How this Kennedy drama has flipped the Camelot script

March 16, 2026 — 5:30pm

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Once, in the mid-1990s, John F. Kennedy Jr called me. He had a great voice, with a seductive thread of mischief running through it. Even on the phone, I could feel the magnetism of the reigning dreamboat. He wanted to do a Q&A with me for his new magazine, George, which blended politics with pop culture.

“After all,” he said, “you’re the godmother of this form of journalism.”

I really wanted to meet JFK Jr. But I write better than I talk, and I told him I was afraid that I’d be hopelessly inarticulate.

“That’s what editors are for!” he said puckishly, adding, “You’re the only person who has turned me down for this – except the pope.”

I was sceptical about George. Politics and entertainment were merging, and I was worried that the balance would tilt toward the superficial. George was a fanzine for “the giant puppet show” of politics, as JFK Jr called it – a strange blend of Vanity Fair and C-SPAN. Was it too frivolous, with a glossy debut cover of Cindy Crawford cosplaying George Washington? Was it weird to have a cover with Drew Barrymore vamping as Marilyn Monroe, the paramour of JFK Jr’s father and uncle?

JFK Jr was the nation’s magic child: little John-John saluting his father’s casket in a gesture that broke the nation’s heart, now all grown up. He had become a stylish, adventurous man surfing New........

© The Sydney Morning Herald