It’s official: These are boom times for the WNBA and for women’s basketball. After more than a year of contentious negotiation, a new collective bargaining agreement is already shaping the future of the league. Viewership and revenue are up, as is attendance at games, and new stars (who are finally getting paid) are being minted by the minute—A’ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark, and Angel Reese, just to name a few—and not just for what they do on the court. If you’re hearing a lot about the W lately, it seems that it’s not going to slow down anytime soon. And like most booms, the biggest rewards tend to go to those who got in early. For Vanity Fair’s upcoming Sports Issue, Yohana Desta spent an afternoon with Clara Wu Tsai, the billionaire owner of the New York Liberty, who invested in the team more than a decade ago and has since emerged as one of the most powerful figures in the WNBA.
In other happenings across culture: Jane Fonda has enlisted Bette Midler, Patti Smith, and others to organize a star-studded “Rise Up, Sing Out” event in New York, and at Tina Brown gathering of star journalists in London, Don Lemon’s political aspirations drew laughter from the crowd.
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ADRIENNE GREEN,
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
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Vanity Fair’s Yohana Desta spent an afternoon with Clara Wu Tsai, the billionaire owner of the New York Liberty, to talk about the league’s next chapter and the expansion that will forever change women’s professional sports.
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“We have to stand up now,” says Fonda, whose Committee for the First Amendment is organizing the star-studded “Rise Up, Sing Out” event in New York.
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At Tina Brown’s latest gathering of star journalists in London, Lemon’s political aspirations drew laughter from the crowd. He doubled down on them backstage when talking to Vanity Fair: “I think the country needs me.”
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Nearly nine years after the comedian was “canceled” by the entertainment industry for sexual misconduct, he was back at the Hollywood Bowl making molestation jokes under the Netflix banner: “He’s officially uncanceled,” said one attendee.
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The reality star and the race’s lone Republican needed to show that he was capable of more than farming outrage online and firing off meme-ready attacks. And for stretches of Wednesday night’s Los Angeles mayoral debate, he managed to do exactly that.
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Before he joined the family business, Lorenzo Bertelli, son of Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, was a professional rally car driver. He now oversees some of the Prada Group’s highest-profile business moves—but he still indulges in the need for speed.
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