New York Magazine September 12-25, 2022

1 For the cover of the Cut’s “Fall Fashion” issue, Allison P. Davis visited the California home of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and wrote about what her life has become two years after she and her husband departed the royal family (“Meghan of Montecito,” August 29–September 11). The story made global headlines, with particular praise for Meghan’s candor. @AgathedeLili tweeted, “I love everything about the Cut interview. Meghan is testing the limits of her freedom. And I enjoyed every part of it. It’s like she is relearning how to be carefree.” English broadcaster Jasmine Dotiwala wrote that the “most powerful parts question why she would play nicely with people who call her child the N word, and also ‘how toxic tabloid culture has torn two families apart.’” Many in the…

INSIDE: New York is a gymnastics town now / A techno princess rules the club scene / Wall Street’s most dangerous troll ON SEPTEMBER 3, Cynthia Hughes, founder of the Patriot Freedom project, regaled the crowd at Donald Trump’s “Save America” rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, with the plight of her nephew, Tim Hale-Cusanelli. Poor Tim, who once served in the Navy, had been convicted for his role in the January 6 insurrection. The story of his “mistreatment” drew moans from the sympathetic audience. Hughes did not mention that Navy investigators found 34 former colleagues who reported that Hale-Cusanelli had expressed “extremist or radical views pertaining to the Jewish people, minorities, and women.” One recollected Hale-Cusanelli’s practice of asking new colleagues if they were Jewish. Another remembered him saying Jews “are…

ON A SIDE STREET in Gowanus, inside what was once an abandoned fish market, ten girls spend four hours six days a week practicing vault, bar, beams, and floorwork. They get breaks for snacks, homework, and bonding, then it’s back—happily—to the grind. “What I love about gymnastics is you’re basically doing what other people can’t do,” says 12-year-old Sylvia Bradford. “You’re basically flying in the air.” These girls are the cream of a crop being cultivated at Gotham Gymnastics, which is producing world-class talent in a field that more commonly recruits from midwestern suburbs. Gotham’s 130 competitive gymnasts range in age from 6 to 18. The club has 15 girls at Level 10—the highest level of the USA Gymnastics Development Program—and 27 Level 9’s, numbers that are virtually unheard of…

BACK ON PRIDE WEEKEND, in the early hours of the morning, I stumbled into a semi-secret rave in East Williamsburg called MORE MORE MORE. There, down in the basement, I encountered the DJ Memphy. Everyone at that point in the party was looking sweaty and strung out—me included, I’m sure—but she looked flawless and unbothered and enraptured the entire dance floor, snapping the crowd back from its druggy stupor. I was immediately a little bit obsessed and wanted to know more about her. Around a month later, I meet up with Memphy at her friend’s birthday party in a very spacious loft in Tribeca. It belongs to two 20-something scene kids who apparently are doing something right in life (or maybe their parents did?). Zachary Quinto is here for some…

RIGHT BEFORE LABOR DAY weekend, Gustavo Arnal, the chief financial officer of Bed Bath & Beyond, jumped to his death from the “Jenga Building,” Tribeca’s tallest skyscraper. Arnal reportedly did not leave a note, but his plunge came a day after he closed a $500 million deal to shore up the ailing retailer. Bed Bath & Beyond, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, had announced just days before that it would cut 20 percent of its staff and close 150 stores. There was one other wrinkle to the mystery of Arnal’s death: a perfectly timed $1.4 million stock sale at the peak of a surge in Bed Bath & Beyond’s stock in August, a frenzy initiated by a 37-year-old Florida man named Ryan Cohen—which had instigated a class-action lawsuit alleging…

‘‘IT’S GOT TALISMANIC POWERS …It unlocks everything that you ever wanted. IT’S GOT THE ANSWERS.” “Income.pdf. That kind of stood out. So I clicked.” “You cannot even IMAGINE the depth of the CORRUPTION.” “You come for the PORNOGRAPHY, but you stay for the COMPROMISE.” “I told RUDY, ‘This is incredible. This is the heart of the elite capture through the MONEY-LAUNDERING and INFLUENCE-PEDDLING OPERATIONS of the CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY.’” “Hi, it’s STEVE BANNON; I’m calling because I have a story that’s going to CHANGE YOUR LIFE.” “There’s been times when you’re LOOKING AT THIS LAPTOP where you just feel like you’re SURROUNDED BY DARKNESS.” “ WHEN YOU SEE a GROWN MAN IN A RAINBOW BOA and A JOCK STRAP… “I have no regrets. Unless SOMETHING HORRIBLE HAPPENS.” “All I cared…