AVENUE January | February 2024

Rising Star

BEN RADCLIFFE Takes Hollywood

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CONTENTS JAN.–FEB. 2024 VOL.48 NO.1 FEATURES 62

CRACKING THE CODERS

When it comes to keeping powerful people in the tech world in check, Kara Swisher has made a career proving the pen (or keyboard) is mightier than the sword. She discusses her new tome, Burn Book, and calls out some of the industry’s worst offenders. By George Hahn 66

THE RISE OF BIG BEN

British actor Ben Radcliffe is taking flight in Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg’s WWII series, Masters of the Air. Avenue hangs out with the future superstar in London.

By George Hahn

FRAGMENTS OF BEAUTY

The sun always shines on Worth Avenue, but it’s the jewelry shops that truly sparkle. Between the dazzle of the light, the gems, and the heat, it’s a surreal experience.

By Iris van Gelder

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AND INTRODUCING Actor Ben Radcliffe photographed in London by Bella Howard.

BELLA HOWARD

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CIPSHAPE The new Mr. C Hotel & Residences in West Palm Beach.

Charity balls, galas, and Hollywood awards shows— are black-tie events relevant anymore? BY DAVID GRAVER

CULTURE 18

AND MICHAEL MUSTO

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BEACHY KEEN

JOURNEYS

A CROSSCOUNTRY JOURNEY FOR BODILY AUTONOMY

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BY BETH LANDMAN

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A SCENE EMERGES Inside the vibrant art world of South Florida, where international galleries and cultural institutions are thriving. BY ANNABEL KEENAN

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D&D DIRECTORY A guide to New York’s eminent design hub.

Above: The dining room at Paranza.

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AND ALEX FENER

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A TASTE FOR THE TROPICS

BY TED HILDNER

BY PETER DAVIS

THE CITY A PLACE IN THE SUN

The Palm Beach real estate market is still red-hot. Emerging, hip neighborhoods like SoSo, El Cid, and West Palm are fast becoming the new frontiers for the fashionable flock from New York.

BY BETH LANDMAN

COVER: Illustration by Cecilia Carlstedt

THE SQUANDERING SOCIALITE

Gregg Dodge went from pin-up model to Palm Beach socialite when she snagged Horace Dodge Jr., the heir to the Detroit automobile fortune. But her freewheeling spending ultimately brought tragedy: divorce, suicide, lawsuits, and bankruptcy.

Celebrity chef Michael White brings his coastal Italian cuisine to the Caribbean.

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SEASON OF RENEWAL

The new year kicks off with a wave of change in business, personal growth, and—hopefully—New York legislation. BY ARIA DARCELLA

BY PETER DAVIS

CAREER EDIT

Author Vanessa Lawrence made a name for herself at major fashion magazines before ditching her job to pursue an MFA in writing. The switch-up paid off. Ahead of the release of her debut novel, Avenue uncovers why she decided to pivot. BY ARIA DARCELLA

URUGUAY UNDISCOVERED

Staying at Estancia Vik, a Uruguayan ranch on 4,000 acres of rugged wilderness filled with art and surrounded by cattle, one writer lives out a South American gaucho fantasy replete with an authentic asado feast and swimming with horses.

The new initiative from Project for Empty Space argues the importance of community.

Cofounders Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Pauline Jampol tell Avenue more. BY ANNABEL KEENAN

Palm Beach is a booming foodie destination. Our restaurant critic takes a bite.

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Q&AVE

Unlike movie stars who launch cosmetic lines or record an album, Sharon Stone has pivoted to painting.

With two gallery shows under her belt, the iconic Oscar nominee talks about making art versus movies, her obsession with snakes, and why she loves Amelia Earhart. BY PETER DAVIS avenuemagazine.com

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t Avenue, we scour culture to celebrate creativity and people of accomplishment both in New York and beyond. In this issue, we venture across the pond and literally catch a rising star: British actor Ben Radcliffe, who is poised and ready to become the next big thing when he stars this January in Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg’s Apple TV+ WWII series, Masters of the Air. We enlisted the talented Bella Howard to photograph the dapper 25-year-old thespian in a private club in London, where he told writer George Hahn that the sets and enemy fighter planes were so realistic, he felt like he didn’t “even have to act.” When Radcliffe becomes a household name, remember that you read it here first.

Speaking of firsts, we speak with Vanessa Lawrence about her debut novel Ellipses, which delves into the digitization of media and the struggles creatives face. And we also nabbed the first interview with journalist, Pivot podcast host, and CNN regular Kara Swisher about her new must-read tome, Burn Book. Swisher has spent 25 years covering the wildly controversial, forever fascinating, and always-changing tech industry. In Burn Book, a kind of memoir-meets-tech-giants takedown, Swisher’s battle call takes no prisoners with everyone, from Uber’s Travis Kalanick (“a stock villain… childish… misogynist,” she calls him) to Bill Gates and headline-hog Elon Musk, who she dubs “the new villain—it’s really damaging stuff that Elon has perpetrated. The nastiness, the antisemitism, the homophobia…” A mother of four, when Swisher isn’t taking care of her brood with wife Amanda Katz, a Washington Post opinion editor, she is busy being the wry, witty watchdog of the technology universe. “It’s pretty much tech people who occupy the top rungs of power and money in the world,” Swisher tells Avenue. “My attitude towards tech started off as a love story, and it turned into a bad relationship.”

Palm Beach is a destination that Avenue has always been in love with. We fly south this winter in our pages and give you the scoop on the hottest restaurants (and how to snag a table) and we also talk to the experts who take the temperature of the booming real estate market which shows no signs of slowing down, with neighborhoods like West Palm, SoSo, and El Cid becoming the new frontiers for fashionable movers and shakers.

See you at the beach,

Like and follow us at @AVENUEinsider

PETER DAVIS

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Editor-in-Chief 6

DANIEL PETRONI

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Editor’s Letter

WATERWORLD A sun-soaked veranda at 10 Via Vizcaya in Palm Beach.

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Peter Davis CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Natalie D. Kaczinski

Iris van Gelder (Fragments of Beauty, page 74) is an artist who began making handmade fashion collages in 2011.

Since then, she has worked with Swarovski and her work has appeared in magazines like Glamour Italia and Vogue Italia. For this issue, she turned her eye to the fabulous jewelry brands of Palm Beach and was touched by the location’s perfect weather. “The theme was perfect to work on during these cold days because it makes you daydream of summer,” she says.

Alex Fener is Avenue’s new editorial assistant. She is currently a senior at the New School working on a degree in visual studies. Given the nature of her academic pursuits, she’s been enjoying her time on the team. “Going through the Avenue archives has been a blast. There is so much to learn about the history of the magazine, as well as the history of New York,” she says. “Studying print ads has helped my brand literacy tremendously— I can track their evolution and understand their current vision.”

Beth Landman (Beachy Keen, page 14) is a journalist who has covered restaurants, beauty, travel, and more for New York magazine, the New York Times, and the Hollywood Reporter, among other publications. “There is something magical for New Yorkers about dining in a balmy outdoor setting in January, and the restaurants we selected offer a range of cuisines and atmospheres,” she says of the Palm Beach restaurant guide she wrote for this edition.

“All you have to do to relax is grab a table, take a sip of wine, and inhale the salt air.”

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FASHION AND FEATURES EDITOR

Aria Darcella DEPUTY PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Mickey McCranor EDITOR AT LARGE

George Hahn FASHION EDITOR

Nolan Meader PRODUCTION DIRECTOR

Jessica Lee COPY CHIEF

Danielle Whalen EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Danielle Whalen CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Joshua David Stein, Constance C.R. White, Judd Tully, Todd Plummer, Mike Albo, Tom Shone CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Jai Lennard, Nick Mele, Sophie Elgort, Richard Kern, Landon Nordeman, Johnny Miller, Martin Vallin

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Bella Howard (The Rise of Big Ben, page 66) is a London-based photographer whose work has appeared in Elle, GQ, and multiple editions of Vogue, among other magazines.

Late last November, she photographed rising star Ben Radcliffe for our pages. “We had such a great day shooting at Langan’s restaurant.

Ben was a dream to work with—chill, funny, and a star as soon as I turned my camera on him,” she says. “He played with my little boy while we were doing his grooming and we talked about film cameras and other nerdy things.”

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“We don’t need to spend lavish amounts of money on galas in order to support those in need.

It’s the same with the arts. I find it more effective to donate directly, or volunteer time.”

—An Anonymous Donor

The High Cost of Giving Back Illustration by Iva Hass

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ommencing in March, the cultural calendars of many benefactors grow congested with glamorous galas, marquee benefits, and charitable luncheons. With the onset of in-person giving season, individuals don’t only incur the costs of tickets and tables, but also of designer outfits, the potential expense for auction items, and an array of tangential costs. Do most patrons, then, prefer to donate rather than turn up in smoking jackets or gowns?

For some the answer is yes, as funds find their way directly into initiatives without all the pomp and circumstance. For many, however, the answer is no, thanks to an abundance of benefits derived from being present.

For individual and corporate backers, in-person participation can stretch the reach of a charitable commitment. “I feel like it’s important to attend the gala, both to support the evening and those who work tirelessly to put on these events, and to also invite people who may not already be familiar with the specific foundation and its mission,” says Jonathan Stein, a leading luxury real estate agent at Douglas Elliman. Stein supports the Headstrong Project, an organization that provides mental health services for American military veterans. “I put a lot of thought into who I feel will really resonate with the charity, as I love watching them get involved on their own after the fact.”

“I think it’s important to attend galas and show physical presence, if at all possible,” says architect and artist Suchi Reddy, founder of Reddymade Architecture and Design, who supports Storefront for Art and Architecture, the Design Trust for Public Space, and the Young Women’s Freedom Center.

“I think giving is an essential act that reminds us

of the connective tissue we all share as humans.”

According to Reddy, attending events translates to firsthand knowledge from leadership about what more can be done.

Vogue contributor Elise Taylor has become a beloved fixture on the charity gala circuit. She uses the South Bronx organization East Side House, which assists over 14,000 children and families in achieving their education and career goals, as an example of the spectacular motivational efforts that galas provide to communities. “Their biggest fundraiser is the Winter Show, an annual antiques fair that takes place in late January at the Park Avenue Armory. You can buy tickets to the glamorous Opening Night, or the design luncheon which includes a talk between the biggest names in interior design (Alexa Hampton! Billy Cotton!). Of course, I’m partial to the Young Collectors Night, which I cochair. Drinking a gin and tonic while perusing 5,000 years’ worth of decorative objects? Can’t say I get to do that every day.”

This enthusiasm is emulated by Dawn Davis, an executive editor at Simon & Schuster. “I wouldn’t miss the Studio Museum of Harlem’s Spring Luncheon, a companion to their extravagant fall gala. I love the room, a grand space at the Mandarin Oriental hotel, because the beauty in the room— an integrated crowd full of NYC’s most dazzling African American women—can compete with the splendor of Central Park.” Davis invites friends, including her authors, like Dawnie Walton, who penned the Aspen Words Literary Prize-winning The Final Revival of Oprah & Nev. In contrast, an anonymous donor shares that, “We don’t need to spend lavish amounts of money on galas in order to support those in need. It’s the same with the arts. I find it more effective to donate directly, or volunteer time.” This person regularly contributes to nonprofit dance companies, AIDS organizations, and animal shelters. In lieu of conversations at red carpet events, she dedicates time to speaking with board members and volunteers when they’re not trying to dazzle a crowd into opening their accounts further.

Other philanthropists strive to balance it all.

“Giving is a responsibility and a true pleasure, yet it can be time consuming and exhausting,” says JANUARY—FEBRUARY 2024 | AVENUE MAGAZINE

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ON THE AVE.

PHONING IT IN Above, Joan Crawford with her Oscar for the 1946 film, Mildred Pierce.

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Avalanche of Accolades

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fter 118 days and a tense final-hour showdown, the SAG-AFTRA strike was finally resolved in November, and actors have returned to TV and film sets with the proper remuneration. Yay! They can work again! They can promote again! They can accept awards again!

As an awards-show enthusiast—who lives to see one actor per category triumphing and four not—one of the weirdest results of all the striking has been on trophy season. The Emmys were originally planned for last September 18, but because of the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes, they were pushed ahead to this January 15, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The eligibility period for nominees was from June 1, 2022, through May 31, 2023, so, when these awards finally happen, they’ll probably become a matter of, “Hey, remember that show?” Or, “Remember that season of that show?”

Other ceremonies are scheduled for their usual time frame: the Golden Globes are on January 7.

The SAG Awards will be February 24 (and I imagine it will be an extremely opinionated telecast). And the Oscars are set for March 10. This is a sardinepacked schedule, and by time the Oscars take place, they will be even more of an anticlimax than usual. This will be especially true after the wild flurry of desperate campaigning from actors and studios alike, though that explosion of grasping

ostentation will comfort me to no end. I long for a return to business as usual, no matter how tacky.

