The True Story of the Billionaire Boys Club

They were the sons of some of the most powerful families in California, never at a loss for money or kicks. [View in Browser]( [Esquire Sunday Reads]( [I Think You're Fat]( The True Story of the Billionaire Boys Club Before he drove to the airport that morning, Dean Karny recalled, he stopped by the real estate office to rent the house on Beverly Glen. The two of them—Dean and Joe Hunt—had given their Beverly Hills real estate agent the same story they told at Lake Arrowhead and in Palm Springs: Joe was a writer on politics and economics facing a very tight deadline and in need of a quiet place to work for the next six weeks. The first house the woman had shown them, just north of Sunset Boulevard in the southeast corner of Bel Air, looked very good from the outside. It was a big white stucco-and-red-tile hacienda with a tennis court out back, barricaded in front by a ten-foot hedge and screened from the street by a forest of flowering trees. They had agreed in advance that the place they chose would have to be remote, Dean explained, “so that the screams could not be heard.” What convinced them to rent the house, though, was a hidden trapdoor in the hall closet that led directly to the basement. Dean paid the real estate agent $9,000 cash for six weeks of privacy and caught a noon flight to San Francisco. From the airport there, he took a taxi out to the peninsula, arriving at the Villa Hotel in San Mateo just before 2:00. [Read the Full Story]( [MORE FROM ESQUIRE]( [The Movies You Shouldn't Watch With Your Kids]( Looking for Clarence Thomas He grew up speaking a language of the enslaved on the shores of Pin Point, Georgia. He would become the most powerful Black man in America, using the astonishing power vested in a Supreme Court justice to hold back his own people. Now he sits atop an activist right-wing court poised to undo the progressivism of the past century. What happened? [Read the Full Story]( [The Rise and Fall of Planet Hollywood]( The 38 Best Jeans Brands Every Man Needs to Know Denim is one of the greatest ways in the world to nerd out on menswear. But who has the time? So, instead of sending you down rabbit hole after rabbit hole, we've instead pulled together a list of the 38 best jeans brands out there, ranging from your mass-market standbys to your hyper-niche specialists, with a little of everything in between for good measure. So whether you're in the market for Carhartt or [Levi's](, Visvim or Fear of God—and by the way, have you heard of Glenn's Denim, because you should have—we've got you covered. Happy hunting. [Read the Full Story]( [Whither Jon Stewart?]( Welcome to the Great American Quarter-Assening I had to run it back, because I was certain I hadn’t heard what I’d heard. It was a weekday after another weekend of mass shootings, which itself had followed a week that contained a mass shooting in an elementary school. It was a time for deep reflection and decisive action, unless you’re an American lawmaker: South Dakota senator John Thune was asked the sensible and relevant question “Why do people even need AR-15’s?” “They are a sporting rifle,” he said with a sigh, unable to make eye contact with his interviewer. He continued. “And in my state they use them to shoot prairie dog and, you know, other types of varmints.” And that was that. [Read the Full Story]( [What's With All These Shirtless Celebs in Suits?]( Joel Kinnaman Likes His Heroes Messy AF There’s a little smirk on Joel Kinnaman’s face. It’s the kind of smile that’s both mischievous and knowing like he’s in on some private joke. He’s talking about the small beard he’s grown for a movie with Nicolas Cage, which he describes as “just me and Nic in a car.” He insists that if you’re going to do a movie with Nicolas Cage, “you’ve got to rise to the occasion.” Some actors remind you of their famous characters, but Kinnaman isn’t like that. He’s just a guy hanging out, desperate to geek out about theater. “Coming from a European theater world, I think about the world of ideas so much,” he says. Then, he adds that he wishes his beard was a little fuller. “I guess that’s something I got from my dad.” [Read the Full Story]( [Peter Bogdanovich on the Long, Slow Decline of a Teenage Star]( What I've Learned: Gabby Giffords I liked to go hunting with my parents. I’m not against guns. I still own guns even today. Safely, of course. I don’t think of my assailant. He took so much away from me, and even more away from the families of the six people he murdered. At Jared Lee Loughner’s sentencing hearing, my husband [former astronaut and current U. S. senator Mark Kelly] told him, “You have decades upon decades to contemplate what you did. But after today, after this moment, here and now, Gabby and I are done thinking about you.” I’d rather spend my energy on channeling that pain into purpose than giving him another ounce of myself. I think of forgiveness as tied to—but distinct from—acceptance. [Read the Full Story]( Follow Us [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Notice/Notice at Collection]( esquire.com ©2022 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Magazines, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019