Radhika Jones on Gwyneth Paltrow’s Renaissance and More From the New Issue

I always love Michelle Ruiz’s cover profiles, because she packs so much life into every sentence, and she gravitates to subjects with very packed lives. This month Michelle talks with the eternally fascinating Gwyneth Paltrow, who, just when you think she might have receded—not into irrelevance, never that! but comfortably into the furniture—shows up somewhere unexpected, like, say, the Bal des Débutantes in Paris with her daughter, Apple, or making out with Timothée Chalamet in photos on the internet from their new movie, Marty Supreme, directed by Josh Safdie. And then, like magic, she’s our main character all over again. Michelle visits Paltrow at home in Montecito, where they talk business (Goop) and pleasure: her life as an empty nester, rebranded in rose-colored Gwyneth style as a “free bird.”

After the wildfires in Los Angeles, Vanity Fair committed to supporting two local organizations helping affected families and industry professionals get back on their feet: Baby2Baby, which provides families in need with essential supplies from diapers and formula to clothing and blankets, and the Motion Picture & Television Fund, which offers emergency financial support and counseling to members of the entertainment community who have been impacted. Recovery from such a disaster doesn’t happen overnight, so part of our commitment includes keeping attention on the city’s efforts to regroup and rebuild. In this issue we feature a portfolio of haunting images by Stuart Palley, who began photographing wildfires in 2012 as an intern at the Orange County Register. Over the years he has gotten to know firefighters and their world, worked as a contractor for the US Forest Service, and gone through formal wildland fire training. Sadly, in that time, there has been no shortage of material for his lens. His goal in documenting fires, as he tells senior Hollywood correspondent Anthony Breznican, is to help people better prepare next time, and help “make firefighters’ jobs easier in educating the public.” The pictures featured here range from the Palisades fire’s initial spread to the wasteland it and the other major blazes left behind, as cleanup crews and homeowners reentered the territory to sift through the wreckage. Stuart’s photographs are both unflinching in their proximity to the flames and assured in their portrayal of resilience.

If you would like to donate to Baby2Baby or the MPTF, please visit their websites at baby2baby.org and mptf.com