Joan Juliet Buck
Encyclopedia
Joan Juliet Buck is an American writer, social critic, and actress. She was the editor in chief of French Vogue
from 1994 to 2001.
(1917–2001), an American film producer, who moved his family to Europe in 1952 "in protest against political repression" in the United States. Her mother was the former Joyce Ruth Getz (aka Joyce Gates, died 1996), a model and actress. John Huston
, for whom her father worked as a cameraman, was the best man at her parents' 1945 wedding.
As a child, Buck was cast as a Scots waif in the Walt Disney film Greyfriars Bobby
.
at the age of 23, then a correspondent for Women's Wear Daily in London and Rome. Later Buck was an associate editor of the London Observer
. A contributing editor to American Vogue
since 1980 and also Vanity Fair, her profiles and essays appeared in The New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, and The Los Angeles Times Book Review. As movie critic for American Vogue (1990–1994), she served on the New York Film Festival selection Committee. From 1994 to 2001 she was editor-in-chief of French Vogue, where she doubled the circulation and produced thematic year-end issues on cinema, art, music, and quantum physics.
She has appeared in numerous documentaries, among them James Kent's "Fashion Victim, the Killing of Gianni Versace", Mark Kidel's "Paris Whorehouse", and "Architecture of the Imagination". Buck narrated James Crump's 2007 documentary " Black, White, and Gray", about art collector Sam Wagstaff
and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe
.
Buck appeares in Nora Ephron
's movie Julie and Julia (2009) as Madame Elisabeth Brassart
, head of the famed Le Cordon Bleu
cooking school.
In 2008, she joined Liz Smith, Peggy Noonan, Joni Evans, Mary Wells Lawrence, Lesley Stahl, Whoopi Goldberg, Candice Bergen, and others in founding wowowow.com, a website for women.
by Joan Juliet Buck. Buck described Asma al-Assad as "glamorous, young and very chic — the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies," she also noted that "in Syria, power is hereditary." The article mentioned substantial "shadow zones" in the country's social and political affairs, and quoted the U.S. State Department web site: "The Syrian government conducts intense physical and electronic surveillance of both Syrian citizens and foreign visitors."
Joan Juliet Buck's Vogue article caused a furor. Publications and web sites including The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic attacked it as an ill-timed "puff piece" that ignored human rights abuses under the Ba'athist regime in Syria. An article by Stephen McGinty in The Scotsman
examined the Vogue piece point by point, and noted that it "has plenty of lines that now viewed through the sharp lens of current events, appear deeply ironic."
Anti-government demonstrations began in Syria in March 2011. In a speech on March 30, 2011, Bashar al-Assad blamed "conspirators" for an extraordinary wave of dissent against his authoritarian rule, and did not offer any concessions to the protestors. Buck had quoted al-Assad as saying that he was attracted to a career in eye surgery "because it's very precise, it's almost never an emergency, and there is very little blood."
By May, as the Syrian regime continued to kill protestors, the article was removed from Vogue's website. No explanation has been reported.
Vogue Paris
The French edition of Vogue magazine, Vogue Paris, is a fashion magazine that has been published since 1920.-1920–1954:The French edition of Vogue was first issued on June 15, 1920. More information about French Vogue in the 1920s is available in Mary E. Davis's book Classic Chic: Music, Fashion,...
from 1994 to 2001.
Background
Buck is the only child of Jules BuckJules Buck
Jules Buck was an American producer of films. He was cameraman for John Huston's war documentaries and began producing as assistant to Mark Hellinger....
(1917–2001), an American film producer, who moved his family to Europe in 1952 "in protest against political repression" in the United States. Her mother was the former Joyce Ruth Getz (aka Joyce Gates, died 1996), a model and actress. John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
, for whom her father worked as a cameraman, was the best man at her parents' 1945 wedding.
As a child, Buck was cast as a Scots waif in the Walt Disney film Greyfriars Bobby
Greyfriars Bobby
Greyfriars Bobby was a Skye Terrier who became known in 19th-century Edinburgh for spending 14 years guarding the grave of his owner, John Gray , until he died himself on 14 January 1872...
.
