Cover Story 

74 - A HOLLYWOOD ELUSIVE
Since her breakthrough 1998 performance as Elizabeth I, Cate Blanchett has effortlessly conquered Hollywood while raising a happy family and running a major theater with her devoted husband. Over tea, Leslie Bennetts glimpses Blanchett’s life behind the scenes and hears about her latest cinematic challenge, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Photographs by Annie Leibovitz. Web special: More photos.

Features

60 - FAREWELL TO ALL THAT: AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE BUSH WHITE HOUSE
George W. Bush presided over so many disasters—from Iraq to Katrina to the current economic meltdown—it’s hard to grasp all that happened on his watch. Drawing on high-level interviews, Cullen Murphy and Todd S. Purdum weave an epic narrative, with all the fatal flaws, wrong turns, and missed opportunities of an eight-year train wreck.

86 - HOP ON THE HIGH LINE
The High Line, the derelict elevated railway turned public park that runs along Manhattan’s West Side, slices straight through André Balazs’s new Standard hotel. Matt Tyrnauer discovers how this architectural conundrum produced a spectacular solution. Photographs by Todd Eberle.

90- CHANEL NO. 1
Brigitte Lacombe and Amy Fine Collins spotlight actress Audrey Tautou, who will star in this year’s biopic Coco Before Chanel, and follow Nicole Kidman as the face of Chanel No. 5.

92 - FANNIE MAE’S LAST STAND
Mortgage behemoths Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made some very dangerous enemies as they leveraged their government-mandated homeowner-assistance mission into a profit machine. Then the subprime bubble burst, and the knives came out. Bethany McLean reports on the bitter ending of one of Washington’s longest feuds.