Table of Contents -- August 27, 2012 Issue of New York Magazine

August 27, 2012 Issue

Cover Story

Fall Preview 2012

Movies: Amy Adams joins Paul Thomas Anderson’s cult; Marion Cotillard pretends to be legless. Pop: David Byrne and St. Vincent team up; Gwen Stefani rejoices at No Doubt’s reunion. Theater: Katie Finneran prepares for Annie; Katie Holmes, Al Pacino, Jessica Chastain: another Broadway movie-star season. TV: Adam Scott sifts through his past; Connie Britton learns to sing for Nashville. Books: Junot Díaz wises up for his new story collection; Michael Chabon checks in on State Senator Obama. Art: Richard Artschwager finally indulges his nostalgia; a MoMA garage sale. Classical & Dance: Thomas Adès brings his opera to the Met. Food: The Torrisi trio takes on a mid-century Italian kitsch; old-school bagels get more old-school. Stores: Fifty-one proprietors pick their favorite new merchandise; Madison Avenue goes downtown, Soho goes uptown. Nightlife: A jungle juiceria, a Texan booze-and-movies palace, and nine other new spots to lounge; bartenders predict a mezcal invasion. Plus: In every section, what our critics are really itching to see, hear, read, and eat, and a cultural calendar to fill every day from September through November.
On the Cover: Matt Rourke/AP (Jay-Z); David Livingston/Getty Images (Streisand); Jason Merritt/Getty Images (Bieber); Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images (Dylan); Patrick McMullan (Adams, Diaz); Gregg DeGuire/Filmmagic (Phoenix); David James, SMPSP/© DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC. (Day-Lewis as Lincoln); Ali Goldstein/Courtesy of NBC (Fey and Baldwin); Theo Wargo/WireImage (Pacino); Steven Mark Needham/Envision/Corbis (Spaghetti and Meatballs); Nino Munoz/Courtesy of Fox (Spears, Cowell) ; Chris Haston/Courtesy of NBC (Crystal the Monkey)

Features

Nora’s Secret

When Nora Ephron died of cancer in June, it caught nearly everyone—many of her closest friends included—completely off-guard. Ephron had always made her life an open book. So why did she decide to hide her illness? By Frank Rich

Game Time

Barclays Center opens in Brooklyn on September 28 with eight sold-out Jay-Z concerts, a middling basketball team, and a lot of super-premium branding. Will that be enough to make it a success? By Will Leitch

The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy Is on Your Screen

Two decades ago, conservatives howled that Hollywood was engaged in a propaganda campaign to spread liberal values across America. For better or worse, they were exactly right. By Jonathan Chait

Please God Stop the Rain

The residents of Prattsville, a Catskills town of 700, were used to riding out floods. But when Hurricane Irene hit a year ago, they were faced with a deluge like they’d never seen. By Josh Dean

Intelligencer

From: Barack Obama

His campaign e-mail subject lines, selectively excerpted, show a candidate who, though ahead in the polls, is still straining to recapture the old spark.