Vanity Fair’s cover stories, at least some of them, used to have a little punch.
Not the new one, a “profile” of Margaret Qualley, in which she says nothing. I mean, nothing.
The good news is we learn that the writer of the piece, Marissa Meltzer, is a yoga instructor.
Otherwise, Qualley — a real up and comer — refuses to discuss her famous mother, Andie MacDowell, doesn’t say much about her husband, the famous record producer Jack Antonoff, or anything about bringing together the music and movie worlds.
There is absolutely no discussion of Taylor Swift or Lana del Rey, Antonoff’s key recording artists. (Lana even sang at he weeding to Antonoff. Was that cool? We don’t know.) Qualley is not asked about her movies like her directors or co-stars. She made two movies with Ethan Coen. What was that like? Crickets. Can she talk about Brad Pitt or Quentin Tarantino or “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”? Apparently not.
Ethan Hawke is interviewed, but not his actress daughter Maya Hawke, who was actually in “Once Upon a Time” with Qualley. Or Lena Dunham or anyone who was in the Spahn Ranch scenes with Qualley. Meltzer has never seen “Novitiate,” a gem of a film that Qualley lit up. I’d have some questions about that.
No, the new Vanity Fair just needs the cover photo, which they got. And, hopefully, Qualley at the Oscar party, for the photo op. By the way, there’s a backlink in the VF story to an older one about Qualley and Antonoff, which itself has a link to Elle UK. They should have used a couple of the quotes from that story. It would have been a lot more interesting.
PS We never find out if Meltzer gave her subject a yoga lesson in Qualley’s home studio, something which is suggested in the piece. Look downward, dog.
