Stay abreast of all gentlewomanly happenings and Club doings by signing up for our fortnightly circular. This year, Vanessa, 40, gained particular notoriety for her examination of Gwyneth Paltrow in a piece for Vanity Fair , which, after frenzied anticipation, was never published. Vanessa believes good journalism is about truth and time and prefers to observe her subjects over several days. Right next to them. With them driving. Somewhere over the Atlantic en route to interview journalist Vanessa Grigoriadis, it suddenly occurs to me that I might be a little intimidated.
But more than that, it was Vanessa who was responsible for the most speculated-upon never-to-be-seen article of the past year and possibly ever: a Gwyneth Paltrow profile for Vanity Fair commissioned in spring And an excerpt from a Huffington Post discussion about the increased popularity of Molly essentially a rebranded MDMA has Vanessa the Amazon expounding on the legalisation of drugs with the fervour of a true libertarian.
Which one will I get to meet? The answer arrives in a dark and uninspiring downtown NYC bistro. Vanessa has chosen the most obscure table in the room, the kind suited to clandestine meetings of the extramarital variety. Appearance is important to her, but mostly in a professional way. I want to look basic. From a fact-minded driven journalist, that comment seems a little fanciful. She looks younger than her 40 years and has all the vivacity of a diminutive Minnie Driver, with a narrower jaw.
I grew up thinking that being a poseur is, like, the worst possible thing. It would kill me if people thought that I was a poseur. Rolling Stone published it in June But I feel you always have to work hard, because you never know what might happen. She really throws herself into every story. She gets totally immersed in her subject. Every story she writes is like a dissertation. Here and in the opening image, Vanessa wears a white-and-navy silk dress by 3.
Vanessa has a point, of course: most of us are more likely to pay attention to her access-all-areas celebrity pieces. I interviewed Usher, and he invited me to sleep over in his guesthouse. I spent three days with Taylor Swift β I went to three cities with her. It becomes very boring. Vanessa obliged by being precocious and a performer. I carried on playing violin until I was I did a lot of ballet. It would have meant stopping school. It was too competitive, too hard.
