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NOVEMBEE 2011
— Spotlight r
(It was also Robert Mitchum's last notable
film. Johnny still laughs when he tells of TOKYO PROSE
Mitchum's practice of stashing his mari-
juana in a Baggie taped to his crotch,on the
theory: Who's gonna go down -
my pants?Who's gonna touch
Robert Mitcham's balls?)
Laurence Dunmore's The _
Libertine, of 2004, in which the Ehoi Hotel, a
Johnny played the dissolute
17thcentury poet John Wilmot,
the Earl of Rochester,is another.
It was perhaps the most stren-
uous role he has played, and
both his performance and the
film were magnificent. Based jaw
on the play by Stephen Jeffreys,
who also wrote the screenplay,
he movie paired Johnny with
John Malkovich,who is proba-
bly one of the only other ac-
tors whose imagination,literacy,
Re
and skills are commensurate
with Johnny's, and who had
Played Johnny's role on the stage
and taken the role of Charles II
in the film. I remember being \,
)town away by The Libertine.
dut it was given only very brief
and limited distribution.It came
Lnd it went, so quickly with-
Irawn that by the time I rec-
smmended it to people it was
;one, killed off by the then
sew Weinstein Company,which
)reduced and distributed the film as Psl
second release.
"Are you still pissed at Harvey Wein-
stein for that?"
"We've come to a sort of agreement" 932-page Japanese novel set in Tokyo in
"Did he have a reason why that movie which the words "sushi"and "sake" never appear but there are men-
was so ill-circulated?" tions of linguine and French wine,as well as Proust,Faye Dunaway,The
"Yeah,he basically said he fucked it." Golden Bough, Duke Ellington, Macbeth, Churchill,Janbtek, Sonny
"Meaning he made a mistake?" and Cher,and,given the teasing title,George Orwell?Welcome to the
"No.He made a choice.He made a choice world of Haruki Murokomi s I084, at first glance a large,loose, and
to kill it.Which was understandable.l mean, baggy monster of a novel,but after a satisfying read a symmetrical and
understandable ifyou look at it from his kind multi-loyered yarn,as near to a 19th-century three-decker as it is pos-
ofpoint ofview."Meaning,)assume,amen- sible to be lit was issued in three volumes to great acclaim in Japan in
e[ary point of view."But,yeah,"Johnny con- 2009-10).The label of fantasy-realism has been stuck to it,but it actu.
tines,"Harvey killed agreat film." ally has more of a Dickensian or Trollopian structure. Coincidentally,
he Libertine was brought like Trollope,the reclusive Murakami customarily rises at 4:30 A.M.and
mind by The Rum Di writes until midmorning—after that,unlike Trollope,he trains for triathlons.
to Di-
to another superb - "Love story"does not do justice to the book's patterned and propulsive
Lure in of age u hundred- plottiness,the deaths and vanishingsin the parallel worlds oftwo characters,
million-dollar junk movies Aomame("Green Peas")and Tengo.They have not met for 20 years,but
full of gimmickry and ides each is an essence in the other's memory.Aomame is sweet-faced,strong,
)tic sound and fury instead of any endur- partial to balding men who look like Sean Cannery,and no sooner has one
ng quality or substance.The new movie is warmed to her than she is revealed to be a dedicated assassin.Tengo is
ming handled in the U.S.by FilmDistrict, diffident,a writer,who is involved in the rewriting of a young girl's novel,
he producer Graham King's distribu- and unexpectedly priapic.The year is 1984,or is it a time warp, l O84?
:ion company. But surely, I suggest, with Explicit,yet subtle and dreamlike,combining viciousness with whimsy,
Johnny's own production company behind and more sex than is usual for Murakami,this is Murakami's unflagging and
The Rum Diary, CONTINUED ON PACE, 221 masterful take on thedeshe and pursuitofthe Whole. —PAUL THEROUx
NOVEMBER 2011 PHOTOGRAPH sy GASPER TRINGALE 1 175
The smart money says the U.S. economy will s
some states thriving, some states not, and all eyes are on Ca
nightmare scenario. After a hair-raising visit with former ':'
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who explains why the Golden State has;'
MICHAEL LEWIS goes where the buck literally stops—the l
where the likes of San Jose mayor Chuck Reed aid jb
fire chief Paige Meyer are trying to avert even worse cata
and rethink what it means to be
e1W2.mZ.i �
�y
:h,a
it couldn't be paid,whatever the amount.At the end of the piece,
Kroft asked Whitney what she thought about the ability and will-
ingness of the American states to repay their debts.She didn't see
a real risk that the states would default,because the states had the
ability to push their problems down to counties and cities.But at
these lower levels of government,where American life was lived,
she thought there would be serious problems. "You could see 50
to a hundred sizable defaults,[maybe]more,"she said.A minute
later Kroft returned to her to ask when people should start wor-
rying about a crisis in local finances. "It'll be something to worry
about within the next 12 months,"she said.
hat prophecy turned out to be self-fulfilling:people
()n 5,2011,moments after the started worrying about U.S.municipal finance the
U.S.government watched a rating agency lower its credit rating for minute the words were out of her mouth.The next
the first time in American history,the market for U.S.Treasury day the municipal-bond market tanked. It kept
bonds soared. Four days later,the interest rates paid by the U.S. falling right through the next month. It fell so far,
g6vernment on its new 10-year bonds were plummeting on their and her prediction received so much attention,
way to record lows.The price of gold rose right alongside the price that money managers who had put clients into municipal bonds
of U.S.Treasury bonds,but the prices of virtually all stocks and felt compelled to hire more people to analyze states and cities,
other bonds in rich Western countries went into a free fall.The net to prove her wrong.(One of them called it"the Meredith Whit-
effect of a major U.S.rating agency's saying that the U.S.govern- ney Municipal Bond Analyst Full Employment Act.")Inside the
ment was less likely than before to repay its debts was to lower the financial world a new literature was born,devoted to persuading
cost of borrowing for the U.S.government and to raise it for ev- readers that Meredith Whitney didn't know what she was talking
eryone else.This told you a lot of what you needed to know about about.She was vulnerable to the charge:up until the moment she
the ability of the U.S.government to live beyond its means:it had, appeared on 60 Mutates she had,so far as anyone knew,no experi.
for the moment,a blank check.The shakier the United States gov- ence at all of U.S.municipal finance.Many of the articles attack.
ernment appeared,up to some faraway,point,the more cheaply it ing her accused her of making a very specific forecast—as many as
would be able to borrow.It wasn't exposed yet to the same vicious a hundred defaults within a year!—that failed to materialize.(Sam
"THERE WERE TIMES OF
FRUSTRATION," SAYS SOIWARZENEGGER. "BUT IF YOU WANT TC
LIVE RATHER THAN JUST EXIST, YOU WANT THE DRAMA."
cycle that threatened the financial life of European countries: a ple Bloomberg News headline:MEREDITH WHITNEY LOSES cRED-
moment of doubt leads to higher borrowing costs,which leads to mILITY As MUM DEFAULTS FALL 60°/n.)The whirlwind thrown up by
greater doubt and even higher borrowing costs,and so On until you the brief market panic sucked in everyone who was anywhere near
become Greece.The fear that the United States might actually not municipal finance.The nonpartisan,dispassionate,sober-minded
pay back the money it had borrowed was still unreal. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,in Washington,D.C.,even
On December 14,2010,the television news program 60 Mmuns released a statement saying that there was a"mistaken impression
aired a 14-minute piece about U.S.state and local finances.Cor- that drastic and immediate measures are needed to avoid an im-
respondent Steve Kmft interviewed a private Wall Street analyst minent fiscal meltdown."This was treated in news accounts as a
named Meredith Whitney,who,back in 2007,had gone from being response to Meredith Whitney,as she was the only one in sight
obscure to famous when she correctly suggested that Citigroup% who could be accused of having made such a prediction.
losses in U.S.subprime bonds were far bigger than anyone imag- But that's not at all what she had said: her words were being
ined,and predicted the bank would be forced to cut its dividend. misrepresented so that her message might be more easily at-
The 60 Minutes segment noted that U.S. state and local govern- tacked."She was referring to the complacency of the ratings agen-
ments faced a collective annual deficit of roughly half a trillion dol- ties and investment advisers who say there is nothing to worry
lars,adding that another trillion-dollar gap existed between what about,"said a person at 60 Minutes who reviewed the transcripts
the governments Owed retired workers and the money they had on of the interview for me,to make sure I had heard what I thought
hand to pay them.Whitney pointed out that even these numbers I had heard. "She says there is something to worry about,and it
were unreliable,and probably optimistic,as the states did a poor will be apparent to everyone in the next 12 months."
job of providing information about their finances to the public. Whatever else she had done,Meredith Whitney had found the
New Jersey govemor Chris Christie concurred with her and added, pressure point in American finance: the fear that American cit-
"At this point,if it's worse,what's the difference?"The bill owed ies would not pay back the money they had borrowed.The mar-
by American states to retired American workers was so large that ket for municipal bonds,unlike the market for U.S.government
VANITY F A I R I www.vanityfoir.com NOVEMBER 201 1
DOLLAR GI IIIfli:V S
hlaan'('Imck Recd aI San.Insc
('it, Ilall. 6uoum,inlrriN ri(c
manager Phil Iiamhclor in his olliae
--_—.- in\ullejo,('a l i Io.nia."I Ih ink oc'u•
millered from a series of mass
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bonds,spooked easily.American cities and states were susceptible the states that outperformed the U.S.economy during the boom
to the same cycle of doom that bad forced Greece to seek help were now underperforming the U.S.economy—and they were 22
from the International Monetary Fund.All it took to create doubt percent of that economy?"It was a good question.