Career
Dropping out of Sarah Lawrence College to work at Glamour magazine as a book reviewer in 1968, she became the features editor of British VogueVogue (British magazine)
The British edition of Vogue is a fashion magazine that has been published since 1916.When British Vogue was launched, it was the first overseas edition of an existing fashion magazine. Under the magazine's first editor, Elspeth Champcommunal, the magazine was essentially the same as the American...
at the age of 23, then a correspondent for Women's Wear Daily in London and Rome. Later Buck was an associate editor of the London Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
. A contributing editor to American Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
since 1980 and also Vanity Fair, her profiles and essays appeared in The New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, and The Los Angeles Times Book Review. As movie critic for American Vogue (1990–1994), she served on the New York Film Festival selection Committee. From 1994 to 2001 she was editor-in-chief of French Vogue, where she doubled the circulation and produced thematic year-end issues on cinema, art, music, and quantum physics.
She has appeared in numerous documentaries, among them James Kent's "Fashion Victim, the Killing of Gianni Versace", Mark Kidel's "Paris Whorehouse", and "Architecture of the Imagination". Buck narrated James Crump's 2007 documentary " Black, White, and Gray", about art collector Sam Wagstaff
Sam Wagstaff
Samuel Jones Wagstaff Jr. was an American art curator and collector as well as the artistic mentor and benefactor of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and poet-punk rocker Patti Smith...
and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and nude men...
.
Buck appeares in Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, playwright, journalist, author, and blogger.She is best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in...
's movie Julie and Julia (2009) as Madame Elisabeth Brassart
Madame Elisabeth Brassart
Madame Elisabeth Brassart was the proprietress of the Le Cordon Bleu school in Paris from 1945 to 1984. The present owner, André J. Cointreau, purchased it from Brassart, who was an old family friend....
, head of the famed Le Cordon Bleu
Le Cordon Bleu
Le Cordon Bleu is the world's largest hospitality education institution, with 35 schools on five continents serving 20,000 students annually. Its primary education focus is on hospitality management and the culinary arts...
cooking school.
In 2008, she joined Liz Smith, Peggy Noonan, Joni Evans, Mary Wells Lawrence, Lesley Stahl, Whoopi Goldberg, Candice Bergen, and others in founding wowowow.com, a website for women.
Novels
Buck's novels about multicultural expatriates are The Only Place To Be (Random House, 1982) and Daughter Of The Swan (Weidenfeld, 1987). She was one of a long line of writers commissioned to adapt D. M. Thomas's novel The White Hotel. Her version was singled out by DM Thomas as "faithful and intelligent", but the film has never been made.Marriage
Buck married, in 1977, John Heilpern, a journalist and writer; they divorced in the 1980s.Controversies
For its March 2011 issue, American Vogue commissioned a profile of Asma al-Assad, wife of Syrian President Bashar al-AssadBashar al-Assad
Bashar al-Assad is the President of Syria and Regional Secretary of the Ba'ath Party. His father Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria for 29 years until his death in 2000. Al-Assad was elected in 2000, re-elected in 2007, unopposed each time.- Early Life :...
by Joan Juliet Buck. Buck described Asma al-Assad as "glamorous, young and very chic — the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies," she also noted that "in Syria, power is hereditary." The article mentioned substantial "shadow zones" in the country's social and political affairs, and quoted the U.S. State Department web site: "The Syrian government conducts intense physical and electronic surveillance of both Syrian citizens and foreign visitors."
Joan Juliet Buck's Vogue article caused a furor. Publications and web sites including The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic attacked it as an ill-timed "puff piece" that ignored human rights abuses under the Ba'athist regime in Syria. An article by Stephen McGinty in The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
examined the Vogue piece point by point, and noted that it "has plenty of lines that now viewed through the sharp lens of current events, appear deeply ironic."
Anti-government demonstrations began in Syria in March 2011. In a speech on March 30, 2011, Bashar al-Assad blamed "conspirators" for an extraordinary wave of dissent against his authoritarian rule, and did not offer any concessions to the protestors. Buck had quoted al-Assad as saying that he was attracted to a career in eye surgery "because it's very precise, it's almost never an emergency, and there is very little blood."
By May, as the Syrian regime continued to kill protestors, the article was removed from Vogue's website. No explanation has been reported.