Vanity Fug

Ok, this is now officially out-of-control. I have, as of today, seen THREE major errors in the past two issues of Vanity Fair (one of my favorite magazines on the planet). I read each issue, cover to cover, so perhaps I'm a more discerning and nit-picky reader than your average subscriber. But, please.....these mishaps are about as disappointing as a Don Draper sad and pitiful drunken jag (resulting in a skeezy hook-up with some skanky, second-rate, bit player). U-N-A-C-C-E-P-T-A-B-L-E.

So, I was upset at the Lady Gaga picture (with her real fingernail clearly visible beneath her acrylic tip as she made a "Peace" sign) on the September cover. I might have given them the benefit of the doubt that it was an "artistic" decision to show the real Gaga and not compromise the integrity of her appearance by Photoshopping the image, but you cannot tell me that her perfectly applied, smokey dark eye make-up wasn't air brushed. So, I don't consider the faux pas to be an artistic statement at all. It's just an oversight! Tsk, Tsk.

You can, then, imagine how very annoyed I was when, in that same September issue, John Galliano was defined as attired in a "ringmaster's" outfit.....when he is cuh-LEAR-ly channeling Robert Dover. No, he is NOT going for the ringmaster look....thank you very much Vanity Fair. He is so Grand Prix-level dressage it isn't funny! That is called a shadbelly, people, and with the top hat, white breeches, canary vest points, and the tall boots with Spanish-cut tops....he is definitely going for the hip, dressage queen look. He is ready to leap on to a fancy warmblood and passage down the longside. Please, Vanity Fair, get your horsey references correct, since you claim that the equestrian trend is all the shiz again this fall. John would not appreciate being mis-labeled, that is for sure!

And finally, today, I see that in James Wolcott's October article on New Jersey as pop culture t.v. fodder, he mentions something about a character in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire bearing a striking resemblence to "Leo DiCaprio's Irish lad in Titanic." Say what??? He wasn't Irish in Titanic. He was American. From Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. It's understandable that Wolcott doesn't remember correctly, but shouldn't the freaking features editor or, if nothing else, the fact-checkers catch this crap? I know that resources are thin at magazines world wide right now, but come on....you can't keep sacrificing quality. They could hire me for a fraction of what the big editors get paid and I'd be more than happy to tell them what is wrong and how they need to fix it. I mean, really, a RINGMASTER???? I am appalled.