‘VANITY’ THY NAME IS KIM
She wanted in on Caitlin’s cover
In May 2015, the staff of Vanity Fair was on top-secret lockdown, shooting a cover that was soon to become their biggest ever: Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner’s transformation to a woman named Caitlyn Jenner.
Star photographer Annie Leibovitz was on board to photograph the 6-foot-2 Jenner, towering over everyone at the shoot in her high heels.
Cellphones were confiscated from everyone on the set. Vanity Fair’s security team, headed by Keith Duvall, a former NYPD cop, were stationed around Jenner’s Malibu, Calif., house with binoculars and walkietalkies. They were checking for hidden paparazzi, incoming drones, any breach in security.
Suddenly, security announced: “There’s a Bentley coming up the hill.”
It was Kim Kardashian, Jenner’s former stepdaughter, and her arrival was a possible security breach as the paparazzi generally trail her where ever she goes.
The reality star, it seemed, wanted in on what promised to be an iconic cover of Vanity Fair.
She went through the security checkpoint, turned over her cellphone and walked into the house in full makeup, camera-ready.
There was just one problem with her plan.
Vanity Fair had a ban on any Kardashian appearing in the magazine.
“It was a cultural cold war. No one was happy to see her on this day,” writes Dana Brown in his book “Dilettante, True Tales of Excess, Triumph and Disaster” (Ballantine).
Brown, then deputy editor of Vanity Fair, and Buzz Bissinger, who was on board to write the story, escorted Kardashian to the kitchen.
“With no reality TV cameras around . . . she was just Kim, a normal human being whose equally famous stepfather was in the next room in heels and a wig, not to mention with new breasts,” writes Brown.
“Kim said she was proud of her stepfather, excited for the world to meet Caitlyn. But she was less interested in us than she was in getting into one of Annie’s photographs.”
Kardashian listened to the voices and popping strobes in the next room, and after half an hour accepted the reality that she wasn’t going to be photographed for the magazine with Jenner.