and raise borrowing costs for states and cities was for a woman From 2002 to 2008,the states had piled up debts right alongside
with no standing in the municipal-bond market to utter a few their citizens':their level of indebtedness,as a group,had almost
sentences on television.That was the amazing thing:she had of- doubled,and state spending had grown by two-thirds.In that time
fered nothing to back up her statement.She'd written a massive, they had also systematically underfunded their pension plans and
detailed report on state and local finances,but no one except a other future liabilities by a total of nearly$1.5 trillion.In response,
handful of her clients had any idea what was in it.`9f I was a real perhaps,the pension money that they had set aside was invested in
nasty hedge-fund guy,"one hedge-fund manager put it to me,"I'd ever riskier assets.In 1980 only 23 percent of state pension money
sit back and say,'This is a herd of cattle that can be stampeded"' had been invested in the stock market;by 2008 the number had
risen to 60 percent.To top it off,these pension funds were pretty
hat Meredith Whitney was trying to,say much all assuming they could earn 8 percent on the money the3
was more interesting than what she was had to invest,at a time when the Federal Reserve was promising u
accused of saying. She didn't actually keep interest rates at zero.Toss in underfunded health-care plans,
care all that much about the municipal- a reduction in federal dollars available to the states,and the depres-
bond market, or how many cities were sion in tax revenues caused by a soft economy,and you were look-
likely to go bankrupt. The municipal- ing at multi-trillion-dollar holes that could be dealt with in only one
bond market was a dreary backwater.As she put it,"Who cares of two ways:massive cutbacks in public services or a default—or
about the stinking muni-bond market?"The only reason she had both.Whitney thought default unlikely,at least at the state level,be-
stumbled into that market was that she had come to view the cause the state could bleed the cities of money to pay off its bonds.
U.S. national economy as a collection of regional economies. The cities were where the pain would be felt most intensely. "The
To understand the regional economies, she bad to understand scary thing about state treasurers," she said, "is that they don't
how state and local governments were likely to behave,and to know the financial situation in their own municipalities"
understand this she needed to understand their finances.Thus "How do you know that?"
she had spent two unlikely years researching state and local fi- "Because I asked them!"
nance. "I didn't have a plan to do this," she said. "Not one of All states may have been created equal,but they were equal no
my clients asked for it.I only looked at this because I needed to longer.The states that had enjoyed the biggest boom were now fac-
understand it myself. How it started was with a question: How ing the biggest busts."How does the United States emerge from the
can G.D.P.[gross domestic product]estimates be so high when credit crisis?'Whitney asked herself. "I was convinced—because
VANITY E A I Rwww.vonuyla4.co. NOVEMBER 2011
the credit crisis had been so different from region to region—that it He's got to be one of the world's most recognizable people,but
would emerge with new regional strengths and weaknesses.Com- he doesn't appear to worry that anyone will recognize him,and no
phnies are more likely to flourish in the stronger states;the individu- one does.It may be that people who get out of bed at dawn ruing
als will go to where the jobs are.Ultimately,the people will follow and Rollerblade and racewalk are too interested in what they are
the companies."The country, she thought,might organize itself doing to break their trance.Or it may be that he's taking them by
increasingly into zones of financial security and zones of financial surprise.He has no entourage,not even a bodyguard.His former
crisis.And the more clearly people understood which zones were economic adviser, David Crane, and his media adviser,Adam
which,the more friction there would be between the two.(`Indi- Mendelsohn,who came along for the ridejust because it sounded
ana is going to be like,'N.FW. I'm bailing out New Jersey."')As fun,are now somewhere far behind him. Anyone paying atten-
more and more people grasped which places had serious financial tion would think,That guy might look like Arnold,but it can't
problems and which did not,the problems would only increase. possibly be Arnold,because Amold would never be out alone on
"Those who have money and can move do so;'Whitney wrote in a bike at seven in the morning,trying to commit suicide. It isn't
her report to her Wall Street clients,"those without money and until he is forced to stop at a red light that he makes meaning-
who cannot move do not,and ultimately rely more on state and lo- ful contact with the public.A woman pushing a baby stroller and
cal assistance.It becomes effectively a'tragedy of the commons.."' talking on a cell phone crosses the street right in front of him and
"THERE'S A CORRUPTION HERE,"
SAYS MAYOR REED "IT'S NOT JUST A FINANCIAL CORRUPTION.
IT'S A CORRUPTION OF THE ATTITUDE OF PUBLIC SERVICE,"
The point of Meredith Whitney's investigation, in her mind, does a double take."Oh...my...God;'she gasps into her phone.
was not to predict defaults in the municipal-bond market.It was "It's Bill Clinton!"She's not 10 feet away,but she keeps talking to
to compare the states with one another so that they might be the phone,as if the man were unreal.`I'm here with Bill Clinton"
ranked.She wanted to get a sense of who in America was likely `It's one of those guys who has had a sex scandal,"says Ar-
to play the role of the Greeks,and who the Germans.Of who was nold,smiling.
strong,and who weak.In the process she had,in effect,unearthed "Wait...wait,"says the woman to her phone."Maybe it's not
America's scariest financial places. Bill Clinton."
"So what's the scariest state?"I asked her. Before she can make a positive identification,the light is green,
She had to think for only about two seconds. and we're off.
"California" His life has been a series of carefully staged experiences. He
himself has no staged presentation of it,however.He is fresh,alive,
California Iron Man and improvisational: I'm not sure even he knows what he will do
t seven o'clock one summer morning I pedaled next.He's not exactly humble,but then,if I had lived the life he's
a$5,000 titanium-frame mountain bike rented lived,I'm not sure I would be,either,though I might try to fake
in anxiety the previous evening down the Santa humility more often than he does,which is roughly never.What
Monica beach road to the comer where Arnold saves him from self-absorption,aside from a natural curiosity,is
Schwarzenegger had asked me to meet him.He a genuine lack of interest in personal reflection.He lives the same
turned up right on time,driving a black Cadil. way he rides his bike,paying far more attention to what's ahead
lac S.U.V.with a handful of crappy old jalopy bikes racked to the than what's behind.In office,he kept no journal of any sort.I find
back.I wore the closest I could find to actual bicycle gear;he wore it amazing,but he now says he didn't so much as scribble little
a green fleece,shorts,and soft beige slipper-like shoes that sug- notes that might later be used to reconstruct his experience and his
gested both a surprising indifference to his own appearance and a feelings about it."Why would I do that?"he says.`It's kind of like
security in his own manhood.His hair was still vaguely in a shape you come home and your wife asks you about your day.I've done
left by a pillow,and his eyelids drooped,though he swore he'd it once and I don't want to do it again."What he wanted to do
been up for an hour and a half reading newspapers.After read. after a long day of being governor,more or less,was to lift weights.
ing the newspapers,this is what the former governor of California
often does: rides his bike for cardio,then hits the weight room. ere just a couple of miles in when he zips
He hauls a bike off the back of the car,hops on,and takes off around a corner and into a narrow alleyway
down an already busy Ocean Avenue.He wears no bike helmet,runs just off Venice Beach.He's humoring me;
red lights,and rips past Do Nor ENrm signs without seeming to notice I've been pestering him about what it was
them and up one-way streets the wrong way When he wants to cross like for him when he first arrived in Ameri.
three lanes of fast traffic he doesn't so much as glance over his shoul- ce,back in 1968,with little money,less En-
der but just sticks out his hand and follows it,assuming that what- glish,really nothing but his lats,peas,traps,and abs,for which there
ever is behind him will stop.His bike has at least 10 speeds,but he was no obvious market.He stops beside a tall brick wall.It surrounds
has just 2:zero and pedaling as fast as he can.Inside half a mile he's what might once have been an impressive stone house that now just
moving fast enough that wind-induced tears course down his cheeks. looks old and bleak and empty.The wall is what interests him,be-
NOVEMBER 201 1 www.ron0ylolccam ' V A N I T Y F A I M 181
cause he built it 43 years ago,right after he had arrived and started ing to do?"'he says,dodging vagrants and joggers along the beach
to train on Muscle Beach."Franco[Colombo,like Schwarzenegger bike path.'I thought about it but decided I wasn't going to do it.
a former Mr.Olympia]and I made money this way.In bodybuild- I told Maria I wasn't running. I told everyone 1 wasn't tanning. 1
ing there was no money.Here we were,world champions of this little wasn't running."Then,in the middle of the recall madness,Termi-
subculture,and we did this to eat.Franco ran the business.I mixed nator 3:Rise of the Machines opened.As the movie's leading ma-
the cement and knocked things down with the sledgehammer." chine,he was expected to appear on The Tonight Show to promote
Before be stumbled while running downhill with a refrigerator it. En route he experienced a familiar impulse—the impulse to
strapped to his back,Columbu was the front-runner in the 1977 con- do something out of the ordinary."I just thought,This will freak
test for the title of the World's Strongest Man,so there was some dis- everyone out,"he says."It'll be so funny. I'll announce that I am
tinction in being hired by his operation,as Schwarzenegger was,to running.I told Leno I was running.And two months later I was
be the muscle.They had a routine.Franco would play the unreliable governor."He looks over at me,pedaling as fast as I can to keep
Italian,Arnold the sober German.Before they cut any deal they'd up with him,and laughs."What the fuck is than"
scream at each other in German in front of the customer until the We're now off the beach and on the surface roads,and the
customer would finally ask what was going on.Arnold would turn traffic is already heavy.He veers left,across four lanes,arrives on
to the customer and explain,Oh,he's Italian,and you know how they the other side,and says,"All these people are asking me,`What's
are. He wants to charge you more, but I think we can do it cheaply. your plan?Who's on your staff?' I didn't have a plan. I didn't
Schwarzenegger would then name a not so cheap price."And the have a staff.I wasn't running until I went on Jay Leno."
