Features

Operation Desert Fraud

How did Keith Idema, who may have faked an Al Qaeda terror-training video and is now in prison for running his own private Afghan Abu Ghraib, wind up on network TV (and on the cover of The Hunt for Bin Laden)? By giving the media exactly what they wanted.

My Big Fat Obnoxious Opera-Singing Client

Herbert Breslin, Luciano Pavarotti’s manager, flack, and confidant for more than three decades, has written a book that shows the great tenor to be selfish�and smelly. Not a bad move, it turns out, for either of their careers.

Strategist

Best Bets

Jean-Michel Cazabat’s open-toed party pump, plus . . .

Economy of One

Michael Stipe buys makeup

The Look Book

Valeria Ostapenko, model

A Great Room

An igloolike guest space

Market Research

Nine travel bags, compared

Shop news

Stores opening this week: Great Jones Spa, Yellow Door, Fuck Yoga, Trust Fund Baby, and Bungalow.

Ask a Shop Clerk

Abby Askari Bennet, Manolo Blahnik

The Best Seller

High-collared fitted top in black, $115

Sales & Bargains: This week's hottest sales & bargains

The Restaurant Review

Adam Platt on Kittichai: Thai food for snobs

How to Dress Like a Maitre d'

San Domenico’s $2,500 uniforms . . .

In Season

Wild hen-of-the-woods: the �It� ’shroom

Service With a Swipe

Four stores trying to make your life easier.

Restaurant Openings & Buzz:

Gelotto, Ono, Sukhadia, and Devi

Mating

Amy Sohn on nerd love at trivia nights

Body

Plastic-surgery bloat

Map No. 2

The Bowery, off Skid Row

Real Estate

Lofts, uptown

Negotiations

Sony’s new Qualia store

Winter Travel ’04

The Personalized Vacation Planner

Intelligencer

Intelligencer Gossip

Plus, Martha Stewart's Prison Book and Howard Stern's Replacement

Popular Votes

A New York�centric poll (at last)

Guitar and Driver

Minnie Driver’s new career

Mobile Home

One Thompson Street resident is (theoretically) always ready to go.

Puppet Leader

Now you can pull the president’s strings.

56-Hour Party People

Terminal 5 partygoers actually get on a plane

A New Newspaper Box

Classing up the neighborhood

Columnists

The National Interest

Bush: Angry white males’ last chance?

Critics

Books

At 72, John Updike is still obsessed with the carnal

Movies

In Sideways, college buddies sample wine and women

Theater

A Sondheim revue; Mary-Louise Parker in Reckless.

Art

Exhibits of Aztec brutality and ancient Chinese calm

Architecture

The legacy of Modernism at the two Coopers

Classical Music

Kite puppets and masks in Julie Taymor’s Magic Flute

Television

A Broadway musical documentary minus singing

Popular Music

Raphael Saadiq’s neo-soul

The Week

New on DVD

Movies new on DVD this week include: Intermission, Hellboy, Van Helsing, The Ultimate Oliver Stone Collection, The Up Series, To Be And To Have, Eyes Without A Face, and The Wong Kar-Wal.

Cup O’ Joe

As if Starbucks doesn’t have enough critics as it is, the company’s gone and raised its coffee prices. Here’s where to get a better cup for less.

The Pie Chart

So October, it turns out, is National Pizza Month�as if we needed an excuse.

Departments

Letters to the Editor