Bonfire of the Vanity

Matt Welch | November 15, 2005

I'm the kind of joyless literalist who gets huffy about people using a single distasteful article as proof of The Death of X Magazine!! ... but, well, I'm here to tell you about The Death of Vanity Fair Magazine!!

Why? In November 1994, the phone book-sized glossy ran one of the most devastating celebrity-profiles ever, Maureen Orth's "Cult Favorite," about the then-right wing political up-and-comer Arianna Huffington (you can read it by starting here; I praised it in the November issue). Eleven years, one month, and at least one political werewolf-act later, Vanity Fair has come out with a second pass on the subject, this time by Suzanna Andrews.

There's been some rich subject matter since then, no? Like, I dunno, Arianna's revisionist history about her 1994 views on Proposition 187 and immigration, her interesting relationships with current and former ghostwriters, the way she has treated those who dare criticize her....But instead, we get embarrassing ass-smoochery like this:

But it is when she starts to talk, really talk, that people are swept under. This is a woman who actually has read her Kierkegaard, her Schopenhauer, her John Maynard Keynes and Karl Marx, and she can quote from them. At Cambridge she studied economics and was president of the university's storied debating society, the Cambridge Union--which has made her a master sophist, capable of cutting an issue 16 ways and winning the argument without revealing what she really believes. On television, that has made her extraordinarily persuasive, a talk-show guest who "really knows her shit," says Bill Maher, "and never stumbles." In society, among the wealthy and influential, the sheer force of her mind has won her countless friends and admirers. "It's why she pulls everyone in," says her friend the socialite and author Sugar Rautbord. "Arianna is probably one of the most intellectually seductive human beings on the face of the planet. She has such a powerful brain, and she exudes an intellectuality that is almost sexual."

Almost! Or maybe I'm just not wealthy and influential enough to appreciate the sheer force of her mind....

Comments

|11.15.05 @ 5:59PM|#

I always had the impression she was pretty bright, but she seems to use her intellect more for social climbing than for developing an intellectually cohesive ideology. Her political positions seem to shift according to what she thinks will get her the most attention.

|11.15.05 @ 6:01PM|#

I suspect Huffianna uses some kind of new age trick on her party guests. ...Maybe it's hypnotism!

Did Suzanna Andrews go to one of her dinner parties?

|11.15.05 @ 6:10PM|#

Meanwhile, Huffianna goes to Chalabi like a cheap call girl:

"I received a call asking if I would like to meet him for breakfast at 8 the next morning. I declined, explaining that I was flying out at 7 a.m. Shortly after, I got another call, suggesting I join him and his group for a late dinner."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/chillin-with-chalabi-my_b_10651.html

|11.15.05 @ 6:19PM|#

She can quote from books she's read! Holy shit! What an intellectual giant!

|11.15.05 @ 6:32PM|#

Ah yes, the woman who approved tthis intellectual campaign ad.

Yup, I can really respect someone who argues like that. :)

|11.15.05 @ 7:28PM|#

Swwet Zombie Jesus that Huffington ad is pathetic/hilarious.

|11.15.05 @ 7:31PM|#

That ad is:

1) Way too freaking long.

2) Stupid.

And if Huffington is an intellectual, then I must be some sort of book-quoting Adonis.

|11.15.05 @ 7:35PM|#

I remember when she came out big against Hummers, etc. way back when. Then, as I recall, someone pointed out that she had a private jet, and that she used it to regularly fly back and forth between the east and west coasts. A jet airplane, unless I'm mistaken, burns a lot more fuel than a Hummer.

...but that probably never occurred to anyone in Huffianna Land.

|11.15.05 @ 7:45PM|#

She married a gay man. So she's lacking in perception. (Or didn't care, but that seems unlikely.)

The Wine Commonsewer|11.15.05 @ 9:05PM|#

She's a slut.

|11.15.05 @ 11:38PM|#

Now if only TWC had the pics to prove it...

*evil grin*

|11.15.05 @ 11:40PM|#

Whatever happened to H&R weekly digest from the Huffington Post?

|11.15.05 @ 11:45PM|#

Is the misogyny really necessary?

I notice a disturbing trend that whenever a female columnist/personality does something remotely stupid, the level of discourse drops considerably.

Just, you know... think.

|11.16.05 @ 12:26AM|#

Is the misogyny really necessary?

Yes, I'm shocked at you TWC! ; )

I notice a disturbing trend that whenever a female columnist/personality does something remotely stupid, the level of discourse drops considerably.

I was kidding TWC in the comment above. I don't think anything I've seen in this thread is misogynist. ...Really.

For the life of me, I don't remember seeing the "level of discourse" drop in that way around here...

...Oh, I take that back, I remember seein' it once, and it was roundly condemned by most everyone who commented in that thread. ...So for goodness sake, put on some lame music and make yourself an herbal tea, or whatever it is chicks like you do to relax...

...just kidding! ; )

Matt Welch|11.16.05 @ 2:41AM|#

Deus ex -- I might bring that back ... I was just waiting for the crowd noise!

|11.16.05 @ 10:59AM|#

Matt, Matt, bo batt, banana fana fo fat,

Lighten up, dude! This is Vanity Fair! Vanity Fair's the name, ass-kissing is the game! I find Arianna an entertaining pain the ass, which is why I never read anything she writes, with the exception of her book on Picasso, which, though a bit overwrought, wasn't bad, and it pissed off the "real" art critics by pointing out how Picasso treated women like shit. What's wrong with a rich bitch subjecting us peons to every facet of her ongoing, 50-year mid-life crisis? Huh?

dhex|11.16.05 @ 11:02AM|#

after a while, though, the huffington post is like waking and baking every single fucking day; it's just like, too much, you know?