All the magazines are releasing their September issues this week. The reaction that I’ve seen online, in response to American Vogue’s cover story featuring Kaia Gerber and Homer Gere, has been mostly underwhelmed, to put it generously. They are the stars of The Shards, a series with a Gen Z cast telling a Gen X story, but it’s not just that people don’t seem to be enthused about the stars – as Maria noted in yesterday’s Celebrity Social Media, the editorial hasn’t landed either. For a September issue, using a studio shot seems kinda unimaginative.
Someone in our Squawk community posted this in the daily chat yesterday and it’s exactly right.
Over at British Vogue though, their September issue cover is Gen X for all gens: Nicole Kidman in a photo shoot that is far superior, no f-cking contest. Now here is a much more inspired image choice for a cover.
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It’s good not just because it’s Nicole but because it’s unusual. Like in actual measurement the door is a full third of the shot. And somehow she takes up all the space in the frame. In comparison to its American counterpart, this is a bold call – and the correct one. And OMG the styling.
She is a wealthy divorcée from the 80s. The blowout, the makeup, colour palette, someone in the comments said “Joanna Lumley” and… yes… intentional, especially for the season. Rich bitch, just divorced in 1985, at the country club is so autumn coded. Nicole understands the character.
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The character is also her in this moment. She is 59 years old and single and doing what the freshly single girlies do when they’re in their 20s, you either don’t shower for a week and bury yourself into the couch, or you hit the club, there is no in-between. As Nicole tells British Vogue:
“I’m either playing Scrabble or I’m out. It’s that simple,” she says, and laughs again. What does the rave option entail? “Dinner at 10.30pm, club at 1am. I’ll put on glasses. Sometimes I’ll wear a wig to hide, a little dark wig, and then I can just dance. As long as I’m surrounded by people – like, I take people with me – then I’m fine. I need it.”
Credit to the person on Twitter who put those words to video, that’s exactly how I pictured it.
and then she can WHAT? pic.twitter.com/4ZVw3oaNFd https://t.co/fRIxna0FGv
Nicole says that she’s stealth about her club nights. I mean, yeah, it’s not like there are videos circulating on social media of her doing jello shots in Ibiza and getting rubbed down in foam. So I guess all of Tom Cruise’s ex-wives can be ninjas. In Nicole’s case, though, I love that she’s telling us about it. That she’ll be 60 years old in 10 months and is out here observing the disco schedule: nap until 10pm, nourishment at 1030pm, then glam for an hour and leave the house after midnight. She was married when most of her peers were doing it in early adulthood, but it’s never too late to lean into your grind and groove era.
Speaking of being married young, she talks about this with British Vogue, about how she and Tom Cruise fell madly in love (her words) when she was 22 and, frankly, she doesn’t look back on that time with regret. As for Keith Urban, they’re less than a year divorced, not surprisingly she doesn’t have a lot to say about the split, except that she didn’t expect it but now that it’s her reality, she’s accepted the unknown. She doesn’t know what her life will look like beyond the club, she doesn’t know what’s out there and that’s OK.
What we all know though is that she will keep working – because she never stops working. This bitch and her output, it’s breathtaking. The summer isn’t over yet and already she’s been in three television series, Scarpetta, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, and Lioness season three. Next up is Practical Magic 2, one of the most highly anticipated films on the fall schedule. She has at least one film in post-production (The Young People), several series and films in pre-production and development. And that’s a QUIETER year for her. That’s why she’s been at the club, LOL.
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