Innholdsfortegnelse for 11/27-12/10/17 i New York Magazine

1 In a profile by Allison P. Davis, rapper Cardi B (“Regular, Degular, Shmegular Girl From the Bronx,” November 13–26) waxed lyrical on fame, and her thoughts elicited ecstatic responses—especially for her take on feminism. The rapper’s resistance to the “feminist” label and her succinct characterization of what that term means (“Being a feminist is being equal to do what a man do”) prompted Megan Reynolds at Jezebel to write that Cardi “pokes a hole in the inflated balloon of theory and hand-wringing that accompanies most of the contemporary feminist movement and breaks it down to its very core … Cardi nailed it.” Added Bustle’s Alexis Rhiannon, it “certainly sounds like Cardi B may have gotten the message in the past that feminism wasn’t for her—at least white feminism. But…

“I was working for people who were crazier than I had thought.” KEEPING SECRETS was my career,” Daniel Ellsberg says. “I didn’t lose the aptitude for that when I put out the Pentagon Papers.” This might come as a shock, considering that the former Defense Department analyst is best known for leaking classified information nearly half a century ago, thus bringing about a landmark legal precedent in favor of press freedom and, indirectly, hastening the end of both the Vietnam War and the Nixon administration. But for many years, even as Ellsberg beat prosecution, became a peace activist, and wrote an autobiography titled Secrets, he still had something remarkable left to disclose. It turns out that Ellsberg also took many thousands of pages of documents pertaining to another subject: nuclear…

ABDULLAHI YUSUF WAS just 3 years old the last time he’d been on an airplane. But when he walked into the Minneapolis–St.Paul airport 15 years later, he tried to look like he’d been traveling all his life. He wore brand-new khakis and a pink oxford shirt—casual travelwear, he thought. He’d considered packing painkillers and antibiotics in case they didn’t have medicine where he was going but abandoned the idea for fear it would arouse suspicion at security. He was struggling to keep his emotions in check. “It was my last day with my family,” he said. “My last day in America. The last day of life as I knew it.” Although Yusuf had turned 18 earlier that spring, his morning ritual still included his dad driving him to school. The…

IN ALL THE Black Friday hysteria, you may have gotten a good deal on a flat-screen TV. But what about those gifts that elicit a truly delighted wow? On the following pages are dozens of surprising, kooky, beautiful, and useful gifts at all different price points for everyone on your list: status prawns for the fine diner, an inflatable sailboat for the outdoorsperson who lives in a studio apartment, giant googly eyes for, well, anyone—plus a $60,000 necklace, mah-jongg lessons, and the most handsome lighter. And for many, many more gift ideas, visit thestrategist.com. 2017 GIFT GUIDE SECTION I $ 0 $ 50 Classy Lighter  $ 4000 Tokyo brand Tsubota Pearl has been making lighters (and money clips, cigarette cases, and other stately objects) since 1952 (shop-tetra.com). ‘Beetlejuice’ Pin  $ 1600…

IN 2016, makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji received an email from Gary Oldman. The two had met when Oldman was considering signing on to Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes remake, which would have necessitated Tsuji’s turning him into a gigantic monkey. (Tim Roth wound up taking the part instead.) Now Oldman had another transformation in mind: He was going to become Winston Churchill for Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour, and Tsuji was the only person he wanted to do his makeup. “One of the reasons I wanted Kazu,” Oldman would say later, “was he’s one of the only people on the planet who could pull it off.” The challenges were apparent. There are many things that resemble Winston Churchill—babies, pugs, a few very lucky apricots—but Oldman is not among them. “The…

ANYONE FAMILIAR WITH Gilmore Girls, the beloved television series about garrulous best friends who are also devoted mother and daughter, would immediately recognize Amy Sherman-Palladino, the series’ creator, as an Amy Sherman-Palladino character. She is a fierce and funny talker who yaks copiously, referentially, and caustically. To spend time with her is to hear how she wanted to play Rumpelteazer in a road production of Cats; learn that she can’t work in silence and so for a while was writing to Sophie’s Choice; be distracted by accessories that include a rhinestone flying-pig ring the size of an uncracked walnut; and witness her running argument with her Minnie Mouse iWatch, which is always telling her to breathe even though she is breathing and not just breathing but producing, writing, and…

FOR THE PEOPLE who run Academy Awards campaigns—those months-long public-relations pushes that ideally end in an Oscar—a crucial element has always been the creation of a narrative. In a normal year, any number of narratives, from “It’s her turn” to “Everybody loves a comeback” to “It’s the consensus choice,” might find a route to victory. But for reasons that range from Donald Trump to Harvey Weinstein (if that counts as a range), 2017 is not a normal Oscar year. Questions hang heavily over the ceremony itself: How will Jimmy Kimmel navigate the treacherous shoals of … well, forget Weinstein and just consider all the news that’s likely to break between now and March. What balance of self-celebration and self-awareness can any Oscar show hope to strike? As for the campaigns…