"OUR PASSIONS ARE STILL
DRIVEN BY THE [BRAINS] LIZARD CORE WE ARE SET UP TO
ACQUIRE AS MUCH AS WE CAN," SAYS DR, PETER WHYBROW.
customer,"he says now,laughing,"he would always say,'Arnold, His view of his seven years trying to run the state of California
you're such a nice guy!So honest!'It was selling,you know." can be summarized as follows.He came to power accidentally,but
He surveys his handiwork.'It'll be here for a thousand years," not without ideas about what he wanted to do.At his core he thought
he says,then points out some erosion on the top."I said to Fran- government had become more problem than solution:an institution
co we ought to come back and fix the top.You know,to show it run less for the benefit of the people than fsr the benefit of politicians
was guaranteed for life." and other public employees.He behaved pretty much as Americans
seem to imagine the ideal politician should behave:he made bold de-
poor kid from a small village in Austria, cisions without looking at polls;he didn'tsellfavors;hetreatedhisop-
the son of a former Nazi,hops on a plane to ponems fairly;he was quick to acknowledge his mistakes and to learn
America,starts out laying bricks,and winds up from them;and so on.He was the rare elected official who believed,
running the state and becoming one of Amer- with some mason,that he had nothing to lose,and behaved accord-
ica's most prominent political leaders. From ingly.When presented with the chance to pursue an agenda that vxo
post to wire the race takes less than 35 years.I laced his own narrow political self-interest for the sake of the public
couldn't help but ask the obvious question. interest,he tended to leap at it."There were a lot of times when we
'If someone hadtoldyou whenyouwere building this wall thatyou said,'You just can't do that,"'says his former chief of staff,Susan
would wind up governor of California,what would you have said?" Kennedy,a lifelong Democrat,whose hiring was one of those things
"That would be all right,"he said,not exactly catching my drift. a Republican governor was not supposed to do. "He was always
"As a boy,"I said,taking another tack,"did you believe you'd like,'I don't care.'Ninety percent of the time it was a good thing."
lead something other than an ordinary life?"
"Yes."He didn't miss a beat. wo years into his tenure,in mid-2005,he'd tried ev-
"Why?" erything he could think of to persuade individual
"I don't know." California state legislators to vote against the short-
"No one has had this kind of crazy,wild ride,"he says as we term desires of their constituents for the greater
speed away from the brick wall,but in a tone that suggests the ride long-term good of all. "To me there were shocking
was an accident. "I was influenced a lot by America," he said. moments,"he says.Having sped past a oo Nar EN-
"The giant six-lane highways,the Empire State Building,the risk TER sign,we are now flying through intersections without pausing.
taking."He still remembers vividly the America he heard and read I cant help but notice that,if we weren't breaking the law by going
about as a boy in Austria:everything about it was big.The only the wrong way down a one-way street,wed be breaking the law by
reason he set out to grow himself some big muscles was that he running stop signs. "When you want to do pension m1mun for the
thought it might be a ticket to America. prison guards,"he says,"and all of a sudden the Republuans are all
If there had not been a popular movement to remove sitting lined up against you.It was really incredible,and it happened over
governor Gray Davis and the chance to run for governor without and over.people would say to me,'Yes,this is the best idea!1 would
having to endure a party primary,he never would have bothered. love to vote for it!But if I vote for it some interest group is going to be
"The recall happens and people are asking me,'What are you go- angry with me,so I won't do lt:I couldn't believe people could actu-
182 VANITY rAlR l wv vonhyFal—om NOVEMBER 2011
—i Spotlight (--
ally say that.You have Soldiers dying in Iraq and Afghanistan,and IT'S LONESOME
they didn't want to risk their political lives by doing the right thing.' I S A
He came into office with boundless faith in the American pea- OLD 7'y TOWN
ple-after all,they had elected him-and figured he could always 1 V YY 1\
appeal directly to them.That was his trump card, and he
played it.In November 2005 he called a special election that
sought votes on four reforms:limiting state spending,putting
an end to the gerrymandering of legislative districts,limiting
public-employee-union spending on elections,and lengthen-
ing the time it took for public-school teachers to get tenure.All
four propositions addressed,directly or indirectly,the state's
large and growing financial mess.All four were defeated;the
votes weren't even close.From then until the end of his time in
office he was effectively gelded:the legislators now knew that
the people who had elected them to behave exactly the way
they were already behaving were not going to undermine them
when appealed to directly.The people of California might
be irresponsible,but at least they were consistent.
Herne of the Free...Lmch
compelling book called California Crack-
up describes this problem more generally.
It was written by a pair of journalists
and nonpartisan think-tank scholars,Joe
Mathews and Mark Paul,and they explain,
among other things,why Arnold Schwarze-
negger's experience as governor was going to be unlike any
other experience in his career: he was never going to win.
California had organized itself,not accidentally,into highly
partisan legislative districts.It elected highly partisan people
to office and then required these people to reach a two-thirds
majority to enact any new tax or meddle with big spending de-
cisions.On the off chance that they found some common ground, is a romantic idea:the secret artist,an 5tol.n mom.,u:
January 9,1957,
it could be pulled out from under them by voters through the initia- unseen observer who fully registers rla;da
tive process.Throw in term limits-no elected official now serves and refines existence in majestic but un- —
in California government long enough to fully understand it-and known works.The notion hints at the great artist we
you have a recipe for generating maximum contempt for elected of all yearn to believe is concealed in each of us.Yet
ficials.Politicians are elected to get things done and are prevented it happens.Witness Emily Dickinson.And now Vivian Maier.
by the system from doing it,leading the people to grow even more Born in New York in 1926,but raised in France,in the 1950s
disgusted with them. "The vicious cycle of contempt,"as Mark Maier arrived in Chicago,where she lived an insular life and
Paul calls it.California state govemment was designed mainly to worked for decades as a nanny(before her death,at age 83,
maximize the likelihood that voters will continue to despise the in 2009).On her off days and vacations,she wandered with
people they elect. a Rolleiflex.Her arresting photographs,mostly in black and
But when you look below the surface,he adds,the system is ac- white,were discovered in 2007 when John Maloof,a young
tually very good at giving Californians what they want."What all Chicago real-estate agent,who has since become Maier's re-
the polls show,"says Paul,"is that people want services and not lentless champion,bought box of negatives,auctioned from
to pay for them.And that's exactly what they have an abandoned storage locker.Many of those pictures-show-
now got."As much as they claimed to despise a@vt.00m 'I cased in the new book Vivian Maier:Street Photographer,out
their government,the citimits ofCalifomia shared 9sA WITH this month from Powerhouse-rivet the viewer with the extreme
its defining trait:a need for debt.The average Cali- MICHAEL LEWISvulnerability of her subjects.Some,such as Salvador Dali,
fornian,in 2011,had debts of$78,000 against an face the lens with a naked look.More often, Maier, unob-
income of$43,000.The behavior was unsustainable,but,in its way, served,captured the vivid oddities of urban life:a man who
for the people,it works brilliantly.For their leaders,even in the short powers down the street trying to look like Popeye;o young
term,it works less well.They ride into office on great false hopes boy riding a horse bareback under elevated tracks;a fully
and quickly discover they can do nothing tojustify those hopes. clothed man asleep on the beach.She recorded the fabled
In Paul's view,Arnold Schwarzenegger had been the best test harshness of 50s Chicago in the image of a vagrant coiled by
to date of the notion that the problem with California politics was hopelessness,or a drunk being dragged down the street by
personal,that all the system needed to fix itselfwas an independent- police. In an era that celebrates our intricate network of vir.
minded leader willing to rise above petty politics and exert the will tual connections,Maier's work and her biography are starkly
of the people."The recall was,in and of itself,an effort by the per- moving reminders of how powerfully we all experience our
pletosaythat a new governor-a different oowTln uRn oe FA-B v: lives,largely in isolation. -SCOTTTUROW
N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 1 www.ranaylei,.mm ( V A N I T Y i A R I I63
I was in a room with him and Charles Stanislas Radziwill,whom Dudley married mind a new chapter.I don't believe in per-
Wrightsman,who had some sort of attack in 1961. (For many years now,she has been manent arrangements at all,"he say&
and slumped over. Stavros just went and the companion of New York Review of Books Finding an institution that will properly
turned the music up." editor Robert Silvers) preserve his archive clearly pleases him,
He enjoyed the Getty clan, including Judy died suddenly in 1972 at the age of however,as does his upcoming retrospec-
beautiful Talitha,and even the crusty patri- 49,after suffering a stroke while on a visit to live,though his attitude is characteristically
arch,J.Paul: "I liked his dry sort of Ameri- England. Milton flew in immediately from self-effacing: "It's either—it's about time,or,
can approach to things and found him very Rome."I cant tell you how good Margaret who cares!"he says.
engaging.He was paranoid,yes,but maybe was," he says. "She was at the airport to But according to Peter Benson Miller,
with reason." greet me. Later, she was wonderful about one of the curators of the exhibitions,the
While he may have admired the work of Anna's education.For my 80th birthday,she retrospective will reveal Gendel to be much
some of the most fashionable artists of the gave a dinner for 60 people at Kensington more than a"mere"society photographer.
time,he was not fond of all of them person- Palace. She was a really staunch friend till "While Milton's work bears witness to a
ally: "As a man I didn't admire Cecil[Bea- the end."(Anna,an art historian,is based in gilded age, his photos are imbued with
ton].There was a whole petty jealous side to England,and Sebastian,a physician,resides surrealistic-inflected wit,formal rigor, and
him.He was not anybody I could get enthu- in Rome.Natalia died in 1989,after battles subtle mystery."
