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Table of Contents


July 22, 2002 Issue

"Camp is something that's so bad, it's good. But I think Hairspray's so good, it's great."
-- John Waters, "Hair Apparent"

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FEATURES
Hair Apparent
BY SUSAN DOMINUS
A chubby heroine. Her drag-queen mother. A poppy soundtrack from the guy who wrote the scatological songs of South Park. Add the subversive genius of John Waters -- and a creative team that's a Broadway Who's Who -- and you've got Hairspray, the candy-colored, sixties-tinged musical that's generated the best buzz since The Producers. A backstage look at the making of an off-kilter musical comedy.

The Makeup Breakup
BY ARIEL LEVY
Celebrity stylist Kevyn Aucoin's gift for makeup was matched by his gift for making people love him -- among them his live-in boyfriend, an ex who'd never really left his life, a devoted family in Lafayette, Louisiana, and a galaxy of stars from Cher to Hilary Swank to Mary Tyler Moore to Amber Valetta. When he died last month, after years of struggle with a painful pituitary condition, it was assumed that his condition killed him. Instead, it was the drugs to which he'd become addicted in treating it. And that in turn has ignited a battle between his lover -- who'd tried to force him to get off drugs in his final months -- and his parents and his ex, who feel Kevyn was abandoned in his hour of need.

Jailhouse Blues
BY JENNIFER SENIOR
With the public -- not to speak of the president -- urging stiffer sentences for corporate malfeasance, white-collar criminals take note: Federal prisons aren't the country clubs they were reputed to be when Ivan Boesky and his ilk were playing tennis at Lompoc. Those trading bespoke suits for green jumpsuits will find a harsher system -- and a tougher population.

GOTHAM
Hormonal Imbalance
Forget terrorism. New York's postmenopausal women have a new anxiety to conquer -- so break out the chocolate.
Pecking Order
Audubon to the Autobahn
Rookies Vs. King Kasparov
"Q" Is for What?
Secondhand Smokes

DEPARTMENTS
Letters

Intelligencer
BY MARC S. MALKIN

This Media Life
BY MICHAEL WOLFF
How business culture is becoming uncool (again) -- and why that might not be such a bad thing

MARKETPLACE
Best Bets
BY RIMA SUQI
Customized fortune cookies, Tiffany vases, and the Godiva mango truffle
Plus: Best Bets Daily

Sales & Bargains
Dive into summer at the city's best pools
Plus: Daily Sales Update

THE CRITICS
Movies
BY PETER RAINER
Benoît Jacquot brings the passion of Puccini's Tosca to the big screen

Books
BY JOHN HOMANS
With How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Toby Young continues a long tradition of writerly self-indulgence

Theater
BY JOHN SIMON
Sondheim's sophistication shines through in Company and Sunday in the Park With George

John Leonard's TV Notes

Architecture
BY JOSEPH GIOVANNINI
MoMA finally moves beyond Mies in the dynamic design for its Queens outpost -- at least until you get to the galleries

Restaurants
BY HAL RUBENSTEIN
Industry (food) brings upscale dining to the East Village

CUE
Top Five
Movies
Music & Nightlife
Theater
Art
Kids
Classical & Dance
The Mix