The awards shows will be just that: back to basics, with all the glitzy trimmings that we live for. Some of the Emmy speeches will no doubt reference how actors stayed home and Zoomed during Covid lockdown, only to come out of it, then strike and stay home again—and some will surely acknowledge SAG-AFTRA’s fearless president, Fran Drescher—but, for the most part, everyone will be so thrilled to be working and competing again that it’ll seem like nothing ever changed.

No matter what, I’ll be glued to all the above competitions and their preshows. If anything, the red carpet will be a cavalcade of looks shelved from all the canceled or postponed film premieres and festivals. And while actors had to stay mum during the strike, leaving journos like me to (perhaps refreshingly) interview directors and screenwriters for a change, the floodgates will now be open and the thesps can use their red-carpet time to spout at length about who they’re wearing and what they’re doing.

On the bright side, unlike the last Tonys, the upcoming telecasts can use writers. But I can only hope those scribes don’t come up with their usual cringe-inducing shtick—the “comedy” bits that make you want to scream, “Just name the nominees!”

I also hope someone adds a category for “Worst Strike Breaker.” This could be Drew Barrymore’s first Emmy. —Michael Musto

SCREEN ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES

architect and designer Lauren Rottet, founder of Rottet Studio and Rottet Collection. “There are so many charities dealing with so many worthy causes and I want to participate in them all, but that is impossible. The ask to donate comes literally daily.

Sorting through them, figuring out which ones are the most direct and which ones to support, is challenging.” Rottet spends time in Los Angeles, New York City, Montauk, and Houston. Both international and local charities, in all of those places, reach out to her. She researches what each does with the funds they’re given and uses that to determine her specific involvement.

“There is nothing like being personally involved on the ground experiencing giving directly with your own hands,” she adds. But with a family and a business, she says, “I feel donating financially is the next most helpful.” Rottet personally supports Africa Renewal (ARM), the Peconic Land Trust, Preservation Houston, as well as the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture endowment, among so many more. Her firm sponsors “We Care” in Los Angeles, which is run by volunteers who focus on the homeless, sheltering people and pets, and Recipe for Success in Houston.

With a scope of commitment so extensive, donating is far more effective than slotting in a gala, and its excessive prep and transit time, every day for an entire season.—DAVID GRAVER

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Beachy Keen Palm Beach is a booming foodie destination. Beth Landman takes a bite.

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he Palm Beach dining scene has become increasingly vibrant over the last few years due to a spate of New York restaurateurs opening outposts in the tony enclave. La Goulue, Swifty’s, Le Bilboquet, and SantAmbroeus all unveiled locations in Palm Beach, and Gabby Karan’s Tutto il Giorno has just taken space in Royal Poinciana Plaza, with plans to open a location there next year. The newest arrivals: Felice, which opened last season; Harry’s, which premiered in June; and Sushi by Bou, which is about to debut at the PGA National Resort.

Felice 360 SOUTH ROSEMARY AVENUE, WEST PALM BEACH felicerestaurants.com

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The Related Companies, a New York real estate behemoth, helped transform West Palm Beach into what is commonly referred to as “Wall Street South,” with branches of Goldman Sachs and top hedge funds moving in to South Rosemary Avenue. Felice, the more casual sister of Sant Ambroeus, which was born on the Upper East Side, also signed a lease there and began serving its first meals last Christmas. By February, there wasn’t a free seat at the front high-tops, lounge, or wraparound bar, where people were nibbling on fried baby artichoke and calamari. Nor was there room on the leather banquettes and outdoor patio, where diners were enjoying red Argentinian shrimp with avocado and jalapeño; handmade rigatoni with organic and smoked salmon; or crispy chicken Milanese. Even people from the island, who rarely crossed the bridge for dinner, began venturing west for Tuscan food and a vibrant wine bar with a full menu of Negronis.

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Harry’s 384 SOUTH ROSEMARY AVENUE, WEST PALM BEACH harrysbarrestaurant.com

Sushi by Bou 400 AVENUE OF THE CHAMPIONS, PALM BEACH GARDENS sushibybou.com

Palm Beach didn’t have many sushi options, but David Bouhadana has come to town. He opened his flagship Sushi by Bou in Midtown, winning raves for creative omakase and theatrical pyrotechnics in dishes like torched toro with truffle sauce, as well as his timed concept of 30- and 60-minute-long seatings, which kept the fish fresh and the prices down. He soon spread throughout the city to the Hamptons and Ft. Lauderdale, and now the Florida native has expanded to more locations in his home state: Miami, West Palm, Boca Raton, and the newest inside the PGA National Resort, which just underwent a $100 million renovation. This latest sushi outpost offers a 12-seat sushi bar set amongst a 1920s Palm Beach theme.

Al Fresco 2345 SOUTH OCEAN BOULEVARD, PALM BEACH alfrescopb.com

One place many New Yorkers are not familiar with, but locals love, is Al Fresco, and it’s one of surprisingly few restaurants where you can experience the magic of watching waves and breathing ocean air while enjoying a meal.

Located on Palm Beach’s Par 3 Golf Course, it has views of both the Atlantic and Intracoastal, and draws guests among the duffer set starting at 7:30 in the morning, but it’s also a romantic evening choice. A brick oven turns out an array of thin-crust pizzas; meatballs are made with veal, beef, ricotta, and spicy tomato; and pillows of ravioli all’aragosta are stuffed with Maine lobster and mascarpone. Mediterranean branzino shares a menu with local pompano piccata, and those who prefer something heartier can sink their teeth into a 10-ounce tenderloin, served with a cognac-peppercorn sauce. You may be surprised at the quality of the food, but perhaps you wouldn’t be if you knew it has the same owners as the legendary Renato’s off Worth Avenue.

Bice 313 1/2 WORTH AVENUE, PALM BEACH bice-palmbeach.com

An outpost of the famed Milanese restaurant, this has become one of the island’s most popular gathering places. Located in the heart of Worth Avenue, with a picturesque garden out back, it serves up an array of Tuscan-influenced dishes, including crab salad with roasted pumpkin, arugula, romaine, corn, and lemon oil; paccheri with lobster, asparagus, and brandy; and veal chop with wild mushroom sauce.

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Flagler Steakhouse 2 SOUTH COUNTY ROAD, PALM BEACH thebreakers.com

The Breakers has more than spacious oceanfront rooms and a magnificent lobby—it also has collection of the town’s top restaurants, and this American dining room is one of the most picturesque. Beamed ceilings, wood furnishings, chandeliers, and graphic art lend warmth to the interior, while an outdoor terrace overlooks the famed golf course and island beyond. Start with sweet corn and lobster chowder, stone crab claws, or grilled artichoke hearts. In addition to a selection of Black Angus aged USDA prime steaks, including a tomahawk rib chop, and 12 different sauces or crusts, there are options such as rack of lamb and local catch.

Savor 100 SOUTH OCEAN BOULEVARD, PALM BEACH eaupalmbeach.com

What could be more relaxing than enjoying lunch by the ocean after experiencing an indulgent therapeutic treatment? The Eau Palm Beach recently opened this terrace café next to its whimsical spa, offering such healthy options as stone fruit salad with grilled peaches, pickled plums, and watercress in an apricotginger dressing; an ancient grain bowl of farro, smoked salmon, egg, French green beans, and toybox tomato in a lemon-oregano vinaigrette; and grilled teriyaki chicken on brown rice with pineapple, avocado, and mango salsa.

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The finance crowd is also feeling at home at Harry’s, the New York steak house that has been a Wall Street watering hole since the ’70s and opened this summer. Situated in downtown’s “Square,” it offers creative variations on classics, such as smoked-trout deviled eggs and Barolo risotto with braised Wagyu beef cheek, along with more traditional choices like rack of lamb, bone-in NY strip steak, and swordfish. There are also a host of satisfying sides, from polenta fries with truffle aioli to roasted asparagus with blistered tomatoes. Harry’s is known for its impressive wine list, with sommelier selections by the glass that allow diners to enjoy outstanding vintages without indulging in the full bottle.

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“My generation isn’t doing anything, we need the young people,” says artist Marilyn Minter. “We need everybody to get involved. It only takes two people to organize; it will explode sooner or later.”

A Cross-Country Journey for Bodily Autonomy

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COURTESY OF PROJECT FOR EMPTY SPACE

The new initiative from Project for Empty Space argues the importance of community. Annabel Keenan speaks to cofounders Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Pauline Jampol to learn more.

BODIES ELECTRIC Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Pauline Jampol, cofounders of Project for Empty Space, a Newark-based arts nonprofit.

rtists and culture can change society.

We will do everything to support them,” says Jasmine Wahi, curator and cofounder of Project for Empty Space (PES), the Newark-based arts nonprofit. Along with PES codirector Rebecca Pauline Jampol, Wahi is curating an ambitious, three-part exhibition to raise awareness about the importance of bodily autonomy. Titled “BODY FREEDOM FOR EVERY(BODY),” the initiative is the latest from PES that reflects the team’s ongoing support of socially oriented artists—support that encompasses programs, exhibitions, residencies, and subsidized studios.

Featuring artists such as Marilyn Minter and Laurie Simmons, who are also both cocreators of the project, “BODY FREEDOM FOR EVERY(BODY)” will include a mobile, cross-country exhibition; activations and programming in New York City; and a digital database. With events beginning in May, the project will unfold over the course of the year leading up to election day in November.

The artists PES works with center their practices on the interconnected factors that inform body freedom. Across all facets of the project, the artists represent diverse and intergenerational voices.

“My generation isn’t doing anything, we need the young people,” says artist Marilyn Minter. “We need everybody to get involved. It only takes two people to organize; it will explode sooner or later.”

“BODY FREEDOM FOR EVERY(BODY)” is an expansion of “ABORTION IS NORMAL,” a series of exhibitions that PES began organizing in 2019 as a response to the restriction of reproductive freedom. This earlier project was an urgent call-

to-action that aimed to fundraise and advocate for safe, accessible, and legal abortion. The shift to “BODY FREEDOM FOR EVERY(BODY)” reflects an understanding of the challenges facing bodily autonomy and health care more broadly.

“Since 2020, there has been an acceleration of restrictions not just on reproductive health care, but also on LGBTQIA, trans, and nonbinary folks. It’s a larger issue with many interconnected factors,” Wahi says.

For the mobile exhibition space, the team is transforming a 27-foot truck that they will drive across the country for six weeks beginning in July, stopping for as short as two days depending on how many places they can travel. The target locations include areas that will have the most impact from a voter initiative standpoint, such as purple and swing states. PES is working with local partners, including arts institutions, grassroots health care advocacy groups, and legal and human rights organizations. As they build the itinerary, PES plans to identify areas that need community and add as many stops as possible to reach a broad audience.

“In election year, one of the biggest goals is getting education and support to as many people as we can. The truck will allow us to plant ourselves in strategic locations across the country where we can share information about body freedoms in various forms. Our priority will be to create safe space, conversation, and community in the places that need it the most,” says Jampol.

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“Community is everything,” Minter says. “If one person can see you and hear you, it changes everything.”

The artworks in the truck will directly respond to the theme of body freedom and the team will organize programs to educate and engage the communities they visit through conversation and celebration. The truck will provide a safe space for visitors to learn, heal, and share their stories. “With all of these initiatives, we hope to extend a support system and healing space to people who might feel alone or misunderstood, as well as those who aren’t sure how they feel about abortion and reproductive care, or how it even relates to them,” says Jampol.

“Support can build community and possibly even change someone’s opinion on the issues.”

Minter echoes these sentiments. “Community is everything,” she says. “If one person can see you and hear you, it changes everything.”

The cross-country trip will culminate in New York City where they will continue programming at local partner spaces, including commercial 20

galleries and cultural institutions, as well as nonart venues to broaden their reach. They will also host programming in PES’s new location in downtown Manhattan. “In some cases, it might be as simple as parking the truck outside of a gallery and handing out flyers,” says Jampol.

The final component of “BODY FREEDOM FOR EVERY(BODY)” will be a digital archive displaying work by artists from across the country and amplifying messages of resistance and community. The curated digital space will continue the discourse on the project’s theme of bodily autonomy and provide users with a platform to connect with one another and share resources and educational materials.

It will also have a database of resources for those seeking help. While organized by state, the archive represents a borderless space and site of resistance beyond state-specific regulations.

“Community transcends geography,” says Wahi.

“With all of our projects, but even more so with our digital archive, we want to send a message that even if you may never see us in real life, we are here, you are here, and you have us.”

MARILYN MINTER; VIVA RUIZ/THANK GOD FOR ABORTION

ARTISTIC CALL TO ACTION Above: Marilyn Minter, Cuntrol, 2020. Left: Viva Ruiz, Thank God for Abortion, Vaticano, 2019.

