It's a Wonderful Life
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By the time he died, in 2006, designer Oleg Cassini had seduced the “top top girls” of his day, from Grace Kelly to Marilyn Monroe to Anita Ekberg, married Hollywood stunner Gene Tierney, and shaped the look of the absolutely toppest girl of all, Jacqueline Kennedy. But, for all Cassini’s success with women, the battle over his estate, between his daughter Tina and his last (and secret) wife, Marianne Nestor, suggests a chilling calculation behind the dashing image.
Read moreFor decades France ignored its presidents’ private lives, but the ascension of Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, has turned that tradition on its head. Will rumors of infidelity, secret marriage contracts, and illegal wiretaps derail Sarkozy’s presidency? And is any of it true?
Read moreSpecial correspondent Maureen Orth’s investigation into the “Craigslist Murder” explored the dark corners of the Internet and of the psyche of alleged killer Philip Markoff. She spoke with VF Daily about the public’s fascination with the crime and how she managed to get her story.
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Supreme arbiter of aristocratic London nightlife, Mark Birley poured all his charm, generosity, and taste into his portfolio of clubs, including the fabled Annabel’s, until he abruptly sold them right before his death, last August. But, as a battle over his $200 million estate reveals, he left his own family tragically damaged. Maureen Orth asks Birley’s feuding children, Robin and India Jane, and his ex-wife, Lady Annabel Goldsmith, why he was so good at business and so bad at home.
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Facing trial in Chicago for massive criminal fraud, Conrad Black, once chairman of the world’s third-largest newspaper group, Hollinger International, has retreated to his Toronto childhood home, vowing to take the stand and expose the conspiracy against him. As friends and colleagues dissect the 62-year-old mogul’s spectacular fall, the author delves into the influence of Black’s dazzling second wife, Barbara Amiel; the blow of his longtime partner, David Radler, turning prosecution witness; and the role of Hollinger’s high-profile board, which allegedly let the company become a private piggy bank.
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No matter who controls Afghanistan, its opium crop—more than 70 percent of the world’s supply—is creating narco-societies throughout Central Asia, from Russia to Pakistan. In Tajikistan, the author discovers the extent of the region’s drug corruption, which may prove more destructive than any terrorist threat.
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