April Vanity Fair's "The Pretty Young Things"

Of course I had to immediately scoop up the new Vanity Fair. Love these guys! But even better than the cover . . .



. . . is this photo. Paul Rudd's expression is sublime, as are Jonah Hill's panty lines. The whole composition is so funny, but on the other hand I was like, "Whaaaaah?"

Oh, yeah, I remember!



Online at V.F. is this caption for Annie Leibovitz's parody of her own photo via the four funnymen:

JONAH HILL, PAUL RUDD, SETH ROGEN, and JASON SEGEL,

The Pretty Young Things
After appearing in Knocked Up and/or The 40-Year-Old Virgin, this quartet can now be considered summa cum laude graduates of the Judd Apatow school of comedy. Unlike so many comedy stars of the last two decades, they—and the other funny people depicted on the following pages—seem at their best when they work not as soloists but as part of a tightly knit ensemble. Say good-bye to the laughter of alienation and hello to a brand of comedy that fosters a feeling of community. Rather than dominate a crowd, they conspire with the people in the audience. Their strength lies in their charm. Even Rogen. Photographed by Annie Leibovitz (in tribute to her own March 2006 cover shot) on Stage 28 at Paramount Pictures Studio Lot, Los Angeles.

And we can't forget Russel Brand!

Bobby Kennedy and the Last Good Campaign

In the wake of the terrible news that Ted Kennedy has an aggressive brain tumor, the type that usually kills within six months, I thought I'd mention that this month's Vanity Fair cover story is enlightening, uplifting, and very much worth reading. What a tragedy that he was murdered before he had a chance at the Presidency. You can read Thurston Clarke's "The Last Good Campaign: Power and Politics" here. And here's an excerpt that is just as pertinent about Iraq as it was forty years ago about Vietnam. What a fine President he would have made.

“I am concerned—as I believe most Americans are concerned—that the course we are following at the present time is deeply wrong.… I am concerned—as I believe most Americans are concerned—that we are acting as if no other nation existed, against the judgment and desires of neutrals and our historic allies alike.”

He urged his audience to consider “the young men that we have sent there; not just the killed, but those who have to kill; not just the maimed, but all those who must look upon the results of what they are forced and have to do,” and to consider “the price we pay in our own innermost lives, and in the spirit of this country.” This was why, he said, “war is not an enterprise lightly to be undertaken, nor prolonged one moment past its absolute necessity.”

The Senator, asleep with his dog Freckles sharing the pillow.