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The Condominium is not owned, developed, or sold by Major Food Groups or its affiliates (“MFG”). This condominium is being developed by 710 Edge Property, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“Developer”), which has a limited right to use the trademarked names and logos of Terra, One Thousand Group and which uses the Villa marks under a license from MFG, which has not confirmed the accuracy of any of the statements or representations made about the project by the Developer. Any and all statements, disclosures and/or representations shall be deemed made by Developer you agree to look solely to Developer with respect to any and all matters relating to the marketing and/or development of the Condominium and with respect to the sales of units in the Condominium. Oral representations cannot be relied upon as correctly stating the representations of the developer. For correct representations, make reference to this brochure and to the documents required by section 718.503, Florida statutes, to be furnished by a developer to a buyer or lessee. These materials are not intended to be an offer to sell, or solicitation to buy a unit in the condominium. Such an offering shall only be made pursuant to the prospectus (offering circular) for the condominium and no statements should be relied upon unless made in the prospectus or in the applicable purchase agreement. In no event shall any solicitation, offer or sale of a unit in the condominium be made in, or to residents of, any state or country in which such activity would be unlawful. All images and designs depicted herein are artist’s conceptual renderings, which are based upon preliminary development plans, and are subject to change without notice in the manner provided in the offering documents. All such materials are not to scale and are shown solely for illustrative purposes. Renderings depict proposed views, which are not identical from each residence. No guarantees or representations whatsoever are made that existing or future views of the project and surrounding areas depicted by artist’s conceptual renderings or otherwise described herein, will be provided or, if provided, will be as depicted or described herein. Any view from a residence or from other portions of the property may in the future be limited or eliminated by future development or forces of nature and the developer in no manner guarantees the continuing existence of any view. Furnishings are only included if and to the extent provided in your purchase agreement. The project graphics, renderings and text provided herein are copyrighted works owned by the Developer. All rights reserved. WARNING: THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF REAL ESTATE HAS NOT INSPECTED, EXAMINED, OR QUALIFIED THIS OFFERING.

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A SCENE EMERGES Inside the vibrant art world of South Florida, where international galleries and cultural institutions are thriving

BY ANNABEL KEENAN

CHIC STREETS Chanel, Gucci, Fendi (2023), part of the show “Deborah Brown: Street Smarts,” on view at Gavlak Palm Beach until January 14, 2024.

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DEBORAH BROWN/GAVLAK PALM BEACH/NWAW

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hile South Florida becomes a cultural hub during Art Basel Miami Beach each December, a vibrant art scene is thriving year-round in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. The area is home to acclaimed institutions, including the Norton Museum of Art, the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, and the National Historic Landmark-listed Flagler Museum, as well as internationally renowned resorts, such as the Breakers. Top galleries operate permanent spaces there, including Gavlak and Acquavella Galleries, while others have seasonal spots, such as TW Fine Art and Ben Brown Fine Arts. As a new year begins, cultural leaders who have committed to working in the area reflect on what brought them there and the flourishing scene that keeps them going.

The tri-county area of South Florida has been synonymous with luxury and sophistication since the early 20th century. As Palm Beach and West Palm developed, galleries opened to provide locals with work by leading artists of previous generations, but it wasn’t until the arrival of Art Basel Miami Beach in 2002 that interest in contemporary art began to grow. Just three years after the fair launched, dealer Sarah Gavlak opened Gavlak in West Palm Beach to fill this gap.

“I met collectors in Palm Beach and realized there wasn’t a gallery showcasing international emerging artists with a full exhibition program,” she tells Avenue. “I had a feeling that given the level of sophistication and knowledge among the few collectors that I had met, even though they may

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©2023 THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS, INC./ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK; ©2023 ESTATE OF TOM WESSELMANN/LICENSED BY VAGA AT ARS, NEW YORK

POP GOES THE WORLD From top: Andy Warhol’s Four Jackies, 1964, acrylic and silkscreen on linen; and Tom Wesselmann’s Still Life #34, 1963, acrylic and collage on panel. Both were in Acquavella’s “Painted Pop” show in 2023.

not yet know an artist I am presenting, they have been collecting art for long enough and sitting on museum boards, they have a trained eye.” Indeed, there are several prominent collectors and philanthropists with homes in the area, including Jane Holzer, Howard and Judie Ganek, and Beth Rudin DeWoody.

Gavlak focuses primarily on women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ artists. “Although I did have a few people say I would not be able to show a program of mostly women artists, I stayed true to my passion of supporting women and, finally, the art market caught up,” Gavlak says. The gallery was an early supporter of artists who are now some of the biggest names in contemporary art, including Betty Tompkins, Marilyn Minter, and Simone Leigh. Their January and February exhibitions feature works by Deborah Brown and Maynard Monrow.

Several other galleries operate alongside Gavlak, including Adelson Galleries, Brintz Gallery, Findlay Galleries, and Holden Luntz Gallery. Many of these are interspersed amidst Palm Beach’s renowned shopping along Worth Avenue and the picturesque, historic streets memorialized in glossy monographs like Assouline’s best-selling Palm Beach (2019). To further support the artists she collects, DeWoody opened a private art space called the Bunker Artspace in West Palm in 2017.

In 2020, when art fairs were canceled during the pandemic, several major galleries opened spaces to stay connected with their collectors who had relocated temporarily and permanently to Florida.

While some were intended as pop-ups or have since closed, such as Paula Cooper and Pace, other dealers maintained their locations. Part of the latter

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group is the storied, century-oldAcquavella Galleries, which opened its Palm Beach space in 2020 and has continued to stage exhibitions year-round that complement their New York gallery’s focus on modern and postwar masters, and has helped them expand their expertise by exhibiting more mid-career contemporary artists.

“The art scene in Palm Beach is a very tight-knit and enthusiastic community, with the galleries and museums frequently collaborating together,” gallery co-owner Eleanor Acquavella tells Avenue. “Many of our clients and visitors come by frequently to see our exhibitions, often visiting each of our shows more than once each month.”

The momentum seems to only be growing.

In October, prominent European gallery Kristin Hjellegjerde opened its first-ever space in the United States, choosing West Palm as its home.

“West Palm Beach felt like a natural choice,” founder Kristin Hjellegjerde says. “The most important factor was the support of the local community, which strongly encouraged us and helped us logistically. Our intention is to showcase cutting-edge international art and to give our artists a broader audience. This place felt just right.”

The gallery’s December and January exhibition features stunning, figurative oil paintings by Nigerian artist Nengi Omuku and will be followed by a solo show of works by leading Belgian street artist, Joachim Lambrechts.

In addition to galleries and museums, several art fairs take place annually nearby, including Art Palm Beach Show, which is holding its modern and contemporary art edition January 24 to 28.

The fair stages its more eclectic version devoted 24

NENGI OMUKU: KRISTIN HJELLEGJERDE GALLERY WEST PALM BEACH; JOACHIM LAMBRECHTS: KRISTIN HJELLEGJERDE GALLERY WEST PALM BEACH

MEN OF THE WORLD From top: Nigerian painter Nengi Omuku’s Scattered Sunbeams, 2023; and Belgian street artist Joachim Lambrechts’s Wonder Woman, 2023. Both will be on display at Kristin Hjellegjerde’s West Palm Beach gallery this winter.

AVENUE MAGAZINE | JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2024

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For previous resident artist Manuela Gonzalez, the opportunity allowed her to hone her practice while also engaging with the community. “I loved getting to teach a weaving workshop at [the children’s bookstore and learning center] Rohi’s Readery and talking to folks who walked into my studio, curious about what I was doing,” Gonzalez tells Avenue. “As an artist you often work in isolation. Discussion and engagement reminds us that art can be a tool for connection and community building.”

As Palm Beach and West Palm Beach continue to grow as a cultural center, locals and snowbirds alike can look to nonprofits like New Wave and the expanding list of galleries for inspiration, to discover leading names in contemporary art, and to fill their walls.

RESIDENT CREATIVE Manuela Gonzalez’s Madre Selva, 2023. Acrylic on mixed fabrics.

MANUELA GONZALEZ: NEW WAVE

to jewelry, design, art, and antiques from February 15 to 20. Later in the spring, Art Miami will host the Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary fair (March 21 to 24).

With this robust commercial support, the infrastructure for contemporary art is undeniably solid, but local galleries wanted to support the artistic community itself. To this end, Gavlak founded New Wave Art Wknd in 2018 to celebrate the flourishing contemporary art scene in South Florida apart from Miami and host programming on urgent social issues. In 2020, New Wave launched a residency that brings an artist from diverse and underserved communities to West Palm for six to eight weeks.

They have hosted 15 artists thus far and became a nonprofit in 2021.

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Career Edit

“I

t still feels quite surreal to even be able to talk about this,” Vanessa Lawrence says of her first interview for her debut novel, Ellipses.

It’s not just that the process of writing and publishing a book is a massive ordeal. (It is.)

It’s also that this interview is something of a role reversal. For the past two decades, the writer has worked for magazines covering fashion, culture, and society, often asking other people about their work. Now, she’s on the other side of the phone.

Despite describing herself as an introvert, there’s no hint of reticence in our conversation.

“I’m really proud of this book,” she says. “[It’s] not something I expected to have happen in my life.”

Ellipses follows Lily, a writer in her mid-30s

28

who realizes her life has gone adrift. Impacted by shifts in digitization, her career feels increasingly dead end. Her relationship with her girlfriend, Alison, has hit a rough patch. And though she is young, she feels the looming presence of a ticking clock—a sense of urgency that if she doesn’t figure it out now, she’ll lose her chance. It’s at this crossroads that Billie, the glamorous CEO of a beauty empire, enters her life, offering an informal mentorship. And there begins a journey of confusion and obsession—Lily’s inability to figure out what Billie sees in her or what she wants from their exchange only fuels Lily’s obsession with the executive. Their relationship is at once encouraging and distracting.

Lawrence herself has never had a mentor. But

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Author Vanessa Lawrence made a name for herself at major fashion magazines before ditching her job to pursue an MFA in writing. The switch-up paid off.

Ahead of the release of her debut novel, Aria Darcella uncovers why she decided to pivot.

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the professional tension between her protagonist and antagonist—women of different ages, different backgrounds, and at different stages in their careers—is something she’s come across throughout her adult life. “Women in different generations have super divergent views often about how they’re supposed to be in the world; what it means to be a successful woman,” she explains. “Ideas around women’s equality, representation, empowerment shifts so much from decade to decade and so a woman in her 50s has been raised with very different expectations compared to a woman in her 30s. In my experience, that does sometimes create this clashing, these gaps in communication. This inability to see eye to eye… I find that tension fascinating. Because, ultimately, both of these characters want the same thing. They just want to be successful in whatever industry or goals they’re pursuing. But they 30

“Ideas around women’s equality, representation, empowerment shifts so much from decade to decade and so a woman in her 50s has been raised with very different expectations compared to a woman in her 30s.”

—Vanessa Lawrence

have such different ideas of how they’re going to achieve that.”

While its portrayal of working at a fashion magazine or covering glamorous parties is deliciously accurate, Lawrence’s broader exploration of a mid-30s crisis is what will click for many readers. A major element in millennial angst is questioning the paths we’re on, and how far we really want to pursue them. “I really see it as a coming-of-age story. At its heart, that’s what it is: a young woman who’s trying to understand how to have agency,” she says. “There is that coming of age later in life. It was something I’ve seen across friends and other people I’ve interacted with, this thing of a lot of young women in their 30s having this feeling of, ‘I’ve done everything I’m supposed to, I checked all those things that I was supposed to do. And yet I still don’t feel like I’m a fully whole adult.’”

Lawrence, a native New Yorker, studied history at Yale before launching into a two-decade career in magazines. Over the years she’s written for Women’s Wear Daily and W magazine. But by her mid-30s she began having ideas she didn’t feel comfortable exploring in a magazine setting.

Fiction seemed a more appropriate avenue for her thoughts. She wrote a manuscript for a different novel before writing her first draft of Ellipses in 2020. In the fall of 2021, she quit her magazine gig and entered into an MFA writing program at Sarah Lawrence College. Only one semester later, she sold Ellipses.

“The MFAwas really like a creative reset period,” she says. “I really wanted to take the time to study the craft of fiction writing. It was just about expanding myself as a writer, and really looking at writing as a creative medium and not just through the lens of journalism.”

There are, of course, creative aspects to journalism, especially when writing for magazines.

But, as Lawrence points out, journalism has limitations—writers are bound by facts, word counts, and the nature of the publications they work for. By pursuing fiction, Lawrence seems to have tapped into boundless creativity, as well as personal growth. All she had to do was get past the daunting possibilities of a blank page. “[With journalism] I always had these long transcripts and research… you’re trying to distill that down to whatever limited word count you have,” she explains. “Whereas with a novel or short story, you’re layering from the ground up.

My journalism work felt more like sculpture, like chiseling down. My fiction work feels more like painting—layering and layering.”

Ellipses by Vanessa Lawrence (Dutton) is available March 5, 2024.