stastic about." with drug addiction.) Indeed, underneath Gendel's engaging
modesty is the unflagging energy and mas-
By all accounts, Judy Gendel was a de- men years later, Gendel married Donna terly eye that all his friends and subjects
light.She dealt gracefully with the win- j Monica Incise della Rocchetta.An ao- have found,even the grandest."When I was
plicated issues of her parentage.When she wmplished artist and illustrator,she descends about to leave Balmoral and was outside
turned 21, a close family friend, William from one of Rome's most venerable noble dy- thanking the Queen,I said,'Ma'am,would
Humble Eric Ward,the third Earl of Dud- reasties,with one Pope(Alexander VII)and you mind if I took one last snap?'She said,
ley,known to friends as Eric,took her to a several cardinals in the family tree.Thirty 'Not a-tall. But I'm just amazed you have
nightclub,where he promptly burst into tears years apart in age,they maintain a relation- any film left in your camera."'❑
and told her he was her real father.The news ship that certainly appears delightful over a
didn't shock her entirely,as her family had dinner at a local trattoria—where the 92 year- FROM THE ARCHIVE
spent nearly every Christmas with his.Eric's old orders beef and whiskey,while the rest of PartkeaenlacedaE A uivirH ARCHIVE E
solicitor later told Milton that Dudley(who the table goes with fish and while wine.
died in 1969)made"big provisions" in his "He does what he wants," della Roc- •Milt..Geode]'.photographs at New York's
will for Judy. "But if that was so,it got lost chetta says with a laugh.Gendel reveals that Ventura salon lvayaooe/
in the shuffle with Grace," says Gendel, he has but one health rule: "Don't worry." •The marriage of Princess Margaret to
photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones,Earl
referring to Dudley's third wife, Princess Moving house earlier this year, including of8neadon(Annear caursy February aoa2/
Grace Radziwill,the former wife of Prince his 10,000 books,didn't faze him. "I don't
lieved he was part Cherokee and part Irish. await us. Johnny slowly rises, goes to put
Johnny Depp Years later,through genealogical research, some cold water on his face and fetch a
French blood entered into the picture. I necktie. I light a smoke,sit with my wine,
[(µtiler 1o1um,De•pp remember Vanessa Paradis announcing to and rest my eyes. Eventually it occurs to
AIµ: me,"Johnny's French!"Depp from Dieppe, me that Johnny has been gone for a while.
a Cherokee with French blood.The French I push myself up off the couch and call his
blood was supposed to have wine through name.No answer.I look around for him.
his mother,Betty Sue.It made sense. He is dead-out asleep in the toilet,the
i y
"What are you now?" I ask him. He perfect picture of the wages of exhaustion.
doesn't answer for a moment. "You're get- I don't want to wake him.l just stand for a
� ling all serious,"I say. moment wondering.He has a beautiful cha-
"Diesnt bother me." teau and secluded grounds in France. He
-- "Do you ever think of yourself as any- has an estate in Los Angeles. He has an
thing?" idyllic island of his own.But does he have
CONTINUED FROM FACE .,, it will be far less "I mean,it makes more sense,the Dieppe." a hammock?❑
vulnerable to an unjustified fate. "There were a lot of American Indians
"Can ldo better?Maybe riot.I'm not sure." that had French names. Is that something FROM THE ARCHIVE
"You're not going to kill off your own you would prefer to be?" For these relvlEdsloriEyvisiiVF.COM'ARf.HIVE
movie?" "Indian?" he suggests. Another taste of
"I'm not sure.You know what I mean?I that good red wine. "If they'll have me." .Johnny Depp on pirates,poetry,and
worked like a wcksucker on it,but—" "How do your siblings"—besides Christi, making esctans
there's a brother and another sister—"feel about Coale i.oh FedAnnie Le @eons,✓anuarna./
Anything can happen, •A visit to Johan s Depp's secret
So we'll see.Can this Lowlifes of the Ca- the fact that you never seem to physically age?" Bahamian island
ribbean attract,as it so deserves,just some "They seem O.K." jn�ypoogJ rinkI,..d Fro.,.0-Mmle Baniea
of the attention and gelt that the likes of R- •Johnlry Depp's ever evolving career
rates of the Caribbean got? Tt's getting late. Not many hours remain (51.P.(r vo..mb"...1)
Who knows? Our talk drifts, carried until Johnny has to be back on the set. .Johnny Depp's maiden Vanity Fair cover
along by the tow of the wine and the night. Even I'm getting slightly drowsy. But the story/Kevin sessuno,February es21/
When 1 first met Johnny, I think he be- Ritz Club,the blackjack tables,more wine
l V A N I T Y FAIT 221
California counting gimmicks,was probably only about a8 of a sudden short$300 million in revenue
half the real number."This year the state will for the month,"says Schwarzenegger."I some-
directly spend$32 billion on employee pay how felt,Uh-oh.Because there was something
and benefits,up 65 percent over the past 10 in the air." Soon after that he visited the
years,"says Crane later. "Compare that to George W.Bush White House,where he gave
state spending on higher education [do" a talk that was,as ever,upbeat."At the end of
- 5 percent],health and human services [up it this guy—he was the guy who was in charge
just 5 percent], and parks and recreation of housing,I forgot the name.Great guy.For
[flat], all crowded out in large part by fast- some reason a other he was very honest with
rising employment costs."Crane is a lifelong me. I don't know why. He probably didn't
Democrat with no particular hostility to gov- think I'd go out and blab,which I didn't.He
cnament. But the more he looked into the says,'That was a great speech you gave,but
details,the more shocking he found than to we're heading to a major problem.' I said,
be. In 2010,for instance,the state spent$6 'What do you meant He said, 'I looked at
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 183 person—could billion on fewer than 30,000 guards and oth- some of the numbers, and it's going to be
solve the problem,"says Paul. "He tried ev- er prison-system employees.A prison guard ugly.'TItaPs all he said.He wouldn't elabo-
ery different way of dealing with the crisis in who started his career at the age of 45 could rate."A housing-price decline in the United
services. He tried to act like a Republican. retire after five years with a pension that very Slates meant a housing-price collapse in Cali.
He tried to act like a Democrat. He tried nearly equaled his former salary.The head forma,and a housing-price collapse in Califor-
making nice with the legislature. When parole psychiatrist for the California prison nia meant an economic collapse and a decline
that didn't work he called them girlie men. system was the state's highest-paid public in tax revenues. "The next month our rcm-
When that didn't work he went directly to employee;in 2010 he'd made$838,706.The noes came in short$600 million.By Decem-
the people.And the people voted against his same fiscal year that the state spent$6 billion her we were short a billion."
proposals." on prisons,it had invested just$4.7 billion in At some point in our talks I asked
its higher education—that is, 33 campuses Schwarzenegger how much time he had
he experiment wasn't a complete fail- with 670,000 students. Over the past 30 spent,as governor, grappling with the on-
ure.As governor,Schwarzenegger was years the state's share of the budget for the the-ground local implications of the big state
able to accomplish a few important things— University of California has fallen from 30 crisis.The question pretty clearly bored him.
reforming worker compensation, enabling percent to II percent,and it is about to fall `9'm not into the local stuff,"he'd said. "I
open primaries,and,at the very end,ensur- a lot more.In 1980 a Cal student paid$776 was born for the world."
ing that legislative districts would be drawn a year in tuition;in 2011 he pays$13,218.Ev-
by an impartial committee rather than by erywhere you turn,the long-term future of City of Broken Dreams
the legislature. But on most issues, and on the state is being sacrificed. e bout an hour into the weekly meeting
virtually everything having to do with how This same set of facts,and the narrative R of the San Jose City Council, I find
the state raised and spent money,he lost.In it suggested,would throw an ordinary man myself wishing that 1,too,was born for the
his first term Schwarzenegger had set out to into depression.He might conclude that he world.A hundred citizens yawn and text as
cut spending and found he could cut only the lived in a society that was ungovernable.AP the council honors National Farmers Market
things that the state actually needed.Near ter seven years of trying and mostly failing Week;the few people who seem to be paying
the end of his second term,he managed to to run California,Schwarzenegger is persua- attention get up and leave after the honor is
pass a slight tax increase,after he talked four sively not depressed."You have to realize the bestowed.The council commemorates Au-
Republicans into creating the super-majority thing was so much fun!"he says."We had a gust 7 as Assyrian Martyrs Day,"honoring
necessary for doing so. Every one of than great time!There were times of trustration. the massacre of three thousand people in
lost his seat in the next election.He'd taken There were times of disappointment.But if August 1933,and recognizing 2,000 years of
office in 2003 with approval ratings pushing you want to live rather than just exist, you persecution of Assyrian Christians."Maybe
70 percent and what appeared to be a man- want the drama."As we roll to a stop very 30 people turn.their attention from their cell
date to fix California's money problems;he near the place on the beach where he began phones to the ceremony,but then they,too,
left in 2011 with approval ratings below 25 his American bodybuilding career, he says, rise and exit the chamber.A mere handful of
percent,having fixed very little."I was open "You have to step back and say,'I was elect- people are left to hear the San Jose city man-
ating under the commonsense kind of thing," ed under odd circumstances.And pm going ager offer the latest bleak financial news:the
he says now.`It was the voters who recalled out in odd circumstances.'You can't have it state of California was clawing back tens of
Gray Davis.It was the voters who elected me. both ways.You cant be a spoiled brat." millions of dollars more,and"140 employees
So it will be the voters who hand me the have been separated from the city." (New
tools to do the job.But the other side was rrhe odd circumstances were the never- times call for new euphemisms.)A pollster
successful enough for the voters to take the Tending financial crises.He'd come to pow- presents his finding that,no matter how the
tools away." er in the bust after the Internet bubble;he'd question is phrased,the citizens of San Jose
David Crane,the former economic advis- left in the bust after the housing bubble.Be- are unlikely to approve any ballot measure
er—at that moment rapidly receding into the fore and after our bike ride,I sat down with that raises taxes.A numbers guy gets to his
distance—could itemize the result:a long list him to get his view of this second event.It was feet and explains that the investment returns
of depressing government financial statistics. in the middle of 2007,he said,when he first in the city's pension plan are not likely to be
The pensions of state employees ate up twice noticed something was not quite right in the anything near as high as was assumed.In ad-
as much of the budget when Schwarzeneg- California economy. He'd been finishing up dition to there not being enough money in this
get left office as they had when he arrived, budget negotiations and arrived at a number, particular pot to begin with,the pot is failing
for instance. The officially recognized gap however phony,where the budget could be de- to expand as fast as everyone had hoped,
between what the state would owe its work- clared balanced.An aide walked into his of and so the gap between what the city's em-
as and what it had on hand to pay them was fice to give him a heads-up:the tax receipts for ployms are entitled to and what will exist is
roughly$105 billion,but that,thanks to ac- that month were less than expected."We were even greater than previously imagined.The
222 VANITY FAIR I www.r 11,6u... MOVE MEER 2011
council then votes to postpone,for six weeks, boom created both great expectations for up." It wasn't until San Diego flirted with
•vote on whether to declare the city's budget public employees and tax revenues to meet bankruptcy,in 2002,that he wondered about
•"public emergency,"and thus to give to the them.In its negotiations with unions the city San Jose's finances. He began to investigate
mayor,Chuck Reed,new powers. was required to submit to binding arbitration, the matter."That's when I realized there were
Following each motion an obese man not which works for police officers and firelight- big problems,"he says."That's when I started
so much dressed as enshrouded in blue jean ers just as it does for Major League Baseball paying attention.That's when 1started ask-
overalls maximizes his right to be heard players.Each side of any pay dispute makes ing questions:Could it happen here?It's like
for five minutes on every subject:over and its best offer,and a putatively neutral judge the housing bubble and the Internet bubble.
