New York Magazine

This past Valentine’s Day, 71-year-old Brad Reese, proud grandson of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups inventor H. B. Reese, posted a scathing open letter to the manager of corporate brand and editorial at Hershey, accusing the company of unforgivably altering many Reese’s products by replacing real chocolate with compound chocolate — basically using vegetable oils instead of cocoa butter to lower costs and replacing real peanut butter with “peanut-butter-style crèmes.” “And Reese wasn’t alone in feeling like everything was getting worse,” writes Rachel Handler. “Everyone in my life I spoke to agreed that something was amiss, that Reese’s — and commercial chocolate in general — didn’t taste the way it used to.” Handler would spend the next several months tumbling down a chocolate vortex, encountering dozens of eccentric characters, all disagreeing about the fundamental question of what chocolate even is and who it should be for. “I learned that — not to sound like a LinkedIn guy — what’s going on with chocolate is a parable for the modern world. That at this particularly bleak end stage of capitalism, everything we once treasured has or will lose its essential essence and MrBeast will always be involved somehow.” For our cover story, Handler takes a deep dive into the molten belly of the chocolate world. Read it in full: nymag.visitlink.me/vKKky_

Ian McKellen paid tribute to his life long friend, Sir Patrick Stewart, remembering their old days at the Royal Shakespeare Company and how he worried his friend was going to get ‘lost in Hollywood.’ vulture.com/article/patrick-…

For two former power players, Carla and Morgan spend an awful lot of time getting bossed around by their own lawyers and staff. vulture.com/article/war-reca…

Vicki Gunvalson’s end-of-season party feels less like a celebration and more like a funeral for the franchise. vulture.com/article/real-hou…

Victor slowly wins over the castle, and the Traitors’ alliance has never been weaker, but at least the game is moving forward. vulture.com/article/the-trai…

Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez react to Gomez’s Teen Vogue party red carpet interview, where she shows off her blue clip-ins in her hair. vulture.com/article/selena-g…

For two years, writer Rebecca Jennings gathered with a group of friends each Wednesday to discuss their progress on a famously grueling book. They started with ‘Infinite Jest’ and ‘The Power Broker’ and continued with ‘Ulysses’ and ‘Gotham,’ a 1,400-page history of New York City that often reads like the world’s most tedious Wikipedia article. The Difficult Book Book Club didn’t start as an explicit strategy to wrest their attention from screens, but that’s what it became. Twenty years ago, an adult could focus on a screen without interruption for an average of two and a half minutes, says Gloria Mark, a professor at the University of California, Irvine. In 2012, that measure was about 75 seconds, and according to studies done between 2015 and 2021, it then shrank to an average of 47. With these statistics, Jennings sought out solutions to fixing our rapidly declining attention spans. Revisit Jennings’s 2025 essay on how she learned to navigate the new age of “obsessional politics”: nymag.visitlink.me/YxHICG

Rosalía was photographed walking around New York with a massive leather bag by the Parisian designer Dana Toder. We’ve come a long way from the teeny-tiny Jacquemus bags of yore. thecut.com/article/rosalias-…

Hollywood remembers their favorite Shakespearean royal, Sir Patrick Stewart, who died October 28. William Shatner, Hugh Jackman, and more paid tribute to the late actor. vulture.com/article/patrick-…

If Heidi Klum insists on looking grosser and grosser for Halloween with each passing year, where does it end? Maybe next year, she can just be a ghost. vulture.com/article/heidi-kl…

The midday tip-off on game six of the WNBA Finals didn’t stop Usher, T-Pain, and a sold-out arena from cheering in Atlanta. thecut.com/article/wnba-fans…

Former Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz and his wife, Laura, say they and their kids were unceremoniously kicked out of Justin and Hailey Bieber’s house during Carl’s cheating scandal in 2020. thecut.com/article/hillsong-…

The denouement is upon us! For the last five Fridays, we have shared installments of Lauren Oyler’s short story, “The Hater,” in our flagship daily newsletter, Dinner Party. And now, we have reached the final chapter. At last, the main character, who is also named Lauren, discusses her meeting with the Hater, who she met on Feeld, and we learn something truly unforgettable about the circumstances of his faltering marriage. As a crowd gathers at the bar to hear the end of Lauren’s tale, tensions rise between Lauren and the narrator. Then they boil over, as rising tensions tend to do. Read the full story by signing up for Dinner Party: nymag.visitlink.me/7HHM3c

Olivier Martinez’s request for a domestic-violence restraining order against Halle Berry, whom he has a accused of ‘physically abusing’ their son, was denied on Thursday. thecut.com/article/halle-ber…

The beloved British actor known to most U.S. audiences as Captain Jean-Luc Picard of ‘Star Trek: Next Generation,’ died after a brief battle with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy Body dementia. thecut.com/article/patrick-s…

Patrick Stewart, the star of various ‘X-Men’ and ‘Star Trek’ projects, is dead at 86. He will be remembered for the gravitas he brought to both the highest of prestige and the most mainstream of hits. vulture.com/article/patrick-…

Everyone loves to judge what rich people do with their money, and no one has a better front-row seat than those they keep closest: their personal assistants. For decades, Brian Daniel worked as a PA for ultrawealthy clients. Now, he helps recruit and train other high-level PAs for some of the world’s richest families and top-earning CEOs, building a deep network of people in the private-service industry along the way. In a 2024 interview, personal-finance columnist Charlotte Cowles speaks with Daniel about how to snag a table at the most in-demand restaurant at the last minute, and what it’s like when your boss has never heard the word “no”: nymag.visitlink.me/-ruS5-

Patrick Stewart, an actor who straddled the worlds of prestige theater and mainstream success, has died at age 86. Read the full update: nymag.visitlink.me/2ZLPZP

Real estate agents are breaking with the tradition of showing buyers blank slate-photos in apartment listings and putting themselves in the mix. curbed.com/article/real-esta…

New York City–based brand Kallmeyer just launched its first-ever hero handbag, the Magazine Bag. One Cut editor tested it to see if it’s worth the splurge. thecut.com/article/is-the-ka…