The men of Hollywood cover Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue and the photos taken outside are so well done

Up until last year, Vanity Fair’s annual Hollywood issue was always released in February-ish timed for around the Oscars. Last year, a scheduling departure – the Hollywood issue came out in November, joining all the other “of the year” issues that other magazines put out around the season. One of the reasons, I suspect, is advertising. Q1 is a dry-ass time, advertising spends are bigger at the end of the year than they are at the beginning.

The 2026 Vanity Fair Hollywood issue dropped yesterday and … let’s hear it for the boys, because it’s all men. You are about to cancel me now because, um, I’m not mad at it. In this specific instance, I’m not mad at it. Even though men rule the world and it’s all men all the time, I’m not mad because where magazine covers are concerned, even for the GQ Men of the Year issues (!), it’s one of the few areas where women usually dominate, particularly in the category of magazine where Vanity Fair belongs – fashion, lifestyle, etc. So, in my opinion, even though Vanity Fair put together a cover for only men, it’s not like women in Hollywood have lost out on an opportunity to cover magazines right now. The women are covering almost all the magazines.

I also can’t be mad at this (if you’re still reading and I’m not cancelled) because these three covers with their respective cover stars are so well done! For a while there, the VF Hollywood issue was always shot in a studio, it was getting boring. You know the images – all of them together, in a group shot that folded out if you wanted to see all of them.

This time, instead of trying to jam ten to dozen actors all in one go, they’ve split them up and they’ve taken them outside. OUTSIDE makes a difference! The pictures are gorgeous, there’s so much more dimension, so much more LIFE.

Life at the beach…

Life at the park…

And life on the backlot…

The backlot shot, featuring Paul Mescal, Michael B Jordan, and Austin Butler is my favourite, because it’s classic Hollywood – leading men in motion, cooler than cool, at ease and all swagger, hanging out together at a place that is so iconically show business. Also perfect that these are the three chosen for this particular setting.

Just to complete the roll call, the other actors in the issue are Jeremy Allen White, A$AP Rocky, Glen Powell (in the Hollywood issue for the second year in a row), LaKeith Stanfield, Callum Turner, Riz Ahmed, Jonathan Bailey, Harris Dickinson, and Andrew Garfield.

I’ve not read the individual features yet, which is a surprise to me because I almost always read first, because they hooked me on the videos. Each group of cover stars gets together to recommend their favourite YouTube watches to each other. It’s a great idea, I’m powerless to the appeal of it.

Let’s take this in the order I watched – Paul Mescal, MBJ, and Austin Butler first. MBJ starts with animé, naturally, it’s well-known by now that he’s a fanboy and probably spends a lot more time in Japan than we’ll ever know. Austin goes next and his pick is a musical performance and by now it becomes clear that MBJ and Austin’s energy is a bit more serious…until Paul Mescal comes in all like, well sh-t, both of you are so cerebral and now I’m the idiot with my silly video, but it works, it’s balance, and the three of them together are adorable.

Next Rocky, Callum Turner, LaKeith Stanfield, and Glen Powell… but no Jeremy Allen White. He’s on the cover with them but for whatever reason, I guess scheduling, he missed the chat. Lots of chemistry happening here, all of them are vibing, but what really jumped out at me is how good Rocky is in this environment. He’s driving the conversation, he’s making sure everyone is included, he’s so comfortable, it’s almost like he’s hosting. And this is a skill – moderating IS a skill – so that’s what I learned today: A$AP Rocky is a moderator. There’s a really quick moment halfway through when he’s talking about how much he loves The Nightmare Before Christmas and Callum shares that it was also his favourite movie growing up; shortly after, while Rocky’s breaking down his attachment to the film, he calls back graciously to Callum – it’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it few seconds but it highlights how present he is, and generous, and in the bigger picture, why he has a promising future as an actor.

Finally, the Brits – Andrew Garfield, Harris Dickinson, Riz Ahmed, and Jonathan Bailey. All four of these people are gloriously unserious, they’re talking to each other like they’ve known each other for years, and they may have. The most chaotic, though, even among this group of clowns, is Harris I think. Watch his face as his video choice starts to play, he’s trying to hold it together, even though he’s seen it hundreds of time, and he almost loses it when the thing he’s waiting for to happen happens. This moment alone tells me that he’s would be great to get high and hang out with. I mean, I already had a Harris Dickinson problem but this just made it worse. Jonathan Bailey too. Because he, like Harris, is willing to get silly – in fact his default setting is probably silly. Which, of course, makes the Sexiest Man Alive even sexier.