again he rises from the front row of the au- picks one of them.There is no meeting in the There were people around who were writing
dience,waddles to the podium,and delivers middle: the judge simply rules for one side about it.It's not that there aren't people tell-
sophisticated-sounding but incomprehen- or the other.Each side thus has an incentive ing as that this is crazy.It's that you refuse to
sible critiques of everything. "The absolute to be reasonable,for the less reasonable they believe that you are crazy."
reduction in competence of government is are,the less likely it is that the judge will fa- He hands me a chart. It shows that the
predicated on what happened today..." vor their proposal.The problem with binding city's pension costs when he first became in-
The relationship between the people and arbitration for police officers and firefighters, terested in the subject were projected to run
their money in California is such that you can says Reed,is that the judges are not neutral. $73 million a year.This year they would be
pluck almost any city at random and enter "They tend to be labor lawyers who favor the $245 million:pension and health-care costs
a crisis.San Jose has the highest per capita unions,"he says,"and so the city does any- of retired workers now are more than half
income of any city in the United States,after thing it can to avoid the process"And what the budget.In three years'time pension costs
New York.It has the highest credit rating of politician wants to spat publicly with police alone would come to$400 million,though"if
any city in California with a population over officers and firefighters7 you were to adjust for real life expectancy it
250,000. It is one of the few cities in Amer- is more like$650 million."Legally obliged to
ice with a triple-A rating from Moody's and ver the past decade the city of San lose meet these costs,the city can respond only by
Standard&Poor's,but only because its bond- O had repeatedly caved to the demands cutting elsewhere.As a result,San Jose,once
holders have the power to compel the city to of its public-safety unions. In practice this run by 7,450 city workers,was now being ran
levy a tax on property owners to pay off the meant that when the police or fire depart- by 5,400 city workers.The city was back to
bonds.The city itself is not all that far from ment of any neighboring city struck a better staffing levels of 1988,when it had a quarter
being bankrupt. deal for itself, it became a fresh argument of a million fewer residents.The remaining
for improving the pay of San Jose police and workers had taken a 10 percent pay cut;yet
t s late afternoon when I meet Mayor Chuck fire.The effect was to make the sweetest deal even that was not enough to offset the in-
Reed in his office at the top of the city-hall cut by public-safety workers with any city in crease in the city's pension liability.The city
tower.The crowd below has just begun to Northern California the starting point for had closed its libraries three days a week.
chant.The public employees, as usual, are the next round of negotiations for every other It had cut back servicing its parks. It had
protesting him.Reed is so used to it that he city.The departments also used each other to refrained from opening a brand-new com-
hardly notices.He's a former air-force officer were debating points.For instance,back in munity center,built before the housing bust,
and Vietnam-era veteran with an intellectual 2002,the San Jose police union cut a three- because it couldn't pay to staff the place.For
bent and the clipped manner of a midwestem year deal that raised police officers' pay by the first time in history it had laid off police
farmer.He has a master's degree from Prince- 18 percent over the contract.Soon afterward, officers and firefighters.
ton,a law degree from Stanford,and a lifelong the San Jose firefighters cut a better deal for
interest in public policy.Still,he presents less themselves, including a pay raise of more R y 2014,Reed had calculated,a city of a
as the mayor of a big city in California than than 23 percent.The police felt robbed and 111 million people,the 10th-largest city in the
as a hard-bitten,upstanding sheriff of a small complained mightily until the city council United States,would be serviced by 1,600 pub-
town who doesn't want anymnable.Elected to crafted a deal that handed them 5 percent lic workers."There is no way to ran a city with
the city council in 2000,he became mayor six more premium pay in exchange for training that level of staffing,"he said "You start to ask:
years later;in 2010 he was re-elected with 77 to fight terrorists. "We got famous for our What is a city?Why do we bother to live to-
percent of the vote.He's a Democrat,but at anti-te norisb training pay,"explains one city gether?But that'sjust the start."The problem
this point it doesn't much matter which party official.Eventually the anti-terrorist-training was goingto grow worse until,as he put it,"you
he belongs to,or what his ideological leanings premium pay stopped;the police just kept get to one."A single employee to service the
are,or for that matter how popular he is with the eztm pay,with benefits."Our police and entire city,presumably with a focus on paying
the people of San Jose.He's got a problem so firefighters will earn more in retirement than pensions."I don't know how far out you have
big that it overwhelms ordinary politics:the they did when they were working,"says Reed. to go until you get to one,"said Reed,"but it
city owes so much more money to its employ- "There used to be an argument that you have isn't all that far."At that point,if not before,the
ees than it can afford to pay that it could cut to give us money or we can't afford to live in city would be nothing more than a vehicle to
its debts in half and still wind up broke."I did the city.Now the more you pay them the less pay the retirement costs of its former workers.
a calculation of cost per public employee," likely they are to live in the city,because they The only clear solution was if former city work-
he says as we settle in."We're not as bad as can afford to leave.ht's staggering.When did ers up and died,soon.But former city workers
Greece,I don't think.' we go from giving people sick leave to letting were,blessedly,living longer than ever.
The problem,he explains,pre-dates the them accumulate it and cash it in for hun- This wasn't a hypothetical scary situation,
most recent financial crisis. "Hell, I was dreds of thousands of dollars when they are said Reed."It's a mathematical inevitability."
here.1 know how it started.It started in the done working?There's a corruption here.It's In spirit it reminded me of Bernard Madoff's
1990s with the Internet boom.We live near not just a financial corruption.It's a corrup- investment business.Anyone who looked at
rich people, so we thought we were rich." lion of the attitude of public service." Madoff's returns and understood them could
San Jose's budget,like the budget of any city, When he was elected to the city council, see he was running a Ponzi scheme; only
turns on the pay of public-safety workers:the Reed says,`9 hadn't even thought about pen- one person who had understood them both-
police and firefighters now eat 75 percent sions. I can't say 1 said,'Here is my plan.' 1 Bred to blow the whistle,and no one listened
of all discretionary spending. The Internet never thought about this stuff.It never came to him. (See No One Would listen:A 7iue
www.rornyloiccem V AN IT Y FAIR I 293
NOVEMBER 2011
the Bay Area where you can park anywhere the police and the firefighters, on the one
California and not worry about getting a ticket,because hand, and the citizens, on the other,were
there are no meter maids either.The windows at historic lows.The public-safety workers
Financial Thriller, by Harry Markopolos.) of city hall are dark,but its front porch is a thought that the city was out to screw them
In his negotiations with the unions, the hive of activity.A young man in a backward on their contracts;the citizenry thought that
mayor has gotten nowhere. "1 understand baseball cap,sunglasses,and a new pair of the public-safety workers were using fear as
the police and firefighters,"he says. "They Nike sneakers stands on a low wall and calls a tool to extort money from them.The to-
think,We're the most important,and every- out an address: cal joke was that"P.D.' stands for"Pay or
one else goes[gets fired]first"The police "Nine hundred Cambridge Drive," he Die."The city-council meetings had become
union recently suggested to the mayor that he Says."In Benicia." .exercises in outrage:at one,a citizen arrived
close the libraries for the other four days."We The people in the crowd below instantly with a severed pig's head on a barbecue
looked into that,"Reed says."If you close the begin bidding.From 2006 to 2010 the value grill."There's no good reason why Vallejo is
libraries an extra day you pay for 20 or 30 of Vallejo real estate fell 66 percent.One in as fucked up as it is,"says longtime resident
cops."Adding 20 more police officers for a 16 homes in the city is in foreclosure.This Marc Garman,who created a Web site to
year wouldn't solve anything.The cops who is apparently the fire sale,but the characters catalogue the civil war. "It's a boat ride to
were spared this year would be axed next,in involved are so shady Bud furtive that I can San Francisco. You throw a stone and you
response to the soaring costs of the pensions hardly believe it. I stop to ask what's going hit Napa."Since the bankruptcy,the police
of city workers who already had retired.On on,but the bidders don't Want to talk."Why and fire departments have been cut in half;
the other side of the inequality is the taxpayer would I tell you anything?"says a guy sitting some number of the citizens who came to
of San Jose, who has no interest in paying in a Coleman folding chair. He obviously Phil Batchelor's office did so to say they no
more than he already does. '9Ps not that thinks he's shrewd,and perhaps he is. longer felt safe in their own homes.All other
we're insolvent and cant pay our bills,"says The lobby of city hall is completely empty. city services had been reduced effectively to
Reed."It's about willingness" There's a receptionist's desk but no reception- zero."Do you know that some cities actually
I ask him what the chances are that, in ist.Instead,there's a sign:TO FORECLOSURE pave their streets?"says Batchelor. "That's
this pinch,he could raise taxes. He holds AUCTIONEERS AND FORECLOSURE BIDDERS: not here."
