Friday, September 25, 2026

UPDATE: Vanity Fair Goes MAGA with Cover Features Extolling Sam Altman, Erika Kirk, Larry Ellison, “Donald The Great,” Plus Little Known Star

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The October 202 Vanity Fair is a MAGA mess.

Florence Pugh, who is known mostly for a secondary role in Marvel movies, is the star on the cover. Pugh stars now in a streaming TV miniseries adaptation of John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden.”

No offense, but she’s not a name cover newsstand sales, if there is still such a thing. To be fair, it’s a great picture, so that might be a lure.

But the magazine shows its hand with cover lines about five New Establishment names, four of which are MAGA bait no matter what is written in the actual article.

I’m sure Na-hesi Coates is thrilled that his story is labeled “Donald the Great.” (How close are we now to the Melania cover?)

The other three are merry widow Erika Kirk, AI villain Sam Altman, and CBS killer Larry Ellison.

For balance — not really — they toss in California governor Gavin Newsom.

Vanity Fair finds its physical circulation and its website flailing. The turn to MAGA is no surprise, but it comes a little too late. Public opinion is turning against “Donald the Great,” just as Vanity Fair embraces him.

If the magazine is planning a Hollywood issue again for December, maybe they can get Dennis Quaid and Nikki Minaj to pose together.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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