Vanity Fair's 1993 HALL OF FAME

It was the year when apocalyptic visions from the past loomed in the American imagination. Prehistoric creatures conjured by Spielberg and Crichton lumbered through the biggest-grossing movie ever. Rabin and Arafat dropped their guard to make peace on the White House lawn, bridging the banks of the river Jordan. Russia lurched to the brink of revolution, before the ghosts of its history were caged again. The planet teemed with tension and cries for miracles of intervention. CNN kept watch over the angry birth of new republics in the East and caught Sarajevo as it burned in

every heart. There were biblical floods in the Midwest and climatic changes in the capital. The president shrank, then grew, then shrank again. Hillary got two new labels—Rodham and Karan— and bowled over Congress, at least, with mastery of her briefs. Marky Mark made news with his.

It was the year when the information superhighway opened up and gave us all a sense of vertigo. Wall Street regained some of its lost energy as the locusts descended on the communications industry, and Barry Diller made Paramount the biggest movietown thriller—despite some tough competition. In fact, there has seldom been less quiet on the western front: Hollywood studio execs dived for cover when Heidi brandished her little black book, Michael Jackson became the subject of some very dangerous pillow talk, and the war of the late-night talk-show hosts warmed up when Letterman went cigar-to-chin with Leno and won.

Everything quickened as we sped through the year of the dinosaur toward the swishing tail end of the millennium. The past came into focus, and the future hurtled toward us. This is the present, and these are the people who made it. Beauty. Power. Talent. Scandal. Our Hall of Fame for 1993.

Model

Because she knows all about Eve. As a matter of fact, there isn t a temptress that she doesn t know all about. Those who feast themselves on her House of Style on MTV are at one with those who gaze longingly at her clinch with k. d. long or her ubiquity in the world of posing and pulchritude. If on the evolutionary ladder, snakes are the bottom, she's the top. Mrs. Richard Gere is so much more than a pretty face that her every' angle and aspect exhausts our superlatives.

CINDY CRAWFORD

YASSER ARAFAT

Chairman of the P.L.O.

Because he realized that there s no point in claiming to be the father of your people if so many of your people are orphans. That it is better to reach than to grasp, and better to clasp than to do either. On the White House lawn, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (here with his wife, Suha) moved from exile to insider, and from showman to player. He and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel crossed into no-man 's-land from the trenches of ancient enmity. Which of them traveled farthest will long be debated, but one thing's certain: Arafat has risked everything. Shalom. Salaam.

TOMMY LEE JONES

Actor

Because he loves to prove 1/ia! appearaPzct'.s realh tti,i he deceptive. Because he all hut sashayed imtard superstar do~ii as (`lay Sliaw in JFK. I,, 1993 he niainorpho.sed into 1/it' granite-hewn depzii;' (`S marshal .Sa,pz Gerard 10 steal (lie s/low Ifl The Fugitive. and now rounds the u'ar off with tile lead in Oliver Stozt' s Heaven and }~irth. Toninv Lee. I/it' 1-larvard grad tith grit (and 1l Gore s for trier roommate). i/u' star tith an lumor.s degree ill priva cv. the fat/icr of Austin and I letoria (It'll), is a tlister Jones who knows what s' happening and keep.s it to himself

HEIDI FLEI8S

Madam

I Because her dialogue with the L.A.P.D. gave fresh resonance to the concept of the tart reply. Some of us had a hard time believing that Robert Redford had to part with seven figures for a night of shame, even if it was with Demi Moore. But now our Heidi—madam to the movie business—may be looking at some hard time for proving that even the stars have to drop some big bucks before they can drop anything else. The world 's oldest profession meets the world 's vainest profession and it's wham-bam, thank you. Madam.