up a thumb and Index finger:Zero.He's re- PLEASE DO NOT CONDUCT BUSINESS IN THE
cently coined a phrase,he says:"service-level CITY HALL(ABBY. T notice on his shelf a copy of Fortune maga-
insolvency."Service-level insolvency means zinc,with Meredith Whitney on the cover.
that the expensive community center that On the third floor 1 find the offices of the And as he talked about the bankrupting of
has been built and named cannot be new city manager, Phil Batchelor,but Vallejo,I realized that 1 had heard this story
opened. It means closing libraries three when I walk in,there is no one in sight.It's before,or a private-sector version of it The
days a week.It isn't financial bankruptcy; just a collection of empty cubicles.At length people who had power in the society,and
it's cultural bankruptcy. a woman appears and leads me to Batchelor were charged with saving it from itself,had
"How,on earth did this happen?"I ask him. himself.He's in his 60s and,oddly enough,a instead bled the society to death.The prob-
"The only way I can explain it,"he says, published author.He's written one book on lem with police officers and firefighters isn't
"is that they got the money because it was how to raise children and another on how a public-sector problem;it isn't a problem
there."But he has another way to explain it, to face death.Both deliver an overtly Chris- with government; it's a problem with the
and in a moment he offers it up. tian message,but he doesn't come across as entire society. It's what happened on Wall
"I think we've suffered from a series of Evangelical;he comes across as sensible,Bud Street in the run-up to the subprime crisis.
mass delusions,"he says. a little weary.His day job,before he retired, It's a problem of people taking what they
I didn't completely understand what he was running cities with financial difficulties. can,just because they can,without regard
meant,and said so. He came out of retirement to take this job, to the larger social consequences. It's not
"We're all going to be rich," he says. but only after the city council had asked him just a coincidence that the debts of cities and
"We're all going to live forever.All the forces a few limes."The more you say no,the more states spun out of control at the same time
in the state are tined up to preserve the status determined they are to gel you,"he says.His as the debts of individual Americans.Alone
quo.To preserve the delusion.And here this chief demand was not financial but social: in a dark room with a pile of money,Amen-
place—is where the reality hits." he'd take the job only if the people on the city cans knew exactly what they wanted to do,
On the way back to the elevators I chat with council ceased being nasty to one another from the top of the society to the bottom.
two of Mayor Reeds aides.He'd mentioned to and behaved civilly. He actually got that in They'd been conditioned to grab as much as
me that,as had as they might think they have it writing,and they've kept then end of the bar- they could,without thinking about the long-
in San Jose,a lot of other American cities have gain. "I've been in a lot of places that have term consequences. Afterward,the people
it worse. "I count my blessings when I talk to been in a lot of trouble,but I've never seen on Wall Street would privately bemoan the
the mayors of other cities,"he'd said. anything like this,"he says.He then lays Out low morals of the American people who
"Which city do you pity most?"I ask just what he finds unusual,beginning with the walked away from their subprime loans,and
before the elevator doors close. staffing levels.He's now morning the city,and the American people would express outrage
They laugh and in unison say,"Vallejo!" he has a staff of one: I just met her."When at the Wall Street people who paid them-
she goes out to the bathroom,she has to lock selves a fortune to design the bad loans.
Living on the Defaafl Line the[office]door,"he says, "because I'm in Having failed to convince its public-
WBLCOME TO VALLEJO,CITY OF OPPORTU- meetings,and we have no one else." safety workers that it could not afford to
NrrY,reads the sign on the way in,but Back in 2008,unable to come to terms make them rich,the city of Vallejo,Califor-
the shops that remain open display signs that with its many creditors, Vallejo declared nia, had hit bottom: it could fall no lower.
say, WE ACCEPT FOOD STAMPS. Weeds sur- bankruptcy. Eighty percent of the city's "My approach has been I don't care who is
round abandoned businesses,and all traffic budget—and the lion's share of the claims to blame," Batchelor said. "We needed to
lights are set to permanently blink,which is that had thrown it into bankruptcy—were change."When I met him,a few months af-
a formality,as there are no longer any cops wrapped up in the pay and benefits of ter he had taken the job,he was still trying
to police the streets.Vallejo is the one city in public-safety workers. Relations between to resolve a narrow financial dispute:the city
2241 VANITY f A l R l www.mnityFalr.com NOVEMBER 2011
had 1,013 claimants with half a billion dol- torment of extreme abundance."Human be, ciety.The$5 million you get paid at Gold-
lam in claims but only$6 million to dole out ings are wandering around with brains that man Sachs if you do whatever they ask you
to them.They were survivors of a shipwreck are fabulously limited,"he says cheerfully. to do—that is the chocolate cake upgraded."
on a life raft with limited provisions.Hisjob, "We've got the core of the average lizard."
as he saw it,was to convince them that the Wrapped around this reptilian core,he ex- he succession of financial bubbles,and
only chance of survival was to work togeth- plains,is a mammalian layer(associated with The amassing of personal and public
er, He didn't view the city's main problem maternal concern and social interaction), debt,Whybrow views as simply an expres-
as financial:the financial problems were the and around that is wrapped a third layer, sion of the lizard-brained way of life.A color-
symptom.The disease was the culture.lust which enables feats of memory and the ca- coded map of American personal indebted-
a few weeks earlier,he had sent a memo to pacify for abstract thought."The only prob- ness could be laid on top of the Centers
the remaining city staff—the city council,the lem,"he says,"is our passions are still driven for Disease Control's color-coded map that
mayor,the public safety workers.The central by the lizard core.We are set up to acquire illustrates the fantastic rise in rates of obesity
message was that if you want to fix this place as much as we can of things we perceive as across the United States since 1985 without
you need to change how you behave,each scarce,particularly sex, safety, and food." disturbing the general pattern. The boom
and every one of you. "It's got to be about Even a person on a diet who sensibly avoids in trading activity in individual stock port-
the people," he said. "Teach them respect coming face-to-face with a piece of choco- folios;the spread of legalized gambling;the
for each other,integrity and how to strive for late cake will find it hard to control himself rise of drug and alcohol addiction—it is all of
excellence.Cultures change.But people need if the chocolate cake somehow finds him. a piece.Everywhere you turn you we Ameri-
to want to change.People convinced against Every pastry chef in America understands cans sacrifice their long-term interests for
their will are of the same opinion still." this,and now neuroscience does,too."When short-term rewards.
"How do you change the culture of an en- faced with abundance,the brain's ancient What happens when a society loses its ab&
lire city?"I asked him. reward pathways are difficult to suppress;' ity to self-regulate,and insists on sacrificing
"First of all we look internally,"he said. says Whybrow."In that moment the value of its long-term interest for short-term rewards?
eating the chocolate cake exceeds the value How does the story end? "We could regu-
Too Fat to Fly of the diet.We cannot think down the road late ourselves if we chose to think about it,"
The road out of Vallejo passes directly when we are faced with the chocolate cake." Whybrow says.`But it does not appear that is
through the office of Dr.Peter Whybrow, The richest society the world has ever what we are going to do."Apart from that
a British neuroscientist at U.C.L.A. with a seen has grown rich by devising better and remote possibility, Whybrow imagines two
theory about American life. He thinks the better ways to give people what they want. outcomes.The first he illustrates with a true
dysfunction in America's society is a by- The effect on the brain of lots of instant gnat- story,which might be called the parable of
product of America's success.In academic ification is something like the effect on the the pheasant.Last spring,on sabbatical from
papers and a popular book,American Ma- right hand of cutting off the left:the more the University of Oxford,he was surprised to
nia,Whybrow argues,in effect,that human the lizard core is used the more dominant it discoverthat he was able to rent an apartment
beings are neurologically ill-designed to becomes. "What we're doing is minimizing inside Blenheim Palace,the Churchill f nn-
be modern Americans. The human brain the use of the part of the brain that lizards ily home.The previous winter at Blenheim
evolved over hundreds of thousands of years don't have,"says Whybrow."We've created had been harsh,and the pheasant hunters had
in an environment defined by scarcity.It was physiological dysfunction.We have lost the been efficient;as a result,just a single pheas-
not designed,at least originally,for an envi- ability to self-regulate,at all levels of the so- ant had survived in the palace gardens.This
SKETCHBOOK: BIMBAUD BAMBO BY ISTVAN BANYAI
a
NOVEMBER 201 1 ww.ranaylair.ron VANITY FAIR 225
California all the time."The Vallejo population is old- helmet,among the other problems it prucnts,
er and poorer than in many surrounding is an indication that a room is about to flash.
cities,and older still are the buildings it lives Flashing,he explains,"is when all combustible
bird had gained total control of a newly seed- in.The typical Vallejo house is a charming, materials simuhaneously ignite.You'te a baked
ed field.Its intake of food,normally regulated highly flammable wooden Victorian."In this potato after that."He needed more water,or
by its environment,was now entirely unregu- town we fight fins,"says Meyer. "This town to get out,but his ego was invested in staying
lated:it could eat all it wanted,and it did.The rips."The department was shaped by its envi- inside,and ro he stayed inside.Moments later
pheasant grew so large that,when other birds moment:they were extremely aggressive fire- a backup arrived,with another,bigger hose.
challenged it for seed,it would simply frighten fighters. "When I came to this department Afterward, he understood his mistake:
them away.The fat pheasant became a tourist you rolled to a fire,"he said."You were not go- the building was three stories, built on a
attraction and even acquired a name:Henry. ing to we an exterior water stream from this slope that disguised its size,and the fire had
"Henry was the biggest pheasant anyone had department.We're going in. You have some reached the attic. "I'm not saying that if the
ever seen,"says Whybrow"Even after he got knucklehead calling in with a son throat— backup hadn't come when it did I'd be dead,"
fat, he just ate and ate."It didn't take long your giddyup is not so fast. But I'll tell you he says,but that's exactly what he is saying.
before Henry was obese.He could still eat as something about this department.They get a The scar on his face is from that fire."I need-
much as he wanted,but he could no longer fly. call that there's a baby choking or a 10-year- ed to learn to control my environment,"he
Then one day he was gone:a fox ate him. old not breathing,you better get out of the said."I'd had this false sense of security."