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Such an offering shall only be made pursuant to the prospectus (offering circular) for the condominium and no statements should be relied upon unless made in the prospectus or in the applicable purchase agreement. In no event shall any solicitation, offer or sale of a unit in the condominium be made in, or to residents of, any state or country in which such activity would be unlawful. FOR NEW YORK RESIDENTS: THE COMPLETE OFFERING TERMS ARE IN A CPS-12 APPLICATION AVAILABLE FROM THE OFFEROR. FILE NO. CP21-0065. All images and designs depicted herein are artist’s conceptual renderings, which are based upon preliminary development plans, and are subject to change without notice in the manner provided in the offering documents. All such materials are not to scale and are shown solely for illustrative purposes. Renderings depict proposed views, which are not identical from each residence. No guarantees or representations whatsoever are made that existing or future views of the project and surrounding areas depicted by artist’s conceptual renderings or otherwise described herein, will be provided or, if provided, will be as depicted or described herein. Any view from a residence or from other portions of the property may in the future be limited or eliminated by future development or forces of nature and the developer in no manner guarantees the continuing existence of any view. Furnishings are only included if and to the extent provided in your purchase agreement. The project graphics, renderings and text provided herein are copyrighted works owned by the Developer. All rights reserved.

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SHE’S BEEN AN EYEWITNESS WITH A FRONT SEAT TO THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY IN TECH.

WHEN IT COMES TO KEEPING POWERFUL PEOPLE IN THE TECH WORLD IN CHECK, KARA SWISHER HAS MADE A CAREER PROVING THE PEN (OR KEYBOARD) IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD. GEORGE HAHN FINDS A MOMENT IN SWISHER’S BUSY SCHEDULE TO DISCUSS HER NEW TOME, BURN BOOK, AND CALL OUT SOME OF THE INDUSTRY’S WORST OFFENDERS.

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PHILIP MONTGOMERY

CRACKING THE CODERS

hen I heard Kara Swisher was writing a memoir about her experiences covering the tech industry and its founders, I confess I was a little giddy because there is no better person for the job. When tech leaders heard she was writing the book, I imagine many of them were legitimately uncomfortable.

In a journalism career that has spanned over 25 years, Swisher has literally interviewed everyone who’s anyone in an industry that has changed our lives, shifted our culture, and created more wealth than any other. She’s been an eyewitness with a front-row seat to the good, the bad, and the ugly in tech.

She is the one person who is both revered and feared among the Silicon Valley founder fraternity (and a few of the women they’ve allowed in), and she is the person who famously made Mark Zuckerberg sweat profusely during an interview. What would she say in the book? Would she name names?

Of course she would. The title of the memoir is, after all, Burn Book (Simon & Schuster), in a callback to the classic 2004 film, Mean Girls. And the mean girls in Swisher’s story are those tech founders and leaders along with their sycophants and water carriers. “I’ve been writing these things down, and I want people to see it,” she said. “A ‘burn book’ is not untrue. It’s just not nice. But it’s really funny.”

I caught up with Swisher during her hair appointment with her longtime stylist, April Barton, at Suite 303 in NoHo. The first question that occurred to me was, “Why write this book now, as opposed to 10 years ago or 10 years from now?”

“I felt like 25 years was enough time to have an assessment. My attitude towards tech started off as a love story, and it turned into a bad relationship, essentially,” she explained. “[Tech founders] have been so important in our society. And I’d already been warning people over the last 10 years about the power, the monopolization, and the lack of responsibility. And so, I really wanted to put it all into one place.”

Swisher started focusing on tech as a cub reporter working the retail beat at the Washington Post. David Ignatius, the editor at the time, assigned her to the tech beat because she was “the only one who (slightly) understood the technology. I had begun to see the impact of technology then, even in retail.”

Today, it’s easy to take tech for granted because it’s all around us: in our pockets, on our wrists, in our ears. It enables us to order food, book a flight, hail a ride, or even get laid. We get our thoughts and photos instantly validated by thousands of strangers on social media. With technology wielding so much influence over our lives, those creating and running it have become the most powerful people on the planet. “They’re the richest by far except the Saudis and Bernard Arnault.

It’s pretty much tech people who occupy the top rungs of power and money in the world.” Swisher wants them to be

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WATCHFUL EYES Author Kara Swisher’s new book looks at the tech world’s most controversial figures and keeps score.

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Though the “burn book” language can suggest a relentlessly dark story, there have been figures (or parts of them) who did it right and created something truly inspiring. Steve Jobs’s vision of the future, according to Swisher, was actually somewhat kind. His idea of “beauty, facilitation, literature, mixing art and technology” made his message a better one. A relatively unknown figure named Tony Fadell created the iPod, which changed how we collect and consume music. Satya Nadella (the CEO of Microsoft) “took a company that was really quite a regressive, nasty company and turned it into a more useful kind of technology.” Despite some of the abuses that were later discovered, Swisher reminded me that Airbnb was a great idea, as was Uber.

When I asked who among the big tech figures were especially egregious, she didn’t hesitate. “Oh, all of them, to an extent. It waxes and wanes.” Travis Kalanick, cofounder of Uber, is “a stock villain: no empathy... growth at all costs... childish... misogynist... that kind of stuff.” Mark Zuckerberg,

by Swisher’s account, is a friendly guy who was ultimately ignorant of the damage going on with

RED-HOT READ Swisher’s new tome, Burn Book.

SIMON & SCHUSTER

responsible and held accountable for the consequences of their products.

Swisher first came onto my radar in 2018, when she was a guest on Tina Brown’s too-shortlived podcast, TBD. Tech was something in which I’d always harbored a keen interest, and I vividly remember the impression Swisher made on me in that episode as she spoke of tech and its innovators, founders, and leaders with respect, but not reverence. She made the subject interesting, fun, and—dare I say—sexy.

By 2020, I was a regular listener to Pivot, the hit tech/business/politics podcast she cohosts with NYU marketing professor Scott Galloway, and Sway, the podcast she did for the New York Times where she interviewed the powerful and influential.

I willfully inserted myself onto her social media radar and eventually earned a follow-back on Twitter (before Elon Musk bought it and handily destroyed the platform, renaming it “X”).

Since then, I’ve been a guest cohost on Pivot several times and consider her a good friend.

Among the things I appreciate most about her are her directness and insistence on the truth. She has zero tolerance for bullshit. And, since bullshit is the most widely spoken dialect in Silicon Valley, Swisher’s work is never done.

She also seems to have fun with it. In her book, she breaks down an idea she calls “The Prickto-Productivity Ratio.” Essentially, if you’re a prick (of which there are many in tech), you have to balance it out with high productivity. “It’s the kind of thing where you give someone a tiny bit more leeway if they really contribute,” she said. I asked about Elon Musk’s prick-to-productivity ratio. “His prick ratio is high. He’s not that productive, or he’s not worth it because he’s damaging,” she says. “It used to be garden variety prick-ery, like parking your car in a handicap zone, like [Steve] Jobs did, or errant yelling. Now, it’s really damaging stuff that Elon has perpetrated. The nastiness, the antisemitism, the homophobia... stuff like that. Then it becomes very different. There’s no amount of productivity that counts with that kind of pricky-ness.”

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SPEAKER-IN-CHIEF Swisher commanding the stage at Vox Media’s 2023 Code Conference on tech and media in Laguna Niguel, California.

PHOTO BY JEROD HARRIS/GETTY IMAGES FOR VOX MEDIA

SO, WHAT IS THE COMMON FATAL FL AW AMONG THESE GIANTS? ARROGANCE. “A PERSISTENT NEED TO BE RIGHT, WHICH HAS NOW DEGENER ATED INTO VICTIMIZ ATION. THEY FEEL LIKE THEY ’RE MISUNDERSTOOD WHEN THEY ’RE NOT.”

Facebook and Instagram or didn’t care to know.

“Most of these people are a mixed bag. Elon’s the new villain,” she says. “It used to be Bill Gates, but now he’s giving away a lot of money and he’s focused on climate change tech. Except for that trip to Epstein’s island... he certainly has been trying to take his legacy and make it into something better.”

So, what is the common fatal flaw among these giants? Arrogance. “A persistent need to be right, which has now degenerated into victimization.

They feel like they’re misunderstood when they’re not.” Swisher cites Marc Andreessen as an example.

He invented the browser, creating Mosaic and cofounding Netscape, and “has now become just a ridiculous caricature of a really wealthy guy who’s

completely missing the narrative. Initially, that contrarianism can be a positive trait,” Swisher continued. “But then it can degenerate and curdle into a nastiness.” (See Elon Musk.)

When she’s not traveling for speaking engagements or interviews, Swisher bides most of her time between San Francisco, where she’s had a house for many years, and Washington, DC, which is her current home base with her wife, Washington Post opinion editor Amanda Katz, and their two young children. Swisher shares two older sons with her first wife, engineer and technologist Megan Smith.

In addition to her award-winning podcasts and the book, Swisher just recently joined the panel on the Chris Wallace Show, which airs on

CNN and streams on CNNMax on Saturday mornings at 10 AM. With such a busy schedule, two grown sons, a wife, and two toddlers at home, I had to wonder what my favorite five-foot-two media dominatrix does in her downtime.

“Nothing. I have children. I don’t have any downtime. I watch TV—and I get my hair done.”

And get it done she did. With a fresh cut and color, she joined me on a subway ride uptown.

She was off to the 92nd Street Y to interview Brian Stelter about his new book on Fox News, and I was on my way home to take a nap. Because I have downtime, and Kara Swisher doesn’t.

Burn Book by Kara Swisher is available February 27 from Simon & Schuster.

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Big Ben The Rise of

British actor Ben Radcliffe is taking flight in Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg’s WWII series, Masters of the Air. George Hahn speaks with the future superstar from London.

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“

Stepping onto set every single day felt immersive. It felt like you were in that world, it was so vast.

”

Photography by Bella Howard Grooming: Kieron Lavine for the Visionaries Photo assistant: Freddie Bell Wardrobe: Tierney McMaster Shot on location at Langan’s Brasserie in London

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L

et’s clear some air right out of the gate: Ben Radcliffe has no relation to Daniel Radcliffe, though the same last name and the British accent will inevitably inspire people to make that incorrect assumption. The question comes up so often, though, that the younger Radcliffe says he’s “started telling people he’s my dad.”

At 25, Ben Radcliffe is in the middle of an impressive résumé build that included a terrific role as the younger Rupert Friend in last year’s hit Neflix limited series Anatomy of a Scandal, also starring Sienna Miller and Michelle Dockery.

Other notable credits include 2014’s Cuban Fury and last year’s third season of The Witcher.

Radcliffe’s latest project is the new Apple TV+ series Masters of the Air, a nine-episode World War II drama about 11 U.S. airmen in a flying battle against the Nazis. Created by John Shiban and John Orloff and produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the series also stars Austin Butler, Callum Turner, and Barry Keoghan.

After recording a single six-line audition scene with casting director Lucy Bevan, who had also cast him in Anatomy of a Scandal, Radcliffe landed the role. “It was a pretty huge moment in my life,” he says about getting the job. “You see those names that are attached and you’re like, ‘Yeah, okay!’”

Originally intended for HBO, the series went to Apple TV+ with a $250 million budget. Masters of the Air was the highest-profile job Radcliffe had booked up to that point.

That high profile delivers a certain production value. With big names and spending power in

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the mix, the scale and realism of the show was felt among the actors. “Stepping onto set every single day felt immersive. It felt like you were in that world,” recalls Radcliffe. “It was so vast.” For shooting the flying sequences, whether with part of a plane or a whole plane, no green screens were used. Instead, the environment around the plane on set was surrounded by LED screens. “You’d look out the window, and not only is the plane moving, but you’re looking at enemy fighter jets coming toward you and seeing the flack explode.

It’s like I don’t even have to act. I feel like I’m in the plane. It’s crazy.”

In Masters, Radcliffe plays Captain John D. Brady, who was an actual airman in the 100th Bombardment Group of the U.S. Air Force, as were all the main characters in the show. “Everything we did as part of the prep was trying to be as specific as we could to honor those heroes, even down to the accents... the specifics of where everyone was from,” he explains. “Mine was upstate New York.”

Prior to filming, Radcliffe and his castmates went through a weeklong intensive boot camp with training by actor and legendary Hollywood military advisor Dale Dye, who’s also a Vietnam veteran with a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. Dye’s instruction drilled “down to the most specific things, like how you would hold your gun, how you would wear your jacket... things like that.” Covid restrictions enabled the training cast members to spend their nights in a plush hotel. “But during the day,” says Radcliffe, “we were out in the cold all day, wearing our flight suits, all of the gear.” Dye would give them lectures on the planes, the history, “the whole world of being in the 100th Bomb Squadron.”

You’d look out the window, and not only is the plane moving, but you’re looking at enemy fighter jets coming toward you and seeing the flack explode.

It’s like I don’t even have to act.

I feel like I’m in the plane. It’s crazy.

”

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YOUNG BLUE EYES Radcliffe is all smiles in a Peregrine fisherman sweater, $188.