RICHARD AVEDON

Photographer

Because lie has an,,ih,i/ated tile c/idzè about black and white versus s/zade.s ol gray. 4~z 4 vedoiz portrait is a~z es say in chiaroscuro, with: even' grain and seal?: disclosing a~z intriguing ambiguity. The big book of hzi.s oeut're can:t' out this i'ear a~zd etched the :a tional ret uza. sharpened the ,1 sizer u'a,,tocus. The despair and madness of continents stare from its pages. But look agaul. Ho~tet't'r dark th,t' picture, there is alwa%'s some light i,z it

BARRY HILLER and DIME Vi FURSTEK

Media Moguls

Because together they stroll hand in hand down the information superhighway. He left Fox and was freed to pitch at Paramount, and once—not so long ago—he gave her 29 diamonds on her 29th birthday. Now she has introduced him to the world of gem shopping by phone, and in this sparkling, multifaceted friendship. Silk Assets and liquid ones make for a natural bonding. This is a power couple that have coupled their power. They are the yin and yang of the moving media—interactive, compatible, and user-friendly.

MICHAEL CRICHTON

Author

Because, having brought us Andromeda without strain, he succeeded in making the past look real and the future look glaring. Between a scaly theme park and a high-tech Japanese industrial one, the admirable Crichton has us looking over our shoulders and toward new horizons. At one point in '93 the best-seller lists came to look like a division of Crichton Industries, with Rising Sun and Jurassic Park selling millions. And his name will be up at the top again in January with Disclosure, his new novel about sexual harassment. Crichton is in every way a phenomenon, the key stroke of his computer feeling the American pulse and tapping into a mood that we didn't know we had. It's nice to know that there's at least one author getting major mileage out of fossil fuel.

HOLLY HUNTER

Actress

Because she proves that there are no small parts—only small players. Because she returned from a slight obscurity to win our hearts, minds, and everything else. When she pulled out all the stops in Broadcast News, Holly acquired a legion oftorch bearers yearning for there to be more of her. A nd in / 993 it came: she was the year's toughest and most appealing waif in The Firm, and now she 's taking bows for playing The Piano.Many would say that The Piano was Holly's forte; Holly would too.

Because he brought the heating uses of magic to the American stage. Because he let the imagination take wings. By showing compassion even to his Joe Rov Cohn, and by looking into the face of death, Kushner changed forever the way we see a plague and won a Pulitzer along the way. Angels in America has been an exorcism and a release. Because his Broadway audiences have shown that they will sit still for hours at "Millennium Approaches" and then come back for more with "Perestroika " to do their bit to beat the Devil.

TONY KUSHNER

MICHAEL JORDAN

Basketball Player

Because he gave new dignity to the idea of quitting while ahead. (From now on, we 'll all be able to trust people over 30.) Because he could, and still can, float like a butterfly for the Bulls and slam-dunk like a bandit. Graceful on the court, he was gracious and generous off it. His warmest words, at his own main event, were for his father. At least, said Michael of his murdered parent, he got to see me play my last game. He was grateful for this. Well, Michael, we also got to see that game, and we 're grateful, too.

DAVID IFTTFRMAN

Talk-Show Host

Because when stupid pet tricks were rewarded by stupid network tricks, he came up with the knock out punch line. His move to CBS didn't do much for NBC'S sense of humor, but it sure made late night much more entertaining. The smile, the stogie, and the star power have put Letterman on our top-JO list of reasons to stay up past bedtime.

DONNA KARAN

Fashion Designer

Because Karan can and does. Because she pul dress and success within everybody's reach, from Hillary and Barbra to the belles beyond the Beltway who buy DKNY, a bite of Big Apple temptation. She made it late, but great, on Seventh Avenue with black, practical, dramatic lines. Her husband and partner, Stephan Weiss, gave her the strength to give women what they really want in the late 20th century. Then came Donna s denim and the scent, which she said should smell like "red suede, lilies, and the back of my husband 's neck." Understated in look, but never in life, our Donna.

MARKY MARK

Rapper, Model

Because he has proved Dorothy Parker right, in demonstrating that brevity is indeed the soul of underwear. Because he can grab his crotch for fashion's brief encounters and make us want to cry, "Down, boy!"Something may have come between him and his Calvin Klein contract, but nothing can stop the upward curve of the bulletheaded rapper with the boxer's physique. Marky Mark can tan while the rest of us burn, and we should bless the day M.M. went starky stark.

Dramatist