The Women of Palm Beach; the Precarious Future of Late-Night Talk Shows; Hollywood’s AI Debate

Plus: Inside a Cruise Ship Nightmare

View in browser | Update preferences SUBSCRIBE FOR FULL ACCESS MATTHEW LYNCH, EXECUTIVE EDITOR At the end of a long week, there are a lot of institutional forces grappling with what's to come in today's edition: network television with the future of late-night comedy; Hollywood with artificial intelligence's possibilities and pitfalls; Maxine Waters with Donald Trump's "Crypto Week." For those looking for slightly less heady hand-to-hand concerns, there's also the Coldplay CEO. Elsewhere, we revisit Palm Beach in the 1980s and talk to the director of this weekend's I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot. Hopefully your weekend skews toward less tussle. More on Monday… The Next Great Front in Hollywood's AI Debate BY DAVID CANFIELD At the start of this year, Brady Corbet's immigrant epic The Brutalist was entangled in a scandal befitting our era—a controversy surrounding its relatively minor use of generative artificial intelligence. Where else was AI being used that we didn't know about? How could an average viewer—or, for that matter, an awards voter—track where the human craft ended and the wonders of modern technology began? In Hollywood, the trade guilds—and their respective awards—are working out these questions in real time. One guild has temporarily banned the use of generative AI; another doesn't even require disclosure of its usage. VF Hollywood correspondent David Canfield breaks down the mad dash to define the technology that's sweeping Tinseltown. READ MORE Read All About It POLITICS Maxine Waters Sounds the Alarm on "Crypto Week" BY ERIC LUTZ As the Genius Act lands on the president's desk, the California lawmaker says she's concerned that "the rug will be pulled out from under the unsuspecting investors." READ MORE FILM Behind the Killer Ending of I Know What You Did Last Summer BY SAVANNAH WALSH Director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson tells VF all the bloodshed could've been avoided had certain men gone to therapy: "If you have the right tools, that pain is maybe not then turned into a murder spree." READ MORE MEDIA Is This the Death Knell for Late-Night Talk Shows? BY DAVID CANFIELD CBS has called the cancellation of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert "a purely financial decision"—but it feels like only the beginning of the end for an entire genre. READ MORE From the Archive The Women of Palm Beach BY DOMINICK DUNNE Palm Beach people talk about Palm Beach people constantly. It is a subject that never seems to exhaust itself, and any one of them, at any event where they are gathered, can give you an instant précis of any other one's life. "She's Mollie Netcher Bragno Bostwick Wilmot. She lives next to Rose Kennedy, and last year a tanker ran aground on her seawall and practically landed in her living room." In 1986, VF writer Dominick Dunne and photographer Helmut Newton went over the bridge to the fantasy island to report on a society where, as Dunne wrote, "the women are the generals" and the men just "black-tied bystanders." READ MORE But Wait, There's More Inside a Cruise Ship Nightmare In March 1998, a 23-year-old Amy Lynn Bradley stepped onto a Royal Caribbean cruise ship headed to Curaçao. But her family trip was cut short a few days later after her parents said she had vanished. How to Avoid an (Alleged) HR Violation at a Coldplay Concert Happens more often than you'd think. MORE FROM VANITY FAIR POLITICS BUSINESS HOLLYWOOD STYLE ROYALS CELEBRITY 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 2025. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.