Letter from the editor October

You're in for a treat, which is just what we'd hoped for when we first started planning this special issue on L.A. with the Interview team and L'Wren Scott, the magazine's L.A. Special Issues Director. Of course L.A. plays a big part in every issue of Interview, so to create a special meant giving you something that was truly that.

We landed on the blueprint that we eventually followed after a lunch in New York with Karl Lagerfeld, who shot our special issue on Paris last year with such dynamism, and who seemed like just the right insider/outsider to go with us on our mission to capture the spirit of L.A. and some of its protagonists--legends and newcomers alike--with a fresh view. As you'll see in the feature section, all of which Lagerfeld shot, he more than stepped up to the plate. What you won't see is the traveling circus that we all were as our team of about 20 drove around Los Angeles in a procession of vans, wardrobe truck and mobile home, paying what we referred to as "house calls" on most of the subjects we featured. Some of the house calls took place as the sun was rising; others, such as our stops at Beck's wonderfully simple place and at Sheryl Crow's magical hideout, as it was setting. Then there were the house calls we made long after the moon was out, such as our visit to what felt like the haunted 1930s Hollywood mansio n of Marilyn Manson, who certainly was the real article when it comes to over-the-top heebie-jeebieness. Some of our visits took place during the peak of that famous L.A. sunshine and light, such as when we dropped in on that archetypal "California girl" Pamela Anderson, whose setup includes a garden that looks like it's right out of a fairy tale.

Over and over I watched Lagerfeld come up with truly spontaneous, telling photographs, so opposite to the kind of dreadful, empty, formulaic celebrity pictures that have unfortunately become ubiquitous. Although Lagerfeld's pictures definitely have his own contemporary voice, they remind me of the late Sid Avery's great classic work Hollywood at Home (Fine Communications). One of my favorite Avery shots has always been the one he got in 1955 of Marion Brando taking out the garbage; it's got such a blend of the ordinary and the extraordinary that you never forget it. Although Avery sadly passed away during the period we were putting this issue together, I think he would have liked Lagerfeld's house calls images, because of the way they too take us on an adventure into their subjects' private worlds. I'm sure Avery would have wanted to photograph Lagerfeld himself as he traveled in the mobile home, going from destination to destination, looking so drop-dead elegant that he made jaws drop. Lagerfeld's own appear ance has been made much of in the media since he went on his famous diet. You can get a peek of him in full form on page 148 of this issue, a deadpan shot in which he's actually serving drinks to some of our cover subjects.

Humor, thankfully, is not something that Lagerfeld is afraid of, and it's no news that the man who also designs more collections in a year than some fashionistas do in a lifetime, is, to put it mildly, not afraid to work. In fact, between Lagerfeld and a small handful of others, such a treasure trove of images and interviews was created that we decided to divide them into two special issues--the first, this month's "L.A. Heat" issue, the other to be published next month as "L.A. Cool." Appropriately, in keeping with the concept for this month's issue, it was a boiling afternoon when we shot the cover story presented here. But the temperature in the air was nothing compared to the electricity in the room that resulted when our cover subjects--Jack Nicholson, Benicio Del Toro, Nicole Kidman, Ryan Gosling and Selma Blair-- showed up for the shoot and the portfolio, "Welcome to L.A.," that begins on page 138. Now that's the kind of thing that for generations has inspired people to get on the bus, boat, plane or t rain and follow their dreams.

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