6 Stories That Have Nothing to Do With Coronavirus

[Plus, how Valentino conquered American fashion]( [View in your browser]( | [Update your preferences](newsletter=vf) [Vanity Fair’s Cocktail Hour Newsletter]( A daily digest of things to discuss over drinks March 13, 2020 [A Real Estate Scandal, a Celebrity Catfish Scam, and More]( [Did you hear the news? Everything is terrible! A growing pandemic. A global market collapse. Sarah Palin on The Masked Singer. How much can the public take? Rest assured, dear readers, this newsletter is a reprieve from all that. Take a break from the headlines and instead invest yourself in the society women, the soirees, and the scandals that have long been a fascination for Vanity Fair. And, just for you, we’ve unlocked them from the V.F. Archive. For unlimited access, [consider subscribing today](.]( [READ MORE »]( [Secrets and Lies]( [All the world knows the end of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s story. The hidden chapter was the gradual unraveling of their marriage as it slid from wedding-day hysterics into a spiral of depression, drugs, and violence. In an excerpt from his 2003 book, Edward Klein explores the conflicts—over starting a family, George magazine, and life in the spotlight—that drove Kennedy and Bessette apart, despite interventions by a couples therapist and, fatally, Carolyn’s sister Lauren.]( [READ MORE »]( [Here’s to the Ladies Who Lunched!]( [They were the ladies who lunched, when “lunching” was a verb and was—at such shrines as the Colony Club, La Côte Basque, and Le Cirque—impossibly glamorous, hugely entertaining, and utterly without purpose; when Babe Paley, C. Z. Guest, and Jacqueline Onassis ruled the banquettes. In 2012, Bob Colacello charted the rise and fall of a high-society ritual (no one really ate) and the power klatches that have taken its place.]( [READ MORE »]( [It Seemed Like a Good Idea (*At the Time)]( [Launched with a blast of Instagram glamour—Bella Hadid! Kendall Jenner! Coachella in the Bahamas!—the 2017 Fyre Festival became one of the biggest debacles in music-festival history. Stranded concertgoers expecting private villas found wet tents, drunken chaos, and no musical acts. How did an ambitious hustler from New Jersey end up believing his own bull? Bryan Burrough follows the trail of 25-year-old Billy McFarland.]( [READ MORE »]( [Miami Vice]( [They’re known as the Jills. They’re two of the top realtors in the country, selling the most sought-after condos and mansions in Miami. Then a house went missing—and professional greed turned into outright extortion, as Mark Seal reported in 2018.]( [READ MORE »]( [The Miranda Obsession]( [She said she was a beautiful, well-connected blonde named Miranda, and she enchanted an astonishing circle of powerful men—Billy Joel, Paul Schrader, Buck Henry, and Quincy Jones among them—with her flirtatious, gossipy phone calls. But who was the woman behind the voice? Read the 1999 investigation.]( [READ MORE »]( [The Temptation of Tiger Woods]( [First, a pivotal 1996 confrontation between Tiger Woods’s father, Earl, and his early adviser John Merchant taught the young golfer the limits of trust. Then Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and a posse of enablers showed him there were no limits—when it came to Vegas parties, high-stakes gambling, and beautiful women. Talking to an angry Merchant and to the mistresses who fed Woods’s massive appetite for extramarital sex, Mark Seal dissected the ruin of a champion in 2010.]( [READ MORE »]( [][Vanity Fair]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( 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 2020. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.