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Especially with a period piece, there’s always that last layer of character development that comes when an actor finally gets to put on the clothes of the person he’s playing. “[The costume is] always a huge part of it, I think, for every character I’ve ever done,” says Radcliffe. “This one, especially. You step into that flight suit. You’ve got so many layers on. You’ve got a big jacket, the big gloves... You’ve got your headset on. You do hold your body differently.” He asserts that the clothing and gear of these pilots adds a bit more swagger. “They all look really cool.”

Radcliffe really enjoyed working with his Masters of the Air costars and speaks fondly of the actors with whom he spent nine months on a rigorous shoot. “It was just so cool to be with those guys. To learn from them… It was just full of lessons for me. They’re just really talented actors. Barry Keoghan is one of my favorite actors.

He’s just so good.” When I asked what it was like working with Elvis, he reminded me that Austin Butler’s breakout film had yet to be released.

“When we were filming, we all were aware that Austin was about to become a megastar,” he says.

“But he wasn’t yet, at the time. He’s really lovely.

Just a very nice guy—welcoming and kind. And he knew everyone’s names. Everyone. And there’s a lot of people on that job. He treated everyone with so much respect.”

When one spends so much time deeply immersed in a story about the bravery, valor, and heroism of real people—playing one of those people— there must be profound takeaways. “There are so many things, I wouldn’t know where to start.”

Then he thinks for a moment. “Doing something that was a real part of history. That was pretty cool.

Playing a real person, having to honor that, was immense pressure.” The gravity of the story of the 70

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SUITED FOR STARDOM This page: Radcliffe dons a Richard James jacket, $995, and matching trousers, $395.

Jewelry his own.

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“

Doing something that was a real part of history. That was pretty cool. Playing a real person, having to honor that, was immense pressure.

”

TEDDY BOY Bundled up on the streets of London in a Richard James “teddy bear” coat, $2,295, and turtleneck sweater, $795.

“Bloody Hundredth,” as the 100th Bombardment Group became known, is not lost on Radcliffe.

“This story is incredible. It’s unfathomable, what these men went through.”

Ben Radcliffe was born in 1998 to a father who owned fruit machine businesses that one would find in small casinos and a mother who works for the National Health Service (NHS). Earlier in her life, his mother was a dancer, and was very encouraging to the young Radcliffe and his sister, who currently performs on cruise ships, confirming that show business is a bit of a family business.

I always assumed the British were better at American accents than Americans doing British accents because of training they received in drama school. Radcliffe, however, neither attended drama school nor received any formal training. Though there was a dialect coach on Masters of the Air to work with the actors in preproduction and keep them on track while filming, Radcliffe attributes some of his skill and agility with accents to the freedom of playing with different characters from a young age, making little films with his childhood friend Harry, who’s also an actor.

If he weren’t acting? He’d love to be behind the camera, literally, working as a cinematographer or a director. He really lights up when he talks about the craft of filmmaking. And if not show business?

“Building something. Anything. I just like building. A chair—anything.”

Like the many British, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish performers who came before him, found success in Hollywood, and realized they loved Los Angeles or New York, Radcliffe can imagine a world where he lives in one of the two American cities.

But for now? No. His work has exposed him to some great places in other parts of the world, but London is still his favorite. He is just settling into a new house when we speak. “I love London. This is where all my friends are. This is where my life is.”

It turns out Ben Radcliffe is building something after all. He’s building a life. A really nice one.

Masters of the Air premieres on Apple TV+ on January 26.

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FRAG MENTS OF BEAUTY

COLLAGES BY IRIS VAN GELDER

THE SUN ALWAYS SHINES ON WORTH AVENUE, BUT IT’S THE JEWELRY SHOPS THAT TRULY SPARKLE. BETWEEN THE DAZZLE OF THE LIGHT, THE GEMS, AND THE HEAT, IT’S A SURREAL EXPERIENCE. Van Cleef & Arpels parrot brooch from the 1980s with cabochon rubies, emeralds, diamonds, and onyx, set in 18k yellow gold. Price available upon request; yafasignedjewels.com.

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Tiffany & Co. “Jellyfish” earrings in platinum and 18k yellow gold with sapphires, tanzanites, moonstones, and diamonds. Price available upon request; tiffany.com.

Graff “Tribal” bracelet with emeralds and white diamonds set in white gold. Price available upon request; graff.com.

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Fernando Jorge “Disco” diamond and gold earrings. $55,000; greenleafcrosby.com.

Verdura diamond “Sun” cuff. $77,500; greenleafcrosby.com.

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Van Cleef & Arpels “Jardin de la rose” ring with rubellite, colored sapphires, and diamonds in 18k rose gold. Price available upon request; vancleefarpels.com.

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Tiffany & Co. ring in platinum and 18k yellow gold with sapphires, rubellites, and diamonds.

Price available upon request; tiffany.com.

Graff white diamond bangle set in white gold.

Price available upon request; graff.com.

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Van Cleef & Arpels “Scalini” ring with emerald, rubies, and diamonds in 18k white and rose gold. Price available upon request; vancleefarpels.com.

Seaman Schepps “Dresden” cufflinks with citrine and iolite with white enamel, in 18k yellow gold. $7,150; seamanschepps.com.

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Tiffany & Co. earrings in platinum and 18k yellow gold with imperial topaz, hand-carved carnelians, and diamonds. Price available upon request; tiffany.com Tiffany & Co. brooch in platinum and 18k yellow gold with padparadscha sapphires, rubellites and diamonds. Price available upon request; tiffany.com.

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David Webb ear clips in 18k yellow gold and platinum, with white enamel and diamonds. Price available upon request; yafasignedjewels.com.

Bulgari 18k yellow gold necklace from the 1960s, with diamonds and an ancient coin. Price available upon request; yafasignedjewels.com.

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Graff “Tribal” sapphire and diamond earrings in white gold. Price available upon request; graff.com.

Seaman Schepps “Verona” bracelet with pavé sapphires in 18k gold. $10,900; seamanshepps.com

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ESTANCIA VIK JOSÉ IGNACIO

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URUGUAY UNDISCOVERED Staying at Estancia Vik, a Uruguayan ranch on 4,000 acres of rugged wilderness filled with art and surrounded by cattle, Peter Davis lives out a South American gaucho fantasy replete with an authentic asado feast and swimming with horses.

VIVA THE VISTA The 20-meter heated pool at Estancia Vik overlooks 400 acres of wilderness.

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I

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THE FLOOR OF THE POOL HAS FIBER-OPTIC LIGHTS THAT MIRROR THE CONSTELL ATIONS ABOVE AT NIGHT. IT ’S LIKE SWIMMING IN AN IMMERSIVE ART INSTALL ATION.

Saatchi-like collection of art they have personally collected. In the middle of the massive living room sits a 12-foot abstract marble sculpture by world-famous Uruguayan artist Pablo Atchugarry under a “Satellite-scape” ceiling and frieze of José Ignacio and Uruguay by Clever Lara, which was inspired by a Google Earth image of the region. It is Sistine Chapel-esque.

My room is like staying in a private museum.

The suite is named “Seveso” after artist Carlos Seveso, who filled the space with his oil-andacrylic paintings of dreamlike landscapes. The fireplace is framed by an enameled ceramic mural and an octagonal canvas hangs over the king-sized bed with a bed frame painting depicting the laguna

and iconic lighthouse of José Ignacio. I learn that David Rockefeller always stayed in the Seveso suite when he came year after year to Estancia Vik for his birthday in June. He planned to celebrate his 100th birthday at the ranch but died just a few months before he had the chance.

Once I finish unpacking, I am on the road with Ordonez and a few new friends who also flew in from New York. Our first stop is Bodega Garzón, a sprawling winery opened in 2016.

Uruguayan wine is exploding and Bodega Garzón is at the center of the action, with land that boasts some of the world’s oldest granitic soils (dating back 2,500 million years) that make for very tasty vino.

I am hardly a vintner and more impressed by the

PETER DAVIS

t’s not exactly a stylish journey to reach the resort town of José Ignacio in Uruguay. I first fly more than eight hours to Lima, Peru, which is cramped and has bad food (mystery chicken in a gloppy brown sauce and stale bread). After sprinting by Peruvian airport stalls hawking chocolate and alpaca wool hats, I barely make the four-and-a-half-hour flight to Carrasco International Airport in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. It’s not yet 6 AM and I am met by Camila Ordonez, who is in her early 40s and an ecologist and travel guide with Lares Tours. Ordonez wears two different earrings and has her nails painted various Easter egg colors. She is upbeat and constantly smiling— like that Deadhead friend from college who is always game for a trek in the wilderness. Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Ordonez moved to the teensy town of Cabo Polonio, Uruguay, years ago. She is a veritable human encyclopedia of uplifting facts about her adopted country.

“Uruguay is the happy, hippy country,” she declares. “It was the first country in the [Americas] to give women the vote, [the first in the world] to legalize marijuana, and [the first Latin American country to legalize] same-sex marriages.” Before I can wave an imaginary gay flag or mime smoking a joint, she adds: “Uruguay is a secular country.

We have amazing social security, health, and education systems and the entire population [about 3.5 million people] has access to clean water.”

I am already sold as we pull onto the highway.

Before we reach José Ignacio, we pit stop in Punta del Este, a sprawling beach city with recently built skyscrapers that’s like a South American Miami, replete with a Cipriani resort and a booming nightlife scene. I quickly hop out of the car to snap the prerequisite shot in front of La Mano, a gigantic sculpture by Chilean artist Mario Irarrázabal depicting five human fingers emerging from the sand at Brava Beach.

Forty-five minutes later we amble up a long, winding dirt road, past a river and herds of grazing cattle and horses, to Estancia Vik, a 12-suite luxury Spanish colonial ranch designed by Uruguayan architect Marcelo Daglio on 4,000-plus acres of rustic land. With a horse stable nearby, it feels very Montana, and I am ready to live out my South American gaucho dreams in the vast wilderness.

Estancia Vik is the creation of Norwegian billionaire Alexander Vik and his beautiful American wife, Carrie. The Viks, who live in Monaco and seem to always be traveling the globe, also own Playa Vik and Bahia Vik, two beachside luxury resorts nearby. The Viks are art collectors and patrons and, inside the white-washed adobe walls of Estancia Vik—which features open courtyards, gardens, and covered walkways—is a Charles AVENUE MAGAZINE | JANUARY—FEBRUARY 2024

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INSIDE THE WHITE-WASHED ADOBE WALLS OF ESTANCIA VIK—WHICH FEATURES OPEN COURT YARDS, GARDENS, AND COVERED WALKWAY S—IS A CHARLES S AATCHI-LIKE COLLECTION OF ART.

ESTANCIA VIK JOSÉ IGNACIO

COASTAL CULTURE Left: a marble pietà statue commands the chapel designed by Pablo Atchugarry at MACA. Right: a bungalow nestled in the dunes at Bahia Vik.

architecture than the tannat grape, which is a star of the wines made here. Designed by the firm Bórmida & Yanzón, the modern LEED-certified building, made of exposed concrete, wood, steel, and dark glass melded to natural massive rock.

After the wine tour and tasting, we have lunch at the restaurant which has panoramic views of the vineyard and surrounding hills. The eatery’s ambassador and culinary director is Argentine star chef Francis Mallmann, famed for his open-fire Patagonian cooking style. I start with the beetroot hummus with feta cheese and vegetables and then wolf down the braised lamb from Cordero Esteño which sits on a plate with carrot, cashews, fennel, and beef broth.

After lunch we visit the small village of Garzón.

Founded in 1892 as a staging post, it is now more like an abandoned movie set with gray granite buildings, empty streets, and not a human in sight. The main attraction here is, again, Francis Mallmann. His restaurant and boutique hotel are housed in a brick building that once was the town’s general store. There are only about 200 inhabitants, but many local artists have studios in the town and empty storefronts bookend art galleries. The main square is like a postcard, shaded with palm trees that frame a small chapel and social club.

Driving back to Estancia Vik, I feel like J.R. Ewing returning to my massive homestead. To combat the jet lag that starts to creep through my bones,

I take a dip in the heated 20-meter pool, framed by a courtyard that overlooks an endless vista of rugged hills with the now-familiar wild horses and cows lolling about in dusk. Like everything at Estancia Vik, the pool, made of Absolute Nero stone, is a feat of innovative design. The floor of the pool has fiber-optic lights that mirror the constellations above at night. It’s like swimming in an immersive art installation. There are endless activities to do at Estancia Vik: grass tennis courts, golf, fishing in the Arroyo de José Ignacio, a spa, and a polo field (another favorite of David Rockefeller) with Criollo riding horses.

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wife and baby daughter nearby. We eat at a long table in the salon-style dining room surrounded by oil paintings. The Viks tell me that they have a few other art-inspired hotels around the world.

There is Galleria Vik Milano in Italy and Vik Chile, a 29-room hilltop retreat and winery with views of the Andes Mountain range in the Chilean Cachapoal Valley. Each dish we are served is paired with a glass from the Vik’s vineyard and, as a bonus, we are given a bottle of “La Piu Belle,” a cherry-red wine named after the goddess of the Millahue Valley, which is cased in a bottle that is painted with the face of a rouged, cherub-like girl.

