Picasso’s Erotic Code

A major new exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery tracks the affair between Picasso and Marie-Thérèse Walter, who became his mistress at 17, bore him a child, and committed suicide after his death, 50 years after they met. John Richardson tells the love story behind Walter’s encoded appearances in some of the 20th century’s most important artworks, including Picasso’s anti-war masterpiece, Guernica.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Apr 14, 2011
Length: 12 minutes (3,070 words)

The Assassin in the Vineyard

Who would poison the vines of La Romanée-Conti, the tiny, centuries-old vineyard that produces what most agree is Burgundy’s ?nest, rarest, and most expensive wine? When Aubert de Villaine received an anonymous note, in January 2010, threatening the destruction of his priceless heritage unless he paid a one-million-euro ransom, he thought it was a sick joke. But, as Maximillian Potter reveals, the attack on Romanée-Conti was only too real: an unprecedented and decidedly un-French crime.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Apr 1, 2011
Length: 24 minutes (6,052 words)

Microsoft’s Odd Couple

It’s 1975 and two college dropouts are racing to create software for a new line of “hobbyist” computers. The result? A company called “Micro-Soft”—now the fifth-most-valuable corporation on earth. In an adaptation from his memoir, Paul Allen tells the story of his partnership with high-school classmate Bill Gates, until its dramatic ending in 1983.

Author: Paul Allen
Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Mar 30, 2011
Length: 30 minutes (7,623 words)

Twitter Was Act One

Considering that he invented Twitter and is about to launch another potential game changer with his new company, Square, Jack Dorsey has one of the lowest profiles in tech. But from his childhood obsession (city maps) to his dream job (mayor of New York City), Dorsey’s eclectic, ascetic vision has focused on the flow of human interaction. David Kirkpatrick gets the press-shy visionary talking about his taxicab inspiration, his ejection as Twitter’s C.E.O., and his ambition to make Square the payment network of the future.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Mar 3, 2011
Length: 18 minutes (4,543 words)

A Declaration of Cyber-War

Last summer, the world’s top software-security experts were panicked by the discovery of a drone-like computer virus, radically different from and far more sophisticated than any they’d seen. The race was on to figure out its payload, its purpose, and who was behind it. As the world now knows, the Stuxnet worm appears to have attacked Iran’s nuclear program. And while its source remains something of a mystery, Stuxnet is the new face of 21st-century warfare: invisible, anonymous, and devastating.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Mar 2, 2011
Length: 29 minutes (7,385 words)

The Rude Warrior

Until five years ago, Mel Gibson was one of the best-loved and best-paid talents in Hollywood, not to mention one of the town’s few real family men. How to explain the foulmouthed, violent bigotry that has since burst into public view, making him an industry pariah, even as his 26-year marriage imploded? With the help of Gibson’s friends—and his movies—Peter Biskind delves into the roots of a star’s divided life.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Feb 23, 2011
Length: 31 minutes (7,910 words)

Bohemian Cove: Inside Malibu’s Hottest Trailer Park

In the 1990s, some of the trailers at Paradise Cove went for as little as $25,000, while trailers with an ocean view sold for up to $400,000. But in the housing boom of 2006, prices went up tenfold, much more than in the rest of Malibu, even though buying a trailer is a pretty sketchy real-estate deal. The owner of the park still controls the land, and you’re just buying the improvements—in other words, all you own is the trailer itself. But prices still rise with each resale: a 75-year-old woman who seldom changed out of her bathrobe sold her trailer for $750,000 to the ex-wife of a former Eagles guitarist in 2003, but she never moved in—she decided she wanted to live on a boat. She sold it for $975,000 to another flipper, who sold it to Mac Humphries, a retired Countrywide executive, and his wife, Jill, for $1.2 million. The Humphrieses put another $1 million into renovations.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Feb 15, 2011
Length: 11 minutes (2,883 words)

How Harvey Got His Groove Back

After several years in the wilderness, Harvey Weinstein has come roaring back (if a bit less loudly) into the moviemaking sweet spot, winning raves for The King’s Speech, The Fighter, and Blue Valentine. But his bitter war with Disney over Miramax, the crushing blow of losing the company (named after his parents) a second time, and his attempt to build a multi-media empire—all have left their scars. Bryan Burrough learns about the darkest hours of a man who, love him or hate him, may be the last true impresario.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Feb 3, 2011
Length: 25 minutes (6,409 words)

When Irish Eyes Are Crying

First Iceland. Then Greece. Now Ireland, which headed for bankruptcy with its own mysterious logic. In 2000, suddenly among the richest people in Europe, the Irish decided to buy their country—from one another. After which their banks and government really screwed them. So where’s the rage?

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Feb 2, 2011
Length: 53 minutes (13,400 words)

The Wave-Maker

When Ken Bradshaw caught the largest wave ever surfed, in 1998, he was riding on pure, single-minded passion. But that same quality—plus a deep antipathy to hype—has put him at odds with the increasingly crowded, commercialized world of big-wave surfing. On Oahu’s famed North Shore, the author learns about the 58-year-old maverick’s record-breaking encounter with 85 feet of “Condition Black” water, the battles he still fights, and his unlikely friendship with the publicity-loving Mark Foo, who was killed on a wave he “stole” from Bradshaw.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Jan 27, 2011
Length: 37 minutes (9,268 words)