The other possible outcome was only way or you're going to gel run over."
slightly more hopeful:to hit bottom.To real- �T hen you take care of something,you
ize what has happened to us—because we As a young man,to pay his way through YY become attached to it, and he'd be-
have no other choice."If we refuse to regulate college, Meyer had worked as a state- come attached to Vallejo. He was extremely
ourselves,the only regulators are our environ- beach lifeguard at lakes in central Calif rmia. uncomfortable with conflict between his
.nerd,"says Whybrow,"and the way that envi- He assumed that then would be little drama union and the citizens,and had found him-
roarient deprives us."For meaningful change in the work but people would turn up, get self in screaming matches with the union's
to occur,in other words,we need the environ- drunk,and attempt to drown.A few of the negotiator.Meyer thought firefighters,who
ment to administer the necessary level of pain. times he pulled people from the water,they tended to be idealistic and trusting,were eas-
were in bad enough shape that they needed ily duped.He further thought the rank and
In August 2011,the same week that Stan- paramedics;the fire department was then file had been deceived both by the city,which
dard&Poor's downgraded the debt of the on the spot.He started talking to firefighters lied to them repeatedly in negotiations,and
United States government,a judge approved and found that"they all absolutely lov d what by their own leadership,which harnessed the
the bankruptcy plan for Vallejo,California. they did.You get to go and live and create a firefighters'outrage to make unreasonable
Vallejo's creditors ended up with 5 cents on second family.How,can you not like that?"He demands in the union-negotiated contract
the dollar,public employees with something came to Vallejo in 1998,at the age of 28. with the city.What was lost at the bargain-
like 20 and 30 cents on the dollar.The city no He had left a cushy job in Sunnyvale,outside ing table was the reason they did what they
longer received any rating at all from Moody's San Jose,where there aren't many fires,pre- did for a living."I'm telling you,"Meyer says,
and Standard&Poor's.It would take years to cisely because he wanted to fight fires. "In "when I started, I didn't know what I was
build the track record needed to obtain a de- other departments,"he says,"I wasn't a fire- getting paid.1 didn't care what I was getting
cent rating.The absence of a rating mattered fighter.The first six months of the job here,I paid. I didn't know about benefits.A lot of
little,as the last thing the city needed to do was was out at two in the morning at a fire every things that we're politicizing today were not
to go out and borrow,money from strangers. other week.I couldn't believe rt"The houses even in my mind.I was just thinking of my
More out of idle curiosity than with any of Vallejo are mainly balloon-frame construe, dream job. t.et me tell you something else:
clear purpose,I drove up again to Vallejo and tion. The interior walls have no firebreaks: nobody cared in 2007 how much I made.if
paid a call on the fire department.In the decay from bottom to top,all four walls carry fire I made six figures they said,'Shit,man,you
of our sense of common purpose,the firelight- as efficiently as a chimney.One of the rookie deserve it.You ran into a burning building.'
on are a telling sign that we are approaching mistakes in Vallejo is to put the fire out on the Because everyone had a job.All they knew
a new bottom.It isn't hard to imagine how a ground floor,only to look up and we it roar about our job is that it was dangerous.The
police department might wind up in conflict ing out of the roof."When we get to a fire we minute the economy started to collapse,peo-
with the community it's hired to protect. A say, 'Boom! Send someone up to the attic.' ple started looking at each other"
person who becomes a police officer enjoys the Because the fire is going right to the attic." Today the backup that may or may not
authority.He wants to stop the bad guys.He Meyer actually had made that rookie mis- have saved him is far less likely to arrive.
doesn't necessarily need to can for the people take.One day not long after he'd arrived,he When Vallejo entered bankruptcy,the fire de,
he polices.A person who becomes a firefighter jumped off the truck already breathing air partrnmt was cut from 121 to 67,lot a city of
wants to be agood guy.He wants to be bred from a tank and raced into what appeared 112,000 people. The department handles
The Vallejo firefighter I met with that to be a burning onebedmom apartment He roughly 13,000 calls a year,extrem, I. gh
morning was named Paige Meyer.He was 41 knocked down the door and put the attack for the population.When people f.,
years old.He had short sah-and-pepper hair line on the fire and then wondered why the ened or worried by anything exr.
and olive skin,with traces of burn marks on fire wasn't going out. "It should have been people,they call the fire departmev "-, ' rd
his cheeks.His natural expression was a smile. getting cooler,but it was getting hotter and these calls are of the cat-in-the-tree ,a-irty
He wasn't particularly religious or political. hotter."Right in front of his face,on his plan- pointless.("You never see the skeleton r{a
('9'm not necessarily a God guy.")The closest tic mask,lines trickled down,like rain on a cat in a tree.")They get calls from people who
thing he had to a religion,apart from his fam- windshield. The old-school firefighters left have headaches. They get calls from people
ily,was his job.He was extremely proud of it, their ears exposed so they could feel the heat: who have itches where they can't scratch.
and of his colleagues. `T don't want this to the heat contained the critical information. They have to answer every call. ("The best
sound arrogant at all,"he said,"but many de- Meyer could only see the heat:his helmet was call 1 ever had was phantom-leg pain in a guy
partments in nicer communities,they get a melting "If your helmet starts to shrivel up with no legs.")To deal with these huge num-
serious fire maybe once a year.We get them and melt,that's not cool;'he says.A melting bers of calls,they once had eight stations,
2261 VANITY FAIRIww ,,nurlmi,.wm NOVEMBER 201 t
eight three-person engine companies,a four- to cope with an environment of scarcity.He They are obviously saying that they want
man truck company(used only for actual fires began to measure things that hadn't been more than they can immediately afford.They
and rescue calls),one fireboat,one confined- measured.The No. 1 cause of death in fire- are saying,less obviously,that their present
space rescue team,and a team to deal with fighting was heart attacks.No. 2 was truck wants are so important that,to satisfy them,
hazardous materials.They now are down to crashes. He was now in charge of a depart- it is worth some future difficulty.But in male
four stations,four engines,and a truck. ment that would be both overworked and in ing that bargain they are implying that,when
a hurry. Fewer people doing twice the work the future difficulty arrives,they'll figure it
This is particularly relevant to Paige Mey- probably meant twice the number of injuries out.They don't always do that.But you can
er because,two months ago,he became per firefighter. He'd decided to tailor fitness never rule out the possibility that they will.
Vallejo's new fire chief. It surprised him: regimes to fit the job.With fewer fire stations As idiotic as optimism can sometimes seem,
he hadn't even applied for the job.The city and fewer firefighters in them,the response it has a weird habit of paying off.❑
manager,Phil Batchelor,just called him to times were going to be slower. He'd need to
his office one day."He didn't ever really ask find new ways to speed things up.A longer
me if I wanted the job,"says Meyer."He just response time meant less room for error;a FROM THE ARCHIVE
asked how's the family,told me he was giv- longer response time meant the fires they'd F'ar throe relatrdsRN ies,Tint VECOMrARCHIN E
ing me the job,and asked if I had any prob- be fighting would be bigger. He had some .Earn disasterland,Pain I through Iv
lem with that." thoughts about the most efficient way m fight /Minhue1Lewlr,ApriI2oay.0noiNrio,o.Marchim..
He didn't,actually.He sat down and made these bigger fires.He began,in short,to re- sepnmher,a../
a list of ways to improve the department.He think firefighting. •Power couple:Arnold and Maria
rafa.o-areaa....maaarr,aa,�
faced a fresh challenge: How to deliver set- When people pile up debts they will find .California's gwrerwonnswers the Proust
vice that was the same as before,or even bet- difficult and perhaps even impossible to re- Questionnaire t✓u6-,aa21
ter than before,with half the resources.How pay,they are saying several things at once. -
Courtney Love himself you think Kurt would have killed Her bed was surrounded by stacks of papers
if he had known he had $54 mil- having to do with"the fraud."At the end of
lion?"she demanded,quoting a figure based the bed there was a sleek mahogany chest.She
on the research of her Twitter Army. opened it.
"Her father gave her this." It was an
Where Did Our Love Got old naked doll."Fuck You Bitch"had been
LTthink the theme of loss is truly one of the scrawled on its torso by Cobain.(His visual
driving things in her life,"said a friend art shows his fascination with dolls,which he
of Courtney's. "When you look at the con- often used as humorous objects)
spiracy,it's all part of this loss that has been "This is her diary,"Courtney said,open-
part of her life since childhood.She's always ing up a book.
trying to find out where it went—whether it's "1 don't want to read Frances's diary,"I
money or love." told her.
Courtney's troubled history has been exam- "I just want you to look at this one page."
CONTINUED FROM PAIGE nos went on tour ined at length—most of all by Courtney. It's It was titled "Things That Make Me
with Hole.Their album Lire Through This Unusual to have a conversation with Courtney Smile" and listed "my cat, my horse"—in
had been released four days after Cobain where she doesn't mention one of the outrages middle school Frances was a champion rid-
died. It's interesting that,while conspiracy of her dysfunctional hippie upbringing:That er—"Sailor Maon"—the Japanese cartoon—
theories have formed around the timing of her father,Hank Harrison,allegedly dosed her "New York in winter..."
