Americanized, Kardashianified royal fairy tale. R E A D  M O R E » Betting on the Blind Side Michael Burry always saw the world differently—due, he believed, to the childhood loss of one eye. So when the investor spotted the huge bubble in the subprime-mortgage bond market, in 2004, then created a way to bet against it, he wasn't surprised that no one understood what he was doing. In an excerpt from his book The Big Short, Michael Lewis charted Burry's oddball maneuvers, his almost comical dealings with Goldman Sachs and other banks as the market collapsed, and the true reason for his visionary obsession. R E A D  M O R E » The Last Queen of Paris Countess Jacqueline de Ribes says she'll never write a memoir—no one would believe it. After a cruel WW II–era childhood, the swan-necked beauty was taught to lie by Charles de Beistegui, learned to be herself from Diana Vreeland, and has reigned at the nexus of French fashion, finance, culture, and society ever since. Chronicling de Ribes's decades of haut monde iconoclasm, Amy Fine Collins learned why no label could ever fit such a dazzlingly inventive talent. R E A D  M O R E » A Flowering Evil The shooting of environmentalist Joan Root at her 88-acre farm overlooking Lake Naivasha, in 2006, shocked Kenya's "Happy Valley" and the entire conservation world. Blonde, beautiful, and fearless, she had been idolized for the pioneering wildlife films she made with her husband, Alan. After their agonizing divorce, she devoted herself to an even more dangerous mission: saving her beloved lake from the ecological ravages of Africa's lucrative flower-farming industry. Mark Seal investigated the violent clashes between desperate immigrant poachers and Root's private army that, some locals believed, brought three killers with an AK-47 to her door. R E A D  M O R E » Becoming Meryl At 29, Meryl Streep was grieving for a dead lover, falling for her future husband, and starting work on the movie that would make her a star and sweep the 1980 Oscars: Kramer vs. Kramer, opposite Hollywood heavyweight Dustin Hoffman. In an adaptation from his biography of the actor, Michael Schulman recounted the struggle between Streep and Hoffman as she transformed both her role and her own identity. 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 2022. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.