Spiegel Stuff: A Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader’s Rise From Rock Bottom; at Home With a Valentino Legend; the Best Movies on Netflix

Thursday, July 3, 2025

A Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader’s Rise From Rock Bottom; at Home With a Valentino Legend; the Best Movies on Netflix

SUBSCRIBE FOR FULL ACCESS

MATTHEW LYNCH,
EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Here's a question for this Fourth of July eve: Is there a more American institution circa 2025 than the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders? And an answer: a Netflix reality soap opera centering on the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. As the second season of said series, America's Sweethearts, streams, Vanity Fair's Savannah Walsh has an exclusive interview with one of its stars, Chandi Dayle, whose story takes the show into darker terrain than viewers might have expected.

Elsewhere today: Nate Freeman reports on the billionaire-class grievances that Zohran Mamdani's primary victory is drawing out in New York; James Reginato tours Giancarlo Giammetti's Roman palazzo; and Natalie Korach hears from the CBS newsroom in the aftermath of the network's stunning capitulation to Donald Trump. More Monday…

Estate of Mind

BY JAMES REGINATO

It began on the Via Veneto, July 31, 1960, when an 18-year-old Giancarlo Giammetti was ensconced in his seat at Café de Paris and Valentino Garavani walked in. Newly arrived in Rome, Garavani was launching his own label. He was "incredibly seductive, with his deep tan, blue eyes, and soft but intense way of speaking," Giammetti once wrote. "Where can I find you?" Giammetti asked after a short chat. "Via Condotti, undici," Garavani replied, giving Giammetti the address of a baroque 16th-century palazzo where he had rented the second-floor apartment to present his first collection. By September, following a rendezvous on Capri, Garavani and Giammetti were a couple. The rest is fashion history.

The sprawling estate in the Eternal City has been both home and office to Giammetti for decades, during and after his romance with longtime business partner Garavani. The business half of the iconic house opens his doors to VF.

On Our Radar

THE NEWSROOM

CBS Staffers Sound Off: "Enough Is Enough"

BY NATALIE KORACH

Employees within the news division of the media giant have expressed a combination of disappointment and "acceptance" over a settlement with Donald Trump that was "out of their hands."

NOW STREAMING

The Best Movies on Netflix

BY CHRIS FEIL

Here are 26 titles to queue up for the long weekend.

STYLE

Zohran Mamdani Is Artist-Approved. The Collector Class Has Its Reservations

BY NATE FREEMAN

The Democratic mayoral candidate's surprise victory last week has cast a long-running art world division into starker relief—and everyone's posting through it.

Off the Sidelines

Life After Rock Bottom

BY SAVANNAH WALSH

The women of Netflix's America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are never more fascinating to watch than when they're walking out the door. In season two, the docuseries spotlights the shy yet star-powered veteran Chandi Dayle as she plans to retire after six seasons. But what begins as a triumphant victory lap for Dayle, a well-liked group leader often positioned front and center on the field, ends in shocking fashion as she is ousted while grappling with the aftermath of domestic violence.

Dayle speaks to VF in her first interview following the season two premiere: "It's been really crazy and overwhelming."