By the time he died, in 2006, designer Oleg Cassini had seduced the “top top girls” of his day, from Grace Kelly to Marilyn Monroe to Anita Ekberg, married Hollywood stunner Gene Tierney, and shaped the look of the absolutely toppest girl of all, Jacqueline Kennedy. But, for all Cassini’s success with women, the battle over his estate, between his daughter Tina and his last (and secret) wife, Marianne Nestor, suggests a chilling calculation behind the dashing image.

Just months after his May 2007 election, French president Nicolas Sarkozy faced growing criticism over his stalled reforms, flashy style, and stormy divorce. The last straw should have been his whirlwind remarriage, to an Italian heiress, ex-model, and singer who had past liaisons with Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, among others, and nude photos all over the Internet. But the lady in question, Carla Bruni, is proving an unexpected asset. At the Élysée Palace, Maureen Orth encounters a pair of romantic predators who appear to have met their matches.

The grand hostesses are history, the president would rather be in bed, and there’s a price tag on every evening these days. Who killed Washington society? Ask a few of the local experts.

Sister Janet Harris bluntly tells God when she's had it up to here. She reminds Saint Francis about his wild youth. And thanks to her audacious efforts—and unswerving faith—a young man sentenced as a teenager to life in prison is (for now) walking free.

The shocking Mob-style execution of fashion designer Gianni Versace appears to have been the crescendo of a cross-country murder spree that landed 27-year-old Andrew Cunanan on the F.B.I.’s Ten Most Wanted list. From the truth about Cunanan’s childhood, through his free-spending days at the heart of San Diego’s gay society, to the bloody crime scenes he left behind in Minneapolis, Chicago, New Jersey, and Miami, the author follows the twisted psychological path that ended only when Cunanan turned the .40-caliber murder weapon on himself.

California congressman Michael Huffington is a man of no apparent convictions, except one: that he deserves to be president of the United States. But first the multimillionaire Republican is running for the Senate. Pulling the strings is his wife, socialite Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington, the controversial author and New Age minister, who has a mysterious agenda of her own.

In the tropics one must before everything keep calm. – Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness