Jonathan Van Meter, who chronicled Hillary Clinton’s August 2009 Africa trip for the December Vogue that year, has now turned his attention to Chelsea whom he followed around for several months. As usual, he has done an excellent job. The September issue hits the stands next Tuesday, August 21, the same day the Condé Nast Traveller issue featuring Chelsea’s awesome mom also comes out.
I especially enjoyed the little segment below. Until September 11, 2001 I was an avid Jeopardy viewer. I was excellent. My friends and I used to frequent a “Jeopardy Bar” after work from which the twin towers could be seen and from which you could be ejected while the show was on for speaking in anything other than the form of a relevant question. I even beta-tested online Jeopardy. But when regular broadcasting returned, and I think that was not until mid-February 2002 when finally the fire at “the pile” was extinguished, I could not bear to go back to Jeopardy. I don’t know why. It felt empty and pointless. Somehow, I found Trading Spaces which felt like a constructive replacement. I watched it faithfully for years until a certain Senator from New York threw her chapeau into the presidential race, and I switched to cable news.
Waiting in the Wings: An Exclusive Interview with Chelsea Clinton
by Jonathan Van Meter | photographed by Mario Testino
The private reception in the library’s restaurant, Forty Two, spills out onto a big deck that overlooks the sun setting on the Arkansas River. There are margaritas and Mexican food, and the whole affair takes on the air of a big family barbecue, with children running around, folks getting tipsy, and everyone going back for seconds. Chelsea is holding court with her friends, among them interior designer Ryan Lawson and Dan Baer, a deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the U.S. Department of State. Hillary is regaling them with stories. The conversation turns to the fact that Dorothy had a real knack for making a beautiful home, which then leads to the revelation that Hillary’s guilty pleasure, the thing she does when she really wants to take her mind off her work, is to sit with a big pile of interior-design magazines and flip through them. She also admits that she enjoys some of the reality shows on the subject. And then she says, “Chelsea, did I ever tell you about the first time I actually spoke to Lindsey Graham? He came up to me one day on the floor of the Senate and said, ‘Guess who called me?’ ‘Who?’ I said. ‘A producer from the television show Trading Spaces. They want you and I to trade places. What do you say?’ And I said, ‘I don’t think so!’ ” At that, she puts her finger to her dimpled cheek and exaggeratedly twists it a couple of times and then dramatically turns on her heel and saunters away. Everyone laughs while Chelsea convulses in a silent paroxysm of laughter and disbelief, with a look on her face that says, my mom!
Still4Hill 
the author, jonathan van meter, was on CNN today and here’s the transcript:
BANFIELD: Wow. Well, if he could see her now.
JONATHAN VAN METER, AUTHOR, “THE LAST GOOD TIME”: He’s disgusting.
BANFIELD: That was pretty horrible. But, you know, that changed things because people don’t dare talk about those kids in the White House anymore.
VAN METER: That’s true. I think one of the things Clintons will go down in history for may very well being the world’s greatest parents. I mean, they did such an incredible job of protecting her from the likes of us, basically, and it’s an amazing thing that she’s decided to step out finally and do this.
BANFIELD: Let’s talk a couple of things I read in the article that I loved. She talked about running and she said this about running. “It’s one part of my life in which I fundamentally feel like the observer instead of the observed.” My heart just sank.
VAN METER: Isn’t that amazing? One of her best friends from childhood basically said that she, as a little girl, behaved like a person who was always being watched.
BANFIELD: She was.
VAN METER: She grew up in a fish bowl, but somehow she’s magically survived it and turned into this incredibly lovely, fun, easy-to-be-around person.
BANFIELD: And all that, yes. But then, on top of that, and this is what’s so surprised me. I suppose it shouldn’t have surprised me with smart parents like those two. She is just remarkably articulate, poised, successful. She’s on seven boards. She’s actually a lecturer at the university. She’s a graduate PhD student right now and I want to read this quote just so that you know how articulate this young woman has become.
She said, “I really wanted to work in the private sector. I felt as if I had no inherited understanding of that from my parents, but I didn’t fundamentally care about denominating success through money. And think it’s important to be in professions in which you care about the metric of success.”
Whoa.
VAN METER: It’s amazing. And one of the things that I loved about her is that she has digressions that I described as frequent and lengthy where she’ll be telling a story, she’ll digress and you’ll learn so much in these digressions because she’s got this big throbbing brain. She’s so smart.
Huma Abedin said, she may very well be the smartest person I’ve ever met.
BANFIELD: Holy cow, 32-years old, too. I was thinking, yeah, she’s probably 19 or 20. Thirty-two years old, married and pressure from her mom, Hillary, to have grand babies.
Jonathan, it’s a great read. It’s really, really terrific. It’s so insightful and it’s what you do best. I remember your Jennifer Aniston piece from a decade ago.
VAN METER: I wrote about you. I wrote about you.
BANFIELD: Now, let’s not talk about that.
VAN METER: Remember when it was a scandal to wear glasses on television? Now, we’re all doing it.
BANFIELD: Or dye your hair. Yeah, right. Oh, yeah, nice glasses.
Mr. Van Meter, excellent work. By the way, you can read the entire interview with Chelsea Clinton on Vogue.com, as well. But I recommend that you that September issue. It’s awesome ballast because it’s extraordinarily heavy. It’s almost a thousand pages this year, right?
VAN METER: It’s a cinder block, is what it is.
BANFIELD: And it hits newsstands, nationwide, on August the 21st. By the way, she is a total fox, so I …
VAN METER: She really is.
BANFIELD: … hope Rush Limbaugh is watching this interview and I hope he gets to see these pictures and see how poised, articulate and beautiful this woman has become. Thank you, Jonathan.
VAN METER: Thank you. This was great.
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Thanks for sharing that. I saw him with Andrea Mitchell today.
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Thank you. I’m going to have to buy all 5 lbs. of Vogue. LOL!!
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This is another passage that cracked me up.
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This is great! Really wonderful to see Chelsea shining. During the 2008 primary from hell, I loved it when Hillary and her daughter appeared together. The love and respect each had for the other was written all over their faces. It was so clear, honest, and undeniable.
Both the nature and the nurture lined up just right in this young lady. She is a powerhouse – just like her amazing mom.
Thanks for posting this article. It made my, otherwise not so great, night!!
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Always a pleasure! 🙂 I hope you have a better tomorrow. (((HUGS)))
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Thanks, Still. At least the air conditioner will be fixed at my office by then. No AC on a 100 degree day when the humidity is about 90 % makes for one sucky day. lol
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I know – first thing I do when I come in is turn the A/C on. hope it’s fixed.
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I read the article online. It’s very nice and Chelsea looks beautiful, there’s a lot of her mom in her.
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Saw Chelsea on the news last night with the baby elephant lady in Kenya. Wish I could visit that nursery.
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me too, i love elephants! there’s also a followup video:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#VpFlash
the second part of chelsea’s report is on tonight.
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