Features

Three... Two... One...

Isiah Thomas has one last shot.

Building the Next Dalton

Starting a new private school in New York seems like the ultimate fool’s errand. The costs are impossibly high, and no parent wants his kid to be the educational guinea pig that Harvard turns down. But with so many parents competing for so few slots in elite private schools, new institutions are finally being born—slowly and expensively.

Intelligencer

Last-Minute Donations to the Dems

“Make-nice money” for Cuomo, Spitzer.

Obscure Documentary Undermines Brad Pitt’s PR Machine

The filmmaker is the real winner in the brouhaha over Brad Pitt’s appearing (wet, in his boxers) on the cover of Vanity Fair.

Benedict Goodstein: Tabloid Warrior

Now the ad war begins.

Will Work for Steak!

Sumo-wrangling with a Guggenheim.

Off-Broadway Jonnie Karp

Editor gets musical.

Regrets

John Kerry headlined a pre-election week that was punctuated by acts of contrition.

Kerik, Back in Iraq

The former police commissioner puts his cameo in the Pirro campaign 6,000 miles behind him.

The 47-Year War for Washington Square Park

The ex–potter’s field is a graveyard for good intentions.

Home on the Range

Gun-shy New Yorkers learn to defend themselves while embracing their inner Dirty Harry.

Terroir Alert: Burgundy

New vintage-wine collector bids, imbibes.

Strategist

HOLIDAY FOOD

Complete seasonal dinner-party makeovers for a range of hosting styles.
• The On-the-Cheap Party Planner
• David Chang’s Budget Dinner
• The Mid-Range Party Planner
• David Burke’s High-Drama Menu
• The High-End Party Planner
• Daniel Boulud’s Fish-and-Game Feast

Best Bets

The swoopy furniture that’s pushing out minimalist sleekness; how to go fin de siècle.

Beauty

The very latest in drive-through plastic surgery?

Ask a Shop Clerk

Jennifer Duenas of Kiki De Montparnasse.

Shop News

Shvitz opens on Thompson Street this week.

Look Book

Nepalese designer Ash Rana.

Travel

Virginia, Napa of the South.

Real Estate

The unthinkable occurs: You can actually lose money on a Manhattan apartment.

The Culture Pages

There's a Thin Line Between Love and Hate

Courtney Love takes another shot at making everyone forget she’s a good musician.

The Movie Review

For a movie about perverse subcultures, the Diane Arbus biopic is quite conventional.

Influences: Emma Thompson

Q&A with the Stranger Than Fiction actress.

Mouth of the South: Ashley Judd

Q&A with the Come Early Morning actress.

Lights, Camera, Dissatisfaction on the Undulating Curve of Shifting Expectations!

New York Magazine's entertainment buzz and backlash report.

The Book Review

Laura Kipnis is brilliant, scathing, and clueless about where feminism should go from here.

By Our Contributors: Spy: The Funny Years

Editors and writers as well as readers still speak wistfully about Spy’s perfectly balanced, perfectly piquant cocktail of irony, brains, silliness, visual pizzazz, and reportorial ferocity.

The Theater Review

Christine Ebersole leads the way in the snappily old-school Grey Gardens.

Agent Provocateur: Julie White

Q&A with the The Little Dog Laughed actress.

The Art Review

Why the Manet on display at MoMA is one of the best political paintings ever.

An Afternoon in Chelsea

A critical walking tour of four of this fall’s highest-profile gallery shows.

The TV Review

The last go-round for Helen Mirren’s greatest character.

Never-Ending Stories

How to fix shows like Lost.

The Approval Matrix

Our deliberately oversimplified guide to who falls where on our taste hierarchies.

Columns

The Imperial City

The post-2001 George Bush should’ve listened to the pre-2001 version’s retrospectively poignant words on the subject of humility.

The Power Grid

Why the Missouri Senate race possibly heralds the death of the red-blue dialectic.

The Week

Putting It Together

Two shows by artists known for their work with found objects—and one from an unexpected source.

The Lovely, Dark, and Deep

Chocolate Show welcomes kids; parents brace for sugar shock.

Departments

Letters to the Editor