Gone are the days when Vanity Fair had to rush to print a tribute to a fallen star, like Carolyn Bessette Kennedy or Michael Jackson, in the pages of their magazine. As Elizabeth Taylor died late in the month of March and, unlike Bessette Kennedy or Jackson, wasn’t placed on the VF cover (currently featuring, of all people, Rob Lowe), the magazine published a $4.99 e-book, The Best of Vanity Fair: Elizabeth Taylor, available from Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Citing four of his recent cover subjects, editor Graydon Carter said in a statement previewing his editor’s letter: “Try to imagine a star who combines the talent of a Meryl Streep with the beauty of a Nicole Kidman, the sensuality of a Penélope Cruz, and the notoriety of a Lindsay Lohan. Magnify that a hundredfold, and you’re still only halfway to Elizabeth Taylor.”
The e-book is to feature photographs, though it’s hard to imagine quite what they’ll look like on the Kindle, whose image-rendering capabilities work best on stipple-portraits of Emily Dickinson. One imagines, given the book’s franchise-building title, that more are in the works, but we hope they choose judiciously: downloading a volume of Vanity Fair‘s coverage of the Kennedys or of Marilyn Monroe might crash our operating system.
ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_
