“Here Comes Your Man.” “It’s Raining Men.” The theme song to Two and a Half Men. “Boys” (by Charli xcx). “Boys” (by Britney Spears). “Boys” (by The Shirelles). The staff of Vanity Fair has had a variety of songs in our heads for the past several weeks as we assembled our 2026 Hollywood Issue, which celebrates 12 of the industry’s most exciting leading men. Some, like A$AP Rocky, are relatively new to acting; some, like Harris Dickinson and Michael B. Jordan, are also ace directors; several, including Riz Ahmed and Glen Powell, are canny producers as well. But all possess the unique quality novelist Ottessa Moshfegh teases out in the introductory essay she wrote for this year’s cover package: “They feel like real people, very special people who hover just half an inch beyond our grasp. They’re still fantasy men, yes, but boyfriend-shaped: accessible, kind, vulnerable, and recognizably human.” Please, enjoy them—and if you have any suggestions for our mental playlist, don’t hesitate to pass them along.
Elsewhere, Dan Adler catches up with Parkland survivor Cameron Kasky, who plans to enter a crowded congressional race in Manhattan; Kase Wickman travels to Oz for the New York premiere of Wicked: For Good; and Chris Murphy looks into the likely inspiration for a twisty new Netflix thriller. More tomorrow… |
HILLARY BUSIS,
SENIOR EDITOR |
So, why men?
Together, the actors on these three covers of Vanity Fair’s 32nd annual Hollywood Issue illustrate something different. These are not the matinee idols of early cinema, sprung fully formed, names staged and hair dyed, from the head of some Zeusian studio chief. Nor do they present as puffed-up superheroes, even if occasionally they play them onscreen. |
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Our new leading men are something much more radical: mere mortals. Often kind, sometimes vulnerable, each extraordinary—never before has a generation of actors been less performative, and more human. Have you ever wondered what an internet boyfriend becomes when he grows up? A movie star, it turns out. They are good guys rather than strongmen or bad boys—and we love them for it.
—Mark Guiducci, Global Editorial Director |
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Cameron Kasky, the 25-year-old activist who is entering the race for Jerrold Nadler’s Manhattan seat, speaks to VF about Jack Schlossberg, David Hogg, and “running on youth.” |
After more than two years of prerelease press, premieres, color-coordinated pink and green red-carpet looks, podcasts, and explanations that, yes, she really is flying while she sings, Wicked: For Good took over Lincoln Center for the final step of the duology’s own promotional Yellow Brick Road. |
The new Netflix show starring Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys seems to pull from a notorious criminal, as well as a true-crime obsessive. |
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