You may not have ever heard of Jordan Roth. If you’ve started watching Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel The Shards, Roth plays Steven Reinhardt, a looming Hollywood fixer styled a bit like David Bowie. Before I profiled him, I knew him only by reputation, which is vast. He’s the son of a billionaire who, fresh off graduating from Princeton, became a Broadway wunderkind producer of Mean Girls and Kinky Boots. He had a buzz cut and wore a dark suit to work every day. But in the last 10 years, Roth, who is 51, began a metamorphosis into the butterfly he is today, wearing Margiela couture gowns to the Tonys or Met Gala outfits that defy explanation. Alongside that, he has built a manic and zany Instagram presence with over a million followers. Did I mention he has started doing performance art at the Louvre?
He is the kind of classic New York City character that Truman Capote would have written about for his dry wit and over-the-top lifestyle. It turns out that was only part of the story. Roth is, yes, someone who people have a lot of opinions about, largely about why a truly intelligent man is chasing fame on social media and now television. But this is also a story of one person’s exploration of life and art and gender that gets beyond the mask of camp into his own humanity. This piece has everything: a movement coach, frenzied dress fittings, Cher’s stylist, Jean Genet. It’s funny, and it’s deep at the same time. And it’s the kind of work I wanted to do when I became a journalist. And if you need a much-deserved break after the Auntie Mame world of Jordan Roth, how about Kate Andersen Bower’s investigation into the real thoughts and agency in the life of Second Lady Usha Vance? Or, remember when Rick Caruso, the LA developer, ran for mayor a few years ago, and Gwyneth Paltrow and Kris Jenner endorsed him? Maxwell Adler’s profile of him proves he’s not leaving the public eye (or politics) anytime soon. Matt Carlstrom breaks down author Hank Green’s AI controversy and Nate Freeman investigates whether the mega-collector Leon Black will ever be punished by the art world gatekeepers for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. And of course, if you’re over the heat or humidity, may I suggest Marie Antoinette, the Sofia Coppola film celebrating its 20th anniversary this year? It’s on Netflix! |
MARISA MELTZER,
SENIOR STAFF WRITER |
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The real estate scion turned Tony-winning Broadway impresario has become a haute couture customer, Instagram exhibitionist, performance artist, and now, with Ryan Murphy’s blessing, bona fide Hollywood actor. |
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“It’s patronizing to say that she’s been silenced,” one Yale Law classmate says of JD Vance’s wife, who has perfected the art of knowing where she stands in the Trump administration’s political pecking order. “She has chosen this.” |
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The Epstein Files revealed the most forensic release of a private mega-collector’s holdings in history. But that hasn’t stopped Leon Black from serving on the MoMA board and making the rounds at art fairs. |
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The billionaire developer and former mayoral candidate saved his luxury mall from the Palisades fires in 2025. Now, in a wide-ranging interview with Vanity Fair ahead of the reopening of Palisades Village, he talks about whether he’ll mount another political run or whatever comes next. |
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