The next day, I walk down to the stables to meet the ruggedly handsome head honcho of the ranch, Bautista Yelós, who goes by “Bauti.” As he saddles up a light brown horse named Caramelo, 86

Bauti mentions that he was born in Argentina but feels like a proud Uruguayan. We trot then cantor on horses over open pampas, past herds of grazing cows and a flock of pink flamingos, to the Arroyo de José Ignacio. “The water is going to be freezing,” Bauti warns me with a devilish grin as we reach a river. I quickly discover that I will be swimming bareback with Caramelo. I strip down to my swimming trunks and, holding Caramelo’s mane and a single rein, I slowly get into the river. It’s not that cold (I am known to take dips in the Atlantic in November) and the sensation of floating in the dark blue water above Caramelo who wades across the river is nothing short of a once-in-alifetime adventure. Dripping wet, I dry off and Bauti hands me a steaming hot cup of yerba maté, a caffeine-heavy concoction made of herbs and

sipped from a gourd with a metal straw known as a bombilla. Bauti says he sips maté all day long.

The herbs, soaked in hot water, both warms me up and gives me an immediate spike of energy stronger than a triple shot of espresso. I am sold and make a mental note to switch from Starbucks to maté when I return to New York.

That afternoon Camila takes me to Atchugarry Museum of Contemporary Art (MACA), sculptor Pablo Atchugarry’s over-the-top nonprofit museum which opened in January 2022 in the hills near the beach town of La Barra. The UruguayanCanadian architect Carlos Ott—who gained fame in 1983 when he won the international design competition to construct the Opéra Bastille in Paris—built the astounding arc-like museum, which holds five exhibition spaces and sits on

PETER DAVIS; ESTANCIA VIK JOSÉ IGNACIO

HOTEL ON THE RANGE Clockwise from left: a cow ponders the road, the Spanish colonial-style hotel, and the graffiti-painted tin walls of the hotel’s galpón (grill room).

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STRIKE A POSE Left: the Shack, the wellness center at Bahia Vik, offers yoga classes with Isabella Channing. Below: a sculptural mixed-media portrait of Alexander Vik by Javier Abdala.

FEDE RACCHI; PETER DAVIS

THERE ARE ONLY ABOUT 200 INHABITANTS, BUT MANY LOCAL ARTISTS HAVE STUDIOS IN THE TOWN AND EMPT Y STOREFRONTS BOOKEND ART GALLERIES.

90 acres filled with eucalyptus trees and sculptures that easily give Storm King a run for its cultural money. We zip around the sculpture park in a golf cart and a young docent named Carlos tells us that MACA is the first and only museum in Uruguay promoting global contemporary art. The sculpture on display is truly monumental in breadth and scale—an enormous metal honeycomb-like piece by self-taught artist Verónica Vázquez commands a field and we stop by Atchugarry’s famous chapel, featuring his marble sculpture in the center depicting the pietà.

Before dinner I swing by Bahia Vik, a resort with individually designed bungalows hidden on 10 acres of beach dunes on Playa Mansa. Dinner that night at Estancia Vik is an authentic asado feast, so to prepare for overeating I take a yoga

class with Isabella Channing, who runs the Shack, Playa Vik’s impressive wellness space. Channing grew up in New York City but has lived in Uruguay for years and leads the class in English and Spanish.

After class, I go for a long walk on the beach, past rolling sand dunes before a plunge in the Atlantic Ocean. I can see now why people refer to José Ignacio as being like the Hamptons in the 1960s—before it became overrun with people and overpriced places to have a lobster roll.

Swimming with horses, outdoor art, yoga, an empty beach: I feel completely renewed.

Back at Estancia Vik, Alexander and Carrie have gathered dozens of friends and guests of their Uruguayan resorts to the asado feast. Long tables flank a courtyard near a grill room, inspired by a galpón (a shed used by gauchos to barbecue) with

tin walls painted from floor to ceiling with graffiti like you’re inside a Basquiat painting. Roaring flames from the parilla—the grill used to roast, smoke, and grill the various meats—illuminates the paint drips and brush strokes on the walls.

As we sit eagerly, the asador (the main chef) rolls out an endless feast of rib eye steaks, short ribs, lamb, and crispy chicken, along with a few South American delicacies like blood sausage and sweet breads. Asados are traditionally social events and the Viks table-hop, treating each guest like family.

Stuffed with food, I lie in bed under the round oval painting by Carlos Seveso in my suite. I am amped up by an action-packed day, but I try to drift off to sleep. Instead of counting sheep or cows or pink flamingos, visions of swimming horses float across my eyelids.

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A Taste for the Tropics Celebrity chef Michael White brings his coastal Italian cuisine to the Caribbean.

BY TED HILDNER

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idden inside a secluded tropical oasis at the Cove at Atlantis resort lies the island’s newest treasure in the Bahamas. Renowned chef Michael White, who’s won Michelin Stars and numerous James Beard Awards creating dining sensations like Marea, Lido, and the Lambs Club, has brought his magic to Paradise Island with his latest dining experience, Paranza, named after the trawls or fishing nets dragged along the bottom of the sea. “Paranza is the most important opening in my culinary career

since Marea,” White declares proudly. “Paranza offers an opportunity for me to express my passion for the delicate intricacies of coastal Italian cuisine while exploring new flavors and tastes of the region.” Boldface names have been flocking to the spot recently, including Helena Christensen, Katie Couric, and Adrien Brody with girlfriend, Georgina Chapman.

White masterfully fuses his signature coastal Italian cuisine with the local Caribbean flavors inside a sleek, modern upscale Bahamian version of a Midtown power room. Design studio Jeffrey

KOVAH DUNCOMBE

CARIBBEAN COOL The private dining room at Paranza, Chef Michael White’s new luxe eatery in the Bahamas.

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“PARANZA IS THE MOST IMPORTANT OPENING IN MY CULINARY CAREER SINCE MAREA.” –CHEF MICHAEL WHITE

KOVAH DUNCOMBE

BAHAMIAN BOÎTE Clockwise from top left: Chef Michael White; the dining room at Paranza, his new restaurant at the Cove resort; and a seafood dish on offer.

Beers International imagined the space with soaring ceilings, oversized custom blown-glass chandeliers, brass light fixtures in the shape of seashells, and a temperature-controlled glass wall of expensive wines. Bleached wood details, sandycolored terrazzo, and velvety blue banquets evoke a breezy style. One would forget they were in the Bahamas at all if it weren’t for the large windows overlooking the dramatic tropical beachfront scenery and azure sea.

Known for his innovative spin on authentic Italian fare, White dishes out everything from

ricciola; locally sourced amberjack crudo with Fresno chilis and basil; squid-ink linguine; and polipo, grilled octopus with pancetta borlotti beans and rosemary vinaigrette. There are also the more traditional handmade pastas, seafood risottos, and prime New York strip steaks on offer.

The extensive dessert menu offers a perfect tiramisu and dark chocolate mousse, fresh mango sorbet, guava gelato, and coconut rice pudding with local fruit. As the locals say: “I straight!” which translates to, “It’s all good!”

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“PB

is not for the faint of wallet,” a top broker at Sotheby’s is fond of saying, and never have these words been truer.

As people became less tethered to offices and realized they could easily work from a sunny, resort-style setting as opposed to an inclement urban one, there was a massive exodus of New Yorkers to Palm Beach. Prices skyrocketed and new neighborhoods emerged. Always exclusive and expensive, homes on the island doubled or tripled in value within just two years. But the surge has finally reached a plateau, and areas not on the island of Palm Beach once considered less desir90

able—like West Palm, SoSo (South of Southern), and El Cid—are suddenly in demand.

Avenue checked in with some of Palm Beach’s real estate experts to gauge the market’s temperature, find out which locations are the next big thing, and discover some hidden gems that are currently available to buy.

“Covid changed the landscape of real estate and once a price point has been established, it rarely goes down,” observes Richard Steinberg, a top broker at Compass. “While prices on the island and in the newer West Palm Beach condos are about $4,000 per square foot, and you can’t get close to the water for under that, unless it’s a gut renovation. You can still get new construction in the north, on the block between the intracoastal

BINYAN STUDIOS

THE

CITY

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A PLACE IN THE SUN THE PALM BEACH REAL ESTATE MARKET IS STILL RED-HOT, REPORTS BETH LANDMAN. EMERGING, HIP NEIGHBORHOODS LIKE SOSO, EL CID, AND WEST PALM ARE FAST BECOMING THE NEW FRONTIER FOR THE FASHIONABLE FLOCK FROM NEW YORK.

Olara Veranda, Douglas Elliman Real Estate

and Dixie Highway, for $1,000 per square foot.

You can also go west and get a condo in a gated community like Breakers West at $2.5 million for a three bedroom, or $1.5 for a two bedroom.”

“If somebody purchased a house on the ocean for $50 million in the spring of 2020, it’s probably worth $100 million now,” says Tom Shaw, senior global real estate advisor for Sotheby’s International Realty in Palm Beach, to illustrate the market’s dramatic jump. “Bon Jovi bought 1075 North Ocean for $43 million in July of 2020—and now it’s worth about $89 million. Sales are extremely strong. There is currently about $200 million worth of property in contract on the island that will be closing in the next month or two. The island has about 2,300 homes, 6,000 condos, and 70 town

houses, and presently there are about 70 homes and 80 condos for sale. Things have stabilized at this point, and in the past year Palm Beach property tax records show an increase of only 13 percent over last year. But it’s probably the strongest market in the country—even stronger than Miami—and, of course, there are always quiet, off-market listings that only brokers in the know are aware of. Here’s what’s cool about Palm Beach: it’s a small town with very high security. There is software on the bridges that reads every license plate. If a car comes across with stolen plates, it is picked up by the time it crosses the bridge. Some of the smartest individuals in the United States own property here, including Ken Griffin, who pays $10 million in property tax annually, Nelson Peltz, Paul Tudor JANUARY—FEBRUARY 2024 | AVENUE MAGAZINE

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10 Tarpon Isle, Douglas Elliman Real Estate

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10 Tarpon Isle, Douglas Elliman Real Estate

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10 Via Vizcaya, Sotheby’s international realty

“BON JOVI BOUGHT 1075 NORTH OCEAN FOR $43 MILLION IN JULY OF 2020—AND NOW IT’S WORTH ABOUT $89 MILLION.”

GILES BRADFORD

–TOM SHAW, SENIOR GLOBAL REAL ESTATE ADVISOR FOR SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY.

Jones, Steve Ross, Jeff Green, John Thornton, Jon Tisch, and William Lauder (who bought Rush Limbaugh’s house for $155 million). We also have a lot of sports team owners, including Jeff Lurie (the Philadelphia Eagles), the Glazer family (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Charles Johnson (the San Francisco Giants), Woody Johnson (the New York Jets), Zygi Wilf (the Minnesota Vikings), Bob Kraft (the New England Patriots), and fashion icons like Tom Ford and Tommy Hilfiger.”

Although it’s hard to find anything oceanfront on the island for under $30 million, Shaw has a unique, three-bedroom, 6,500-square-foot villa at 102 Gulfstream Road, that’s selling for $21 million. “It lives like a private home,” he says.

“It’s only two units, each has a pool, and there is a two-car garage. The building is made of limestone, so it feels like it’s in the South of France, and it’s two streets south of Worth Avenue.”

“There has been a shift,” notes Whitney McGurk, senior realtor associate at Brown Harris Stevens of Palm Beach. “We will always continue to have

seasonal residents, but now many people live here year-round. Summer was quiet, but we are slowly creeping back, and the season kicked in already, with people coming to town early, so we are starting to see more transactions. The north end of the island used to be more affordable, but that is getting higher and more family friendly.

A three-bedroom, ready-to-move-in house just north of town at 209 Bermuda Lane was sold for $10 million. Historically, Palm Beach has always been a great investment and still is. You can find something for less in SoSo—from the Southern Boulevard Bridge to the Lake Worth spillway— which is becoming what the north end was. It’s seeing a spike in value and will continue to rise.”

“Prices have continued to rise in Palm Beach, especially for the few waterfront and oceanfront estates that have traded in the past year,” says Jessica Shapiro, vice president of broker management at Sotheby’s International Realty. “Owners are seeing enormous returns on properties purchased pre-pandemic. Summer is generally a slow time

for sales, and the third quarter of ’23 was no exception. However, we are seeing plenty of year-end activity and are optimistic about our luxury market heading into 2024. Even with fewer transactions due to limited inventory, higher average sales prices have made up for it.”

