VF for August

Hilary Swank has been an LA Observed fave since she took her Oscar entourage (and newly won statuette) to Astro Burger. In the August issue of Vanity Fair, though, she dishes on ex-husband Chad Lowe for an old substance-abuse problem. A clever Flash portfolio of Patrick Demarchelier's photo shoot in Malibu is on the VF website; click on "Peek inside the new issue," then click the lower right page corners.

Also in the issue: Sheila Weller has a piece on 1950's surfing culture, and Time photographer James Nachtwey revisits Vietnam with Christopher Hitchens.