Cobain's death vis-i-vis Courtney's career with LSD when she was four(Harrison denies Courtney looked crushed."Why am I not
ascendancy,few have raised the possibility this).That her mother,Linda Carroll,now a on it?"she asked tearfully."Why doesn't she
that Cobain was afraid he was losing her. therapist,twice left her in the care of others, pm'watching old movies with my mom'?"
"They both contributed to each other's mu- a family friend when Courtney was 9 and a Their relationship had a rocky start.The
sic and they were competitive as well,"says former stepfather when she was 12."My moth- Los Angeles child-welfare authorities took
Charles Cross.Holes advance from Geffen er wants to kill me'Courtney says. Frances away from her mother and father
Records,more than$2 million,Courtney Courtney—born Courtney Michelle Har- shortly after her birth,pending an investiga-
says,was at the time one of the biggest in the rison in San Francisco in 1964—wound up in tion into allegations of Courtney's drug use.
history of the music business. the Oregon juvenile-detention system at 13.At What is not often mentioned is how Court-
And yet"we ctasld iszver find our money!" 16,she became legally emancipated from her ney had consulted with doctors as soon as
she said during , rant ab-,:a how she and CAS- mother—actually a woman with a"sizeable in- she found out she was pregnant, and then
train had -dl t, ;ry 'udled. "1 didn't heritaram"of her own,according to her mem- gone to rehab."There were no drugs in my
knrrvvl 'ONI „. 2-had$135,000 in our oir,HuMorher's Omoner—going on to become urine,no drugs in her urine when she was
ba 'eh said that if he would go a stripper and then,improbably,a rock star, born,"she says,still angry at having had her
L m would make$11 million." "I swore I'd never be like my mother but baby taken away.Courtney's half-sister Jai-
. .( rain committed suicide he Cm just the same"Courtney told me mourn- mee looked after Frances during the court-
...r Usiug to play the festival."That's fully one day. "She threw it all away and I ordered period. By all accounts,Kurt and
I:T;• 'v'h^-+i,i r•I eurt Cobain,ever threw it all away." Courtney were doting parents.
g. aid,"with Paw- And then there are Courtney and Frances. As i got to know Courtney,I heard more
e were gonna "Look;'Courtney said."This is Frances's about Frances. When she wasn't talking
;DIJ a hould do Loo hope chest' We were in Courtneys bedroom, about"the fraud,"she was talking about her
l 'd Now she was -nug inconsolably. which was Poll of feminine, antique things. daughter.She was full of longing to speak to
F. 9DII vww.r hyf.v'em I VANITY FAIR 1 22]
C011TtIIBy Love million that Laird Norton Tyee Trust, the ing he had to go and greet his other ,ucsts.
Seattle-based company then overseeing the "Will there be Pimm's Cup. Courtney
Frances Bean Cobain Irrevocable Trust, asked.
her and regret for all the things she felt she said Courtney had taken from her daugh- "There's a jug of it downstairs with your
hadn't done right as a mother.She said that ter. "It had already been paid,"Courtney name on it,"Charles said warmly.
Frances couldn't read until she was seven: maintains. In 2010, as part of Frances's "Grand!" said Courtney. "Grand!" She
"It was my fault!I never read to her!"(For emancipation,Courtney gave up her role as was developing a British accent.
elementary and middle school Frances at- advisory trustee over her daughter's money. "You see why I like them?"she said,beam-
tended the Willows Community School in ing,after he was gone."They get me,the toffs!"
Culver City; she was home-schooled for Summer of Love Later,we were seated in a giant,buzzing
high school)"Why didn't 1 ever take her to 61 in going to wind up like Gloria Swanson dining hall at the table of Lord March,who
a Broadway show?She fucking loved those 1 in Sunset Boulevard,"Courtney moaned was now dressed like Tom Jones(the Fielding
Broadway,musicals!"said Courtney, to me one day.She said she felt increasingly character,not the singer).On my left was the
For three summers Frances went to ostracized,shunned by New York society. British ambassador to Qatar,John Hawkins,
the Stagedoor Manor theater camp in the "The bad-mother thing,the drug thing. I and on my right was George Mountbatten,the
Catskills,her mother says,where she suffered can't escape this reputation."However,her Marquess of Milford Haven.
some of the usual disappointments of adoles- invitations never seemed to stop. Over the "Are you the maddest woman in the
cence—she got the part of Rizzo in a produo summer,she lunched with Julian Schnabel in world?"Mountbatten demanded of Courtney.
lion of Grease when she wanted Sandy and Montauk and mingled with Donny Deutsch Courtney frowned. "Are you on your
some specific to her being the child of Court- and Gordon Ramsay at parties in the Hamp- fourth wife or your fifth?"she asked.Mount-
ney Love and Kurt Cobain."They called her tons.And then,in July,she got invited to the batten, who is on his second marriage,
'crack baby,"'Courtney said sadly.Frances's Goodwood Ball,and asked if 1 would like looked flabbergasted.
fascination with show business came to an end, to go with her. She went out on the front lawn to have a
her mother says,when she started getting of- We pulled up to the west wing of Good- smoke.I followed her.She seemed to be elicit-
fered rather my roles by producers and agents wood House just as the festivities were start- ing a few raised eyebrows from the other guests.
Courtney had contacted on her behalf."Tbat's ing; we were late. The grand old manor, "What do you think of Courtney?"I asked
not who she is.It freaked her out,"Courtney reminiscent of Gosford Park,was being de- a cat-eyed Sloane Ranger when Courtney
said. "She wanted a Zoey 101 [the canceled scended upon by bevies of women dressed was out of earshot."I think most people here
Nickelodeon tween show]or something." ;Dias 18th-century hookers. (It was a cos- think she's askankyjunkie;'she said,tittering.
Frances's lawyer,Bryan Freedman,said in S< mme ball,or fancy-dress,as the British call
an e-mail that"the statements about[Fran- it.)There were two large men grappling on 1111e power of Lore
ces's)schooling are inaccurate....Tlit state- the front lawn in a display of antiquated wres- 6 ometimes I understand what she's say-
ments about her career desire5,theater camp, ding techniques.There was a carousel spirt Sing and sometimes I don't,but it's al-
show business,Nickelodeon,and the scripts ning around,playing calliope music.On the ways fascinating,"said Mark Cornell,who
are not accurate." walls of the splendid,cavernous house there was dressed as an 181h-century serf Comell
Now Frances seems to have tumed her ft- were lots of oil paintings of family members— is the C.E.O.of Edmiston At Company(lux-
curs toward art;Last year—using the pseud- being coronated. ury yachts),a cousin-in-law of Lord March,
onym Fiddle Tim—she had a,solo show of her „"The toffs know how to keep the money in and Courtney's friend."I've had people say
drawings,entitled"Scumfuck,"at the La Luz the family,"Courtney whispered as we were to me,'Why are you friends with Courtney
de Jesus Gallery in East Hollywood.She has taken upstairs to our rooms."They know how Love?'And I always say,'She's more inter-
been photographed holding hands with Isa- to protect themselves.I need to learn that." esting than all of you."'
fah Silva,the frmarmin for the folk-rock band "That's so punk rock of you,"I teased. It was time for Courtney to perform.She
the Rambles. "Re looks like her daddy," "Ian not punk rock anymore,"she sniffed. went onstage and suddenly she was the Court-
Courtney said wistfully,watching a YouTube "I'm the liberal elite." ney Love I knew from her album lire Through
video of Silva performing. Courtney was given a regal room that, This a force of nature;a banshee who could
Courtney's agony over the loss of Frances we were told,had been the favorite of King wake the dead with her scream. The local
was exacerbated by the fact that,3,000 miles George III,the"mad king."We were visited backup band played along,on fire,like taxi-
away in L.A.,Frances was having a rather by a butler named Monty. "Will there be cab drivers who suddenly found themselves
public debut.In August,two sets of pictures anything else, mom?" he asked. Courtney behind the wheel of a Ferrari.
of a stunning tattooed girl taken,respectively, nudged me in the ribs. But the toffs—some of them—didn't seem
by fashion designer Hedi Slim me and photog- The Earl of March came bounding into to quite get it."Show us your tits!"shouted a
rapher Rocky Schenck appeared on the Inter- the room.A brisk,handsome man in a be- young man new the stage."That was really
net,creating a lot of buzz"Who is this siren? spoke suit,he seemed inhabited by the spirit vulgar!"Courtney said,stopping to upbraid
She's not my child!"Courtney said,amazed of Ronald Colman. "Lord March,"he said, him."Would I say that to you?Go read your
and proud of the beauty Frances had become. squeezing our hands."Call me Charles." Debrett's,darling.I read mine."
I never saw her look happier than when she Lord March has famously built Goodwood "Give us a Kurt Cobain song,"shouted
saw a shot of Frances's bare back,which now into an enterprising business.The events that another young man in the audience."I cant
sports a large tattoo of Quentin Crisp,the gay go on year-round—vintage-car racing(known give you any Kurt Cobain," Courtney an-
activist and icon. "Quentin Crisp?Quentin as the "Festival of Speed"), horse racing swered."He's not here."She made it through
Crisp!Go,Franny!"Courtney shouted. (Goodwood has a world-class racetrack),all another song,and then she left the stage.
It was clear how much she loved her done with great fanfare—are open to the public Lord March and Mark Cornell, still
daughter. And yet, according to a source, and are very popular with the British people. dressed in costume,implored her to come
Frances said in her emancipation papers He gamely entertained Courtney's inqui- back and sing some more. "It was just that
that her life with her mother had been full ries about what dress she should wear to din- one guy,"said Cornell."Yes,"said Charles.
of torment.In 2006,Courtney was ordered ner."That one!"he said,pointing to a black "You do such an impressive show."
by the courts to pay back in excess of$2 Marchesa gown.Then he took his leave,say- Courtney returned and did one of her slow-
228 1 VANITY FAIRwww.rmmrrleicoom NOVEMBER 2011