IT’S SHOWTIME! | 130
Annie Leibovitz photographs wild and crazy guys Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, plus the nine dolls on V.F.’s cover, as Evgenia Peretz explains why Anna Kendrick, Kristen Stewart, Carey Mulligan, et al. are nobody’s playthings.

FRAME, SET, AND MATCH | 138
Would Quentin Tarantino be an Oscar contender without Christoph Waltz? Lee Daniels without Mo’Nique and Gabourey Sidibe? James Cameron without his 3-D stereoscopic camera? Annie Leibovitz re-assembles 11 of the year’s most creative teams.

SWEET BARD OF YOUTH | 156
Talking to the late John Hughes’s sons and Brat Pack favorites, David Kamp finds the writer-director was an amalgam of all his now classic characters, from Samantha Baker to Ferris Bueller. Still-life photographs by Dan Winters. 

ONCE IN LOVE WITH ALI  | 164
Four decades after Love Story, looking back at two tumultuous marriages (to Robert Evans and Steve McQueen), Ali MacGraw tells Sheila Weller what Hollywood could never give her. Portrait by Annie Leibovitz.

PACIFIC OVERTURE | 171
Ben Bradlee and Sam Jones spotlight HBO’s The Pacific. 

HOLLYWOOD’S TOP 40 | 172
If Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen didn’t awe you, try the fact that its director, Michael Bay, pulled in about $125 million last year. Peter Newcomb ranks the paydays of Tyler Perry, Cameron Diaz, and Hollywood’s other highest earners. 

STUDIO HEAD: THE GREATEST STORY NEVER SOLD | 176
Jon Peters, the unschooled hairdresser (and Lothario) who rode Barbra Streisand’s tresses to Hollywood’s executive suite, has got a best-selling memoir in him. But his former ghostwriter, William Stadiem, reveals why it likely will never come out. 

THE TIME OF NICK | 183
Francesco Carrozzini and Jim Windolf spotlight 17-year-old Nick Jonas, whose debut solo album stakes a grown-up claim. 

COLORING THE KINGDOM | 184
To make the world’s first animated feature, 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney hired an all-female battalion of white-gloved inkers and painters. Patricia Zohn recalls the real-life Cinderellas who found magic in Disney’s dream factory. 

LITTLE MISS MIRACLE | 191
Jenny Gage, Tom Betterton, and Krista Smith spotlight Abigail Breslin and Alison Pill, on Broadway in The Miracle Worker. 

BRUTAL ATTRACTION: THE MAKING OF RAGING BULL | 192
Thirty years later, Raging Bull may still be Martin Scorsese’s greatest film, but the director resisted making it. Richard Schickel recounts how a relentless Robert De Niro—and Scorsese’s near-death experience—delivered the one-two punch. 

MATISSE’S MISSING LINK | 201
John Richardson spotlights Matisse’s Goldfish and Palette, which has a hidden message from the master.

Fanfair

31 DAYS IN THE LIFE OF THE CULTURE | 79
Bright Young Things: Lauren Remington Platt on her family farm. The Cultural Divide. Private Lives: Catherine Monteiro de Barros dresses up the tots. My Stuff—design darling Alexander Wang; Jonathan Kelly dines at the Lion; Lisa Eisner digs into an Umami burger. Colm Tóibín is enraptured by Don DeLillo’s new novel. Forecasting red-carpet style. Elissa Schappell’s Hot Type; Night-Table Reading. Lisa Robinson sits down with T Bone Burnett. Meenal Mistry is dazzled by Prince Dimitri’s jewels; Victoria Mather takes in the view from the Hotel Strato. L.A.’s best of beauty.

Vanities

VIVE LAURENT | 96

Ed Coaster calls in a favor. Nell Scovell hears echoes from actual rich people; Howard Schatz captures Brooke Shields in character. Bruce Feirstein charts the Hollywood decade.

Columns

JEEVES SPOKEN HERE | 104
Scornful of audiobooks, Christopher Hitchens puts actor Martin Jarvis to the acid test: P. G. Wodehouse’s novels. 

ANGEL IN AMERICA | 105
Ruven Afanador and Laura Jacobs spotlight the transatlantic triumph of Spanish dance sensation Angel Corella.

TOO BIG TO FAIL | 106
For all his personal and professional missteps, Alec Baldwin has become a beloved showbiz institution. The feeling is not entirely mutual, James Wolcott writes.

RINGSIDE AT THE WEB FIGHT | 108
A Facebook I.P.O.? A Twitter eclipse of Google? A resurgence of Big Media? Michael Wolff cuts through the prevailing wisdom about the Internet’s next big thing.

THE SUSPECTS WORE LOUBOUTINS | 112
Nancy Jo Sales gets inside the clique of club-hopping teens who allegedly burglarized Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and other celebrities. Photographs by Susanna Howe.

OUT TO LUNCH | 118
Over a Bloody Mary in Beverly Hills, insult comic Don Rickles tells John Heilpern the best Sinatra story ever.

THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY | 122
Some see Ryan Kavanaugh as Hollywood’s savior, others as a showboat. Frank DiGiacomo looks into the bona fides of Relativity Media’s 35-year-old founder, who says he has the key to box-office profits. Photographs by Gavin Bond.


ET CETERA

60 MINUTES POLL | 42

EDITOR’S LETTER | 45

CONTRIBUTORS | 50

BEHIND THE SCENES | 62

LETTERS PRINCE OF SHADOWS | 64

FAIRGROUND | 72

PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE LUISE RAINER | 212

Vanityfair.com

This month’s online exclusives:

Let the Little Gold Men blog be your go-to source for Oscar analysis in the run-up to the Academy Awards. Plus: find multi-media takes on March-issue features.

To find Condé Nast Magazines online, visit www.condenet.com; to find VANITY FAIR, visit www.vanityfair.com.

On the cover  

Abbie Cornish wears a dress by Miu Miu and earrings by Tiffany & Co. Kristen Stewart wears a blouse by Margaret Howell and shorts by Yves Saint Laurent. Carey Mulligan wears a sweater by Rochas and a skirt by Michael Kors. Amanda Seyfried wears a blouse by Sjobeck, shorts by Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière, shoes by Rupert Sanderson, and earrings by David Yurman. Rebecca Hall wears a sweater by Ralph Lauren Black Label, a blouse by Loro Piana, and pants by Luciano Barbera. Mia Wasikowska wears a dress and belt by Donna Karan New York, shoes by Repetto, and earrings by David Yurman. Emma Stone wears a sweater by Ralph Lauren Black Label, shorts by Ralph Lauren Collection, shoes by Brooks Brothers, a watch by Cartier, and a ring from Doyle & Doyle. Evan Rachel Wood wears a top by Gucci. Anna Kendrick wears a blouse and skirt by Ralph Lauren Blue Label. Hair products by Frédéric Fekkai. Makeup products by Giorgio Armani Beauty. Nail enamel by Lippmann Collection. Hair by Renato Campora. Makeup by Mary Greenwell. Manicures by Deborah Lippmann. Set design by Mary Howard. Styled by Michael Roberts. Photographed exclusively for V.F. by Annie Leibovitz at the Studios at Paramount, in Los Angeles.