New York Magazine September 30-October 13, 2019

1 For New York’s latest cover article, the Rookie founder and early influencer Tavi Gevinson asked, “Who Would I Be Without Instagram?” (September 16–29). Many related to Gevinson’s feelings about growing up in the social-media age. Otegha K. Uwagba tweeted that Gevinson’s “understanding of our online selves, influencer culture, the media landscape is unparalleled.” And Charlie Warzel wrote, “Not sure I’ve read a better description of what being raised on social networks does to your sense of self than this.” Lou Papineau critiqued the magazine’s decision to feature the story on the cover, writing, “Trumpeting a faux celeb whining about ‘what Instagram did to [her]’ instead of highlighting David Wallace-Wells’s extraordinary feature on Greta Thunberg … is frivolous and shortsighted.” New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose praised the story:…

HISTORY BOOKS WILL record Donald Trump as the first president of the United States to assume office without any previous experience in government. This is not a mere biographical detail but a skeleton key for understanding his methods of wielding power. Trump has never recognized any distinction between his public and private life. Extraordinarily, he didn’t divest from his businesses even while serving as president. Even worse, he treated the government as if it were his property. The Ukraine scandal is another case of Trump treating the executive branch as though it had been acquired by the Trump Organization. It may or may not be the worst of his many offenses, but it would be perfectly fitting if, as now seems possible, it is ultimately the instrument of his demise.…

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL member of IMG Models’ newest division brings in a comfortable six figures a year. He has been interviewed by Larry King, profiled by the New York Times, and flown to Australia to showcase swimwear. And when he arrives to work, spray-tanned and pedicured as the occasion demands, he is still sometimes mistaken for the electrician. “Someone goes, ‘Oh, thank God you’re here,’ ” Zach Miko says. “I didn’t think I was late. I follow them and they bring me over to a burnt-out outlet, and they’re like, ‘This is the one you have to replace.’ ” The usual male model is around six-foot-one, maybe six-two, and falls somewhere on the spectrum of rawboned to gym-buffed. Miko, 30, who stands six-six and weighs 290 pounds, is more tank…

I CAN ONLY SHOW you this ’cause you’ve seen the film,” Aaron Paul says, grinning proudly as he scrolls through hundreds—maybe thousands?—of photos featuring his 19-month-old daughter, Story. He settles on a short video of the two of them taken during a break in the filming of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. The clip finds the actor in full makeup as Jesse Pinkman, the emotionally pulverized, physically lacerated meth-maker. As Paul gently describes to Story the harrowing (and very top-secret) El Camino scene he has just filmed, his daughter gazes at her father’s bruised and grubby face with affection. “She’s totally fine when she sees Jesse’s scars,” Paul says, putting down his phone. “She looks past all of that and right into my eyes.” “People always ask, ‘What happened…

THE unHappy HEroinE of The Mistakes Madeline Made, which premiered Off Broadway in 2006, hates working as one of 15 personal assistants to a financier and his family. The patriarch, she observes, “runs his home the way he runs his hedge fund—using a model to protect his family against the possibility of loss or waste or even just the unexpected.” His “Household System” demands perfection: Even the hunt for a duplicate pair of New Balance sneakers is to be executed with the logistical finesse of a Navy SEAL strike. The play was written by Elizabeth Meriwether, who would go on to create the sitcom New Girl for Fox. Her fictionalized account of her brief stint working for the Wall Street billionaire David E. Shaw never reached a wide audience, but…

THE STANDOFF BETWEEN Bong Joon-ho and Harvey Weinstein over the U.S. cut of Snowpiercer had all the hallmarks of a scene the director might shoot himself. High drama. The Korean auteur versus the bullish American. Philosophical questions of artistic integrity in the time of mass consumption. Gallows humor. Snowpiercer is a unique hybrid. It looks like a slick Hollywood action movie with revolutionary themes, depicting a class rebellion set in a sci-fi dystopia led by none other than Captain America himself, Chris Evans. But despite its blockbuster appeal, Snowpiercer languished in limbo in the U.S. The Weinstein Company bought the distribution rights in 2012, but instead of giving the film an immediate release date, Weinstein demanded changes. He wanted to cut 25 minutes. He wanted more action, “more Chris Evans.”…