“Prices are more realistic now, but the numbers are still incredibly strong,” says Liza Pulitzer, senior realtor associate at Brown Harris Stevens. “We are seeing an increase in properties, and price improvement on the island and off. We have a fabulous, historic 1915 home on the island at 245 Dunbar, owned by Peter Brant, that is available for $28 million. The strong market on the island created a strong market in West Palm, and the neighborhoods of El Cid, College Park, and SoSo have been reimagined. Investors are buying in El Cid, because it is a historic district and not in the flight path, and in SoSo developers are buying bungalows and buildings. We have a great three-bedroom property there at 233 Cortez with a large lot, pool, enormous guest house, and twoJANUARY—FEBRUARY 2024 | AVENUE MAGAZINE

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130 Algoma Road, Corcoran

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ANDY FRAME; TREVOR MELTON

245 Dunbar Road, Brown Harris Stevens

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“WHEN YOU INHERIT A HOUSE THAT YOUR PARENTS BOUGHT FOR $500,000, IT MIGHT BE $22 MILLION NOW.” –LIZA PULITZER, SENIOR REALTOR ASSOCIATE AT BROWN HARRIS STEVENS

PIXELWORKS 3D/MP DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE

216 Southland Road, Corcoran

car garage that is under $5 million. In West Palm, the skyline is changing before our eyes, and the new buildings there are offering a lifestyle you can’t get at buildings on the island because they were built in the ’50s and ’60s, so this is bringing people off the island. Also, when you inherit a house that your parents bought for $500,000, it might be $22 million now, so the taxes might be too much to carry, which has some people moving off the island.”

“We are in a very stable market,” Paulette Koch, a broker associate at Corcoran, declares with calm assurance. “There is no longer a frenzy, but there is still tremendous interest. Sellers are inclined to put their properties up at more reasonable prices.

Construction is not easy on the island, so having a house ready to go is very appealing. I have two new properties on the market now. One is on the north end of the island, which gives you access to the lake trail and ocean, so you can have a great lifestyle and walk into town. Located at 216 Southland Road, the five-bedroom house has a master suite on the first floor, along with a pool, and it’s priced at $16.995 million. In the estate section is 130 Algoma Road. It’s not easy to find a home there. It has five-bedrooms, an elevator

and pool, as well as gated access to the beach, and it’s priced at $23 million. Values always sustain in Palm Beach, but at the end of the day, timing the market is just a fantasy.”

“The frantic activity that was brought by Covid has abated and the market has slowed, with a lot of the good move-in condition properties absorbed,” reports John O. Pickett III, president of the Palm Beach Board of Realtors and a senior associate broker at Brown Harris Stevens. “We are left with some of the older ones that a need a little [more] work than buyers are prepared to do. We don’t have that many properties, so sellers have not had real incentive to break price significantly.

New stuff is selling like gangbusters and there is significant pent-up demand, but buyers are less apt to buy first and ask later; they are more diligent and pickier. I have a lot more buyers than sellers.

Insiders have changed the name of West Palm Beach to Palm Beach West and the price of a property there is what the price of an equivalent home was in Palm Beach in 2018. People still want to be east of I-95, but the market will head west, and that area will expand, especially since Wellington, way west, has polo and horse riders, along with property owners like Bill Gates and

Bruce Springsteen.”

“Mr. C is coming to West Palm Beach,” announces Susi Diaz, an agent at Cervera Real Estate, referring to the stylish project from the Cipriani family, that will be ready by 2027. “Sales start at the end of the year. We have residences and a hotel and owners will be able to use the hotel facilities, in addition to having a separate pool and gym. There will be a Bellini restaurant and a ballroom for parties. It’s part of the brand, but with a younger feeling. A lot of Latin Americans moved to Miami and then decided they wanted something quieter. They were not buying anything further up than Boca, but now they are going to Palm Beach and West Palm, which has become a hot spot. Latin Americans saw Mar-a-Lago on TV, and for good or bad, it gave the area a lot of public relations.”

“West Palm Beach is growing before our eyes with office towers, hotels, and branded residences that we have not seen before,” says Chris Leavitt, a top agent at Douglas Elliman. “We now have the Ritz-Carlton Residences at 1717 North Flagler, and Mr. C downtown, all starting sales within the next several months. This is a young, emerging city and the market is incredible, but even more growth JANUARY—FEBRUARY 2024 | AVENUE MAGAZINE

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Mr. C Residences, Douglas Elliman Real Estate

“NEW STUFF IS SELLING LIKE GANGBUSTERS AND THERE IS SIGNIFICANT PENT-UP DEMAND, BUT BUYERS ARE LESS APT TO BUY FIRST AND ASK LATER; THEY ARE MORE DILIGENT AND PICKIER.”

BINYAN STUDIOS/TERRA

–JOHN O. PICKETT III, PRESIDENT OF THE PALM BEACH BOARD OF REALTORS AND SENIOR ASSOCIATE BROKER AT BROWN HARRIS STEVENS

will happen because what’s coming will draw people to this area who never thought of living here before. It’s turning into a world-class city.

Prices are slightly adjusting for existing product, but when the city’s growth is fully realized, it will raise the property values. It will also raise values on the island because it is quiet and peaceful there, but just across the water will be this incredible city. The office tower, One Flagler, has a Milos restaurant on the first floor, and will be a game changer. La Clara sold out quickly, and Olara will be a great addition to the luxury marketplace, as will have five-star living, including impressive food and beverage offerings and overthe-top amenities.”

“Palm Beach has consistently ranked among the most coveted places in the world, and really exploded during the pandemic,” says Pam Liebman, President & CEO at Corcoran. “Some have said it was quiet in the past, but it has upped its game with New York restaurants, and created more of a vibe, it has become one of the most bulletproof areas in the world. Because there is small inventory, we are seeing excitement with new

properties in West Palm. We are launching South Flagler House, a high-end luxury project from Related Companies, and the first high rise designed

by Robert A.M. Stern [in Florida]. It will have two 28-story towers with unobstructed views of the Intracoastal and the ocean, and the interiors are being done by Pembrooke & Ives. There are 108 homes from two to five bedrooms, priced from $5.9 million to $72.5 million. It will sell quickly.

Many residences also feature large outdoor spaces, including covered loggias and open terraces. There is no stigma attached to being in West Palm; it’s now very acceptable and desirable.”

Jay Phillip Parker, CEO of brokerage for Douglas Elliman’s Florida Region and president of Douglas Elliman Development Marketing, Florida, lived in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach when he was a young lawyer and saw the potential even then for a real estate juggernaut.

“There is a unique connectivity between the island and the city, with beautiful bridges that allow for walking and riding,” he says. “You could be in West Palm and have views overlooking the island all the way to the ocean. I thought, ‘One day, this

city will have all the elements Miami does.’”

Parker remembers beginning to sell units in the Bristol, the high-end building on Flagler Drive that helped bring the West Palm market to a new level. “It was seven or eight years ago and Jorge Perez, chairman of the Related Group of Florida [not to be confused with Related Companies] said if we met our objective of $1,000 per square foot, he wanted us to sell his properties, which we are now doing. Our success with that project helped to verify that multi-million dollar properties would be desirable to the type of buyer that historically would not have pursued that location.”

According to Parker, West Palm has all the makings of a luxury area. “It has proximity to areas of interest—dining, culture, hospitality, hospitals, shopping, and an airport—so these fundamentals clearly identified it as an area that was ripe for this kind of development,” he notes. “When tax reform came into play and the incentive for highnet-worth individuals was further stimulated, demand went through the roof. It’s remarkable that so much property in the Flagler area was still undeveloped.”

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THE CURA COLLECTIVE

THE NEW YEAR KICKS OFF WITH A WAVE OF CHANGE IN BUSINESS, PERSONAL GROWTH, AND—HOPEFULLY— NEW YORK LEGISLATION. 98

BETTER TOGETHER Casey Kohlberg, Lizzie Asher, and Laura Day Webb, who founded the Cura Collective, at a press conference on the Voluntary Intoxication Loophole in New York.

DASHA BROOK

SEASON OF RENEWAL

Philanthropic organizations that focus on “awareness” are often met with unfair derision.

The usual criticism is that they should instead be focusing on solutions. But, in some cases, awareness of a problem is the first—and biggest—step in fixing it. Case in point: the little-known “voluntary intoxication” loophole which allows rapists to walk free.

It’s something Lizzie da Trindade-Asher, Laura Day Webb, and Casey Kohlberg, the founders of the Cura Collective, are trying to close.

Currently, if a person who became willingly intoxicated (say, after partying with friends) is raped, it is not considered rape under New York law. The narrow definition is due to lawmakers attempting to fight instances of involuntary intoxication, like date rape drugs. Instead, they accidentally left other victims with no path to justice. “It was meant to serve a good purpose, but instead it has fully come back around and it’s actually doing a disservice to survivors,” explains Asher. “It’s not that difficult to change the language and yet, somehow, for four years running, this bill has come up in Albany and it has never become the law.”

Asher, Webb, and Kohlberg are no strangers to the philanthropy circuit (it’s actually how they met). Between them, they are involved with everything from Save Venice to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, as well as some of the city’s most prominent hospitals—the latter of which sparked the creation of the Cura Collective. In an effort to support frontline workers as Covid tore through New York City in 2020, the friends donated meals and small care packages to hospitals across the city. Seeing how nimbly they were able to work as a trio, the women planned to pivot their focus to female entrepreneurship post-pandemic. But when Asher happened upon the loophole, it became their priority.

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THE CITY MOMENT OF ZEN The peaceful interior of Wellness + Sudio

BRIANNA ROHLEHR

WELLNESS+ STUDIO In 2022, she read a case in a law journal recounting an incident in Minnesota in which a rapist avoided punishment due to an intoxication loophole. She couldn’t believe such a thing could exist in New York. Google told her otherwise.

Asher brought it to the attention of her cofounders, and Webb suggested they do something about it.

In addition to staging events in the city and a social media campaign, the Cura Collective held a press conference in Foley Square this past October.

In attendance was former U.S. congresswoman Carolyn Maloney; current assemblymen Jeffrey Dinowitz and Andrew Hevesi; as well as top executives from numerous anti-sexual assault and public safety organizations.

Changing the law is not impossible. Minnesota, for example, has since closed its loophole. The issue will come up for a fifth time during New York’s legislative cycle beginning in January. In order for the loophole to close, two bills will have to pass: one in the State Assembly and one in the State Senate.

It can only get to Governor Kathy Hochul if both bills are ratified. Until then, Asher, Webb, and Kohlberg are hoping to educate New Yorkers about the issue through, of course, awareness.

“It’s really important to know the limitations of the system under which we live. It wouldn’t occur to any one of us that because we chose to drink early in the night, we gave away our ability to consent later in the evening,” says Asher. “It’s really appalling.” —ARIA Darcella

In 2006, Eva Peña found herself divorced and confused. As a civil engineer in the Dominican Republic, she was familiar with building in its most literal sense, and it was time for her to build a new life. A self-proclaimed nerd, an obsession with studying nutrition and exercise took her from scrawny and lost to ultra-fit businesswoman at the helm of Wellness+ Studio—a chic new health center on the Upper East Side.

“The best thing that a mother can do is take care of herself” Peña tells Avenue, noting her children are her primary focus. For seven years, with the very same dedication she has for her kids, Peña tended to her clients’ every need, utilizing her extensive background in medicine, nutrition, exercise physiology, personal training, and physical therapy. Her clients connected with this energy.

So much so that, when Wellness+ Studio opened eight months ago, there was no need to define or invent the target clientele—they already existed.

Wellness+ Studio is a Zen garden carved into the fortress that is the Gagosian building

on Madison Avenue. Its primary focus is on the body—being healthy, making sure you look good, but also to ensuring its efficiency. Their philosophy is to treat the body as truly sacred, not just as a machine. As such, the studio isn’t trying to peddle customers with gimmicky drinks or false promises of fast results. Instead, it is a collaborative process between trainer and trainee to build the body to reach its full potential. Their holistic approach is guided by the four stones of their logo: Nutrition, Exercise, Recovery, and Rest. Though so many of us hinge on the first two pillars, Peña says it is the last two that are crucial for success. “We want you to cultivate yourself,” she explains. “[Whether that’s] finding the best version of you and the goals you want to achieve or just staying stable in your age.”

Post-workout, clients benefit from a form of physical therapy to ensure recovery. But “recovery” also includes massages, acupuncture, and soon a little Botox. “Skincare is the cherry on top,” says Peña of the future of wellness. —Alex Fener

THEIR HOLISTIC APPROACH IS GUIDED

BY THE FOUR STONES OF THEIR LOGO: NUTRITION, EXERCISE, RECOVERY, AND REST.

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THE FAMILY JEWELS Paul Morelli and his daughter, Maris Leo.

MORELLI DECLARES: “EVERY WOMAN SHOULD HAVE A GREAT HOOP EARRING.” THIS IS A NOTABLE TESTAMENT TO HIS COMMITMENT TO INNOVATION.

There is a new cathedral on Madison Avenue, one whose hymns are akin to Maria Callas singing “Casta Diva” and whose meditation bells ring from delicate chains hanging from elegant necks.

The new Paul Morelli store is like a monastery amongst the bombastic procession of flashy windows on Madison Avenue.

