There’s little I find more intoxicating than a scandal—the shocks and aftershocks of wrongdoing, sure, but also the tales and exaggerations that crop up to contain them, and the interpersonal divisions that are so often stirred along the way. All of this was true of Irish literary titan Oscar Wilde’s story. And now, 130 years after the transgression that warped Wilde’s literary reputation, Vanity Fair writer-at-large James Reginato spoke with his only grandchild, Merlin Holland, who has written about, as actor Rupert Everett phrased it, “the ricochet effect of the atom bomb of the Oscar Wilde scandal” on his family in the book After Oscar: The Legacy of a Scandal.
And as a palate cleanser after that sober story of the sins of one father—you might want to read about a sillier set of daddy issues. Plus, Los Angeles native Lorraine Nicholson gives a brief history of some of Hollywood’s most sought-after real estate. More tomorrow… |
ADRIENNE GREEN,
EXECUTIVE EDITOR |
As Merlin Holland investigated the details of Oscar Wilde’s tragic last years and charted the dramatic swings in his literary reputation in the century following his death, his book became a family memoir as much as a scholarly biography. Combing through letters, diaries, and photos (many not published before), he eventually came to terms with his grandfather’s complicated legacy. |
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As 2025 draws to a close, another onscreen male archetype is trending: the sad stoner dad—always a step behind, perpetually paranoid, but perhaps more attuned to his inner life than the average American male. |
The rapper’s lawsuit against Milagro Gramz highlighted a vitriolic strain of online commentary—and as it reached a jury that found in Megan’s favor, offered a window into the frictions between legal journalists and a growing class of courthouse livestreamers. |
“There’s really no place like home,” cover star A$AP Rocky tells VF of his starring in a new short film in his hometown. Plus, an exclusive first look at the project. |
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Los Angeles is replete with landmark real estate, from triumphs of design by Richard Neutra, John Lautner, and John Elgin Woolf to less name-brand mega-mansions. Yet across time, movie stars, moguls, and other powers that be have all called the same power addresses home. If these hedges could talk… |
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