EVERY YEAR BEFORE LABOR DAY, audiences and film critics ready themselves for a rush of biopics, those prestige one-offs amid the sea of sequels. The timing is purposeful. Awards season begins in autumn, and biopics win awards. Because they feature actors transforming and/or pretending to age, you can see the acting—and voters vote for acting you can see. Ready for a list? The number of biopics already out or set to open by year’s end is staggering. Most anticipated by awards handicappers are the old-fashioned “Great Man” saga Darkest Hour, with Gary Oldman unrecognizable as Winston Churchill on the eve of Dunkirk, and the newfangled mockumentary I, Tonya, in which different recollections of the rise and fall of Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie) are woven into the narrative. You can also…

GUILLERMO DEL TORO finally got to live with his monsters nine years ago, when he was 44 and moved into what he calls Bleak House, in Thousand Oaks, a planned community with a golf course about an hour outside of Los Angeles. It serves as his office—he lives in a similarly anonymous home nearby—but also as a personal retreat, a private museum, and a “man cave,” as he puts it, filled with a reference library of books about his various interests (vampires, fictional; vampires, real; gothic romance; anatomy). Every surface is systematically covered with models and drawings and pictures and relics and props from the darkly enchanted horror-world of his films. It’s “a place that the neighbors don’t know what I do,” he says, greeting me in the foyer under…

HIGHBROW The fact someone has $450 million to drop on a banged-up, third-rate Leonardo, Salvator Mundi. WWJD? According to a Dezeen exposé, just three of the world’s 100 biggest architecture firms are headed by women and only two have management teams that are more than 50 percent female. There are lots of reasons to not want Roy Moore, right-wing theocrat, in the Senate besides these sordid accusations. (Of course, he might win in Alabama for just those reasons.) Boston Symphony Orchestra music director Andris Nelsons says sexual harassment isn’t a problem in classical music because art makes people “better humans.” The FCC will rid our long-suffering ISPs of the burdens of “net neutrality” so they can charge us more for, say, our Netflix addiction. The Broad Museum’s 30-second rule on…

THE FASHION WORLD and Morocco have long had a love affair. (Witness that world’s flocking to the opening of the new Yves Saint Laurent museum in Marrakech.) But fashion, as it’s actually lived and breathed in Moroccan cities, is rapidly changing. “Now, if you walk down the streets of Marrakech, you will see a guy in a local djellaba wearing sneakers that he got through a cousin who lives abroad,” explains Amine Bendriouich, a designer and creative director who divides his time mostly between Marrakech and Casablanca. “It’s not only about the guys who can afford the most fashionable items; it’s more about Mr. Everybody.” Bendriouich breaks down Morocco’s street-style scene into three categories. First, there are the people who are “far removed from fashion,” like his mother, aunts, and…

FRONT-RUNNER Gary Oldman, DARKEST HOUR The Best Actor front-runner as Churchill since he put on the makeup—and strong, moral leadership certainly has its appeal. DUNKIRK A stirring tribute to British heroes. Will voters appreciate this respite from awful men in the news? Denzel Washington, ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ. A surprising performance from an Oscar alumnus—but likely to get lost in the shuffle. Margot Robbie, I, TONYA As Tonya Harding, Robbie embodies America’s mix of ambition and ugliness. Sound familiar? THE SHAPE OF WATER A moving fable of acceptance—isn’t that what we all need right now? Allison Janney, I, TONYA This hellion mama isn’t topical, but she sure is memorable. Tom Hanks, THE POST Hanks may get a boost from the nagging impression that, offscreen, he’s the last decent man in…

WHEN IT COMES to imitation, The Disaster Artist, James Franco’s new film about the making of the legendarily bad movie The Room—in which an upright guy discovers his fiancée is cheating on him with his best friend—does not go halfway. The production designer used the original blueprints to rebuild the sets. The DP matched the terrible lighting exactly. And the cast worked painstakingly to re-create the performances’ offbeat rhythms. Below, Franco (who also plays The Room’s director and star, Tommy Wiseau, and his onscreen character, Johnny), his brother Dave (Greg Sestero, who played Johnny’s best friend, Mark), Ari Graynor (Juliette Danielle, who played Johnny’s unfaithful girlfriend, Lisa), and Josh Hutcherson (Philip Haldiman, who played a youngster named Denny) explain how they remade four of the movie’s most iconic sequences—with the…

The Skivvies, Sleigh My Name Joe’s Pub, December 10–11. The award-winning duo the Skivvies sing stripped-down covers and mash-ups. In their underwear. Very well. Often, they pull other award-winning people onstage to do it with them. Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History: Holiday Sauce The Town Hall, December 12. Following up on last year’s acclaimed A 24-Decade History of Popular Music project, the playwright, singer-songwriter, performance artist, and 2017 MacArthur Fellow looks toward the holidays, in all their dysfunctional glory. The Imbible: Christmas Carol Cocktails Roy Arias Stages, through December 30. On Christmas morning, Scrooge needs to decompress after his ghostly visits, and what better way to do that than with alcohol? Tickets include three drinks for each attendee. For more seasonal activities, visit nymag.com/guides/holidays…