Creativity has been at the center of Paul Morelli’s life for, well, all of it. His father made costumes and he would often help in any way he could. “In those days, they would have models walking around the store, selling their wares,” Morelli recalls. “He would make costumes that had big branches with shoes hanging from them. And that’s sort of how he got into the costume business.”

Morelli does not actually think about creating, it simply comes from within him like a prayer. He is unable to remember what it feels like not to do what he does—he is commanded solely by his artistic volition. At the core of Morelli’s success lies a steadfast commitment to craftsmanship, quality, and integrity. In an industry saturated with mass-produced pieces, he distinguishes his brand by focusing on the artistry behind each creation.

It is not merely about making jewelry; it is about constructing wearable pieces of art that tell a story.

His early adoption of computer-aided design (CAD) for jewelry, a practice spanning 15 to 20 years, set him apart as a trailblazer. The integration of technology not only streamlined the design process but also allowed for swift iterations, a crucial advantage in a rapidly changing market. “In the 100

’20s and ’30s there was Van Cleef & Arpels. They had this atelier where they made jewelry,” says Morelli. “It was there they made both the models and jewelry. They sold it out of the same place. It’s kind of what I do.”

With his studio in the very building in Philadelphia where he got his bearings working for his father, making costumes for department stores and the opera, Morelli has mastered the old and the new. His adaptation of the traditional methods of jewelry production alongside new technologies makes for an innovative space with each floor of his workshop serving its own purpose in the line of production.

Morelli declares: “Every woman should have a great hoop earring.” This is a notable testament to his commitment to innovation—the reinvention of the classic hoop earring. An item ubiquitous in every woman’s collection, the hoop earring underwent a transformation with his creativity.

Ensuring that the earring points forward when worn, he introduced a subtle yet ingenious tweak that added functionality to aesthetics. This dedication to perfecting even the most classic design reflects the meticulous approach that defines his work. “People say to me, are you going to retire or what?” he says. “From what? Creating? And go fishing or play golf?” —ALEX FENER

COURTESY OF PAUL MORELLI

PAUL MORELLI

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NOTORIOUS NEW YORKERS

The Squandering Socialite Gregg Dodge went from pin-up model to Palm Beach socialite when she snagged Horace Dodge Jr., the heir to the Detroit automobile fortune. But, as Peter Davis discovers, Dodge’s freewheeling spending ultimately brought tragedy: divorce, suicide, lawsuits, and bankruptcy.

“I HORACE DODGE ACCUSED GREGG OF STEALING FOUR OF HIS EXPENSIVE CIGARETTE LIGHTERS AND HAD HER PICKED UP BY THE POLICE IN A DETROIT BUS STATION.

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spit fire,” the defiant, controversial, and glamorous Gregg Dodge once declared. “I always have and always will.” A former pin-up model, actress, and party girl, Dodge also spit through husbands, money, and countless high-profile lawsuits.

All this drama—not to mention her bottle-blonde locks and heaving cleavage—were a far cry from her humble origins as Dora Mae Fjelstad, a small-town girl from Beloit, Wisconsin. After high school, Dora Mae hightailed it out of the Midwest, determined to reinvent herself. She enrolled in the John Robert Powers modeling school in Manhattan, dyed her tresses platinum, and changed her name to Gregg Sherwood (after the Gregg method of shorthand and Sherwood Drive in Beloit). She soon landed on the cover of Wink, a pre-Playboy “girlie” rag.

While Hollywood stardom alluded her—she peaked playing a showgirl in 1952’s The Merry Widow with Fernando Lamas and Lana Turner— Gregg used her screen siren looks to stay in the limelight, dating Joe DiMaggio and Dean Martin. After a brief marriage to a regular Joe named Willy Zebell, she traded up and married Walter Sherwin, a ticket office manager for the New York Yankees. Soon after the wedding, Sherwin was charged with embezzling $43,000 from the team, which he claimed went to buy a home for Gregg’s parents in Beloit. Gregg quickly divorced him in Mexico. Within a year she landed an even bigger fish: Horace E. Dodge Jr., an heir to the Dodge Motor Company in Detroit.

At 52, Horace was almost twice her age and still married to his fourth wife when they started dating. The courtship was not without drama.

Horace accused Gregg of stealing four of his expensive cigarette lighters and had her picked up by the police in a Detroit bus station. Theft aside, he divorced his wife and proposed to Gregg. They got married at his mother’s palatial Palm Beach estate, Playa Riente, in 1953. Horace made his new

wife sign a prenup stating that she would get a million in a trust if she didn’t leave him. He had no idea how much of a headache she would become.

Now married to a multi-millionaire, the new Mrs. Dodge became a fixture on the Palm Beach social circuit, photographed at black-tie parties with Bob Hope and George Hamilton. To play the role of society queen, she spent her husband’s money with wild abandon. Just a year after tying the knot and a few months before the birth of their son, John, the couple was hit with an avalanche of outstanding debts. The Nat Lewis Corp. sued for $125,000 in unpaid bills for two gold baby diaper pins, baby furniture, an electric train set, a diamond ring, and a diamond bracelet.

Harry Winston also sued for $176,800 in jewelry.

Horace claimed his wife bought much of the loot without his permission. By 1958, her relentless spending had the once-rich couple mired in debt.

Horace’s mother, Anna Thompson Dodge, was forced to foreclose on the couple’s Palm Beach house to keep it out of the hands of creditors.

This didn’t slow Gregg’s buying rampage. In ’61, she purchased a $21,500 platinum ring, $8,000 gold dinner plates, a $3,500 grand piano, and over $6,000 in clothes. Horace’s annual income was less than $200,000, but his attorney estimated Gregg’s spending exceeded $300,000 a year.

He had to borrow $1.5 million from his mother to keep his wife in diamonds and furs. By ’62, Horace had had enough. “She’s a spendthrift. I can’t afford her,” he announced, and filed for divorce. A year later, he died with claims against his estate of $12.3 million, but only $718,000 in assets. Gregg was pointedly excluded from his will.

Unwilling to step down from her perch atop Palm Beach society, Gregg sued her 93-year-old motherin-law for $10 million, claiming Anna interfered in the marriage and turned her husband against her.

Though there is no official record, Gregg claimed she won $9 million in an out-of-court settlement.

Like Elizabeth Taylor, Gregg liked to collect

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KEYSTONE PRESS / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

LIKE ELIZABETH TAYLOR, GREGG LIKED TO COLLECT JEWELRY AND HUSBANDS. AT 41, SHE GOT HITCHED TO HER ONETIME BODYGUARD, 29-YEAR-OLD DANIEL MORAN, A FORMER NYPD OFFICER WITH DARK HAIR AND MATINEE IDOL LOOKS.

BLONDE AMBITION A 29-year-old Gregg Dodge, dripping in jewels and fur on her husband’s dime, at Wimbledon in 1955.

jewelry and husbands. At 41, she got hitched to her onetime bodyguard, 29-year-old Daniel Moran, a former NYPD officer with dark hair and matinee idol looks. Money continued to flow through her hands like a sieve. The newlyweds bought a home in Palm Beach just a few doors north of Mar-a-Lago and outfitted it with an expensive security system and two dogs for protection. The dogs ended up causing four lawsuits, one ending in a $10,000 settlement to an upholsterer who said she was badly bitten. Then there were the over-the-top parties she hosted to remain relevant. “I know Palm Beach. It’s a social battlefield,” she told a reporter.

“Many people in Palm Beach think they’re social, but they’re just ticket buyers, meeting other ticket buyers. True society in Palm Beach is in the home.”

This went on for 13 years before it all came to a crashing halt. Initially, Gregg’s son John aided her finances, generously sharing the $5.7 million he inherited from his grandmother, Anna. But it wasn’t enough to keep the good times rolling. Gregg, her husband, and John (now 23) filed for bankruptcy in 1978. They were $3.5 million in debt but claimed to only have $330 in cash. The trio tried numerous business ventures to stay afloat, including buying a gold mine in Colombia they couldn’t afford to work, and a string of failed apparel stores called the Clothes Horse. “You can’t find a business that they’ve been in that’s been successful,” quipped an acquaintance at the time. Unable to face his finances, Daniel Moran shot himself. Gregg was in the house when he did so.

After her fourth husband’s suicide, life only got tougher for Gregg Dodge. Debt forced her to sell off numerous properties, including an apartment in Manhattan (later owned by John DeLorean); a country house in Windsor, England; a house in the South of France; a 355-foot yacht called the Delphine; and an estate in Greenwich, Connecticut (later occupied by Harry and Leona “The Queen of Mean” Hemsley). In 1979, accused of fraudulently obtaining a $75,000 loan from the United States Trust Company while looting more than $350,000 from John’s trust fund, she pleaded guilty to three counts of grand larceny. She was spared prison when John footed her $100,000 bail and asked the judge not to impose a jail term.

Effectively penniless, Gregg wound up in a small apartment in Palm Springs, Florida, far from the black-tie social swirl of Palm Beach and the jewelry shops on Worth Avenue. But her life still had hints of glamour. In 1996, she was featured in a Vanity Fair story titled “The Women of Palm Beach,” written by Dominick Dunne and photographed by Helmut Newton. “Mary Sanford and I used to run this town socially. Nobody gave a party without checking with us first,” she told Dunne.

However, she and Sanford, then known as “The Queen of Palm Beach,” were no longer on speaking terms. “Gregg’s not allowed in anyone’s house,” a society maven told Dunne.

Gregg Dodge died in May of 2011 at the age of 87. There was a small graveside burial service at Our Lady Queen of Peace Cemetery in Royal Palm Beach. No socialites or movie stars attended. A local Wisconsin newspaper wrote a short obituary calling her a former showgirl who had married four times.

The title of the article: “From Riches to Rags.”

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Q & AVE

Tell me about your diptych, Amelia.

Women think about Amelia Earhart a lot. I was at a fundraiser for the National Women’s History Museum and a woman got up to speak before me and she talked about Amelia.

And I said to the room, “Who in this room thinks that the idea of her crashing into the ocean is a man’s version of history?”

And everybody raised their hand. Then I said, “Okay, who thinks she landed on a Polynesian island and lived out the rest of her life?” And every woman raised her hand.

We’ve never gotten our stories written by women, so we don’t get our stories told.

Why do you paint snakes?

I like the way [a] snake constantly sheds its skin and changes. And I think that shedding skin is about change. Often when I make a painting, when I put the shedding snakeskin in, it’s about leaving that experience behind.

How has painting changed you?

Unlike movie stars who launch cosmetic lines or record an album, Stone has pivoted to painting. With two gallery shows under her belt, the iconic Oscar nominee talks to Peter Davis about making art versus movies, her obsession with snakes, and why she loves Amelia Earhart.

The title of your show is “Welcome to My Garden.”

The majority of my work is about nature. So many people want to be deniers of what’s happening to our environment. It’s like, go ahead—the planet’s going to shake you off anyway. You think you’re in control of the planet? You’re not. It’ll just get rid of you. You think you’re in control of women? It’s called Mother Nature, not Father Nature. Good luck.

Your work reminds me of Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler.

I’m very inspired by women painters and I’m excited to be a part of the female painting

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scene. A lot of women painters [who] people didn’t even bother with before are now starting to be experienced and their work is being brought forward, even postmortem.

Your paintings are so colorful.

They say that there’s a certain percentage of people that have that extra chromosome and they see more color. I’ve always had that. When people do their houses, I always come and pick the paint. For example, I think you should paint your ceiling. People don’t think they should paint their ceiling a color. Is the sky white? No! Paint your ceiling a color. Get a little bit excited about looking up at your ceiling.

That sounds intense.

You get twisted up and can lose the finer qualities of your own artistry. I’m a super authentic, raw actor. That’s why my work is so dangerous, and I needed to be able to get to a safe place in myself to get back to the core of that work. Being able to be by myself and refine my artistic center has brought me back to that. I think now I probably would like to do theater so that I can give a whole performance without someone running into the middle of it with their needs.

Making movies involves tons of people on set. Is painting a solitary endeavor?

I have a studio assistant now who is a young man. He’s a musician and a painter.

He paints Pop art. I like his opinion. So periodically I yell his name: Zach. I’m like, “Zach, come here. What do you think?” So, I have a great person to bounce things off of. He’s in a punk band. When I was his age, punk was happening, and I was very into it.

We had this common language because it’s come around again.

CHICHI UBINA, COURTESY OF C. PARKER GALLERY

SHARON STONE

It’s brought me back to my artistic center.

So much in acting is about trying to deliver the director’s vision, and that is very expansive. But, at the same time, you have all these other people who are constantly coming in with their ego needs and what they think they want and what they think they need. And they have to have it right now. They’re trying to pull and yank and manipulate you. It’s very hard while you’re ripping your guts out and you’re emotionally so ripped open to maintain your decorum. If you tell them to fuck off, then you’re not being a nice person and they don’t understand that they’re not being a nice person dealing with you while you’re an open wound bleeding onto film.

AVENUE MAGAZINE | JANUARY—FEBRUARY 2024

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