This is the cover of Marie Claire’s holiday digital issue — I believe Scarlett Johansson is on the newsstand cover — and personally, I believe that Dolly Parton should be on the cover of every holiday magazine. She is, as my mother texted me Sunday night after we watched Dolly’s Christmas special, an angel. This is not just hyperbole, given that she sends children copious amounts of free books (she talks about this more in detail in the piece), donated a million bucks to research for what turned out to be the freaking Moderna coronavirus vaccine, and is also, you know. DOLLY PARTON. She should be on the cover of Marie Claire and also on the cover of Sports Illustrated if she wants to be, and also Time and obviously Rolling Stone. Give Dolly all the covers! It is only right and proper that Marie Claire chose the photo where she is posing like the superhero that she is.
As regular readers know, I am generally opposed to celebrities interviewing other celebrities, but RuPaul was an inspired choice for this one, and he nailed it. (And Sally Holmes, the new editor-in-chief [and my friend! I’m so excited she’s got this job, she’s an absolute delight and so smart] wrote the piece’s intro and it’s also v. charming.) Definitely go marinate in some Dolly, but here is a taste of it:
But I’m always, almost always up for good around 3 a.m. So I do some of my best spiritual work, some of my best writing, and some of my business work—call-ins and letters that I’m writing or whatever—between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. I get more work done during that little period of time when the world is calm, energies are down, and I just feel like a farmer. I think God is a farmer. He’s getting out and he’s throwing down all these little nuggets of corn. Corn mostly, in my place. They say the early bird gets the worm. Well, they also get a lot of good ideas too.
THAT IS AMAZING and also poetic. Dolly is clearly a super sleeper — you know, those people who only need like four hours of sleep to be fully rested? Martha Stewart is one, which also explains a lot.
This is also great:
RP: People always ask me about how many wigs I have, and I name each of them different names. But my oldest wigs…I have wigs that I still wear that are about 23 years old. Do you have wigs that are that old?
DP: I do, but most of them are more museum-type pieces too. I don’t think I have any that I wear that are that old now, but I know what you mean. See, you’re a drag queen. Those are like costumes to you. This is my living self. I am a living drag queen. You dress up just now and then, but for me, though, I like the wigs and I wear them almost every day. So, people ask me how many wigs I have, I say, “Well, I must have at least 365,” because I wear one almost every day. But I actually keep my own hair the same color and I just kind of pull it up in little scrunchies around the house. But I still like to put on makeup and have my hair fluffed.
The whole thing is a pleasure. Truly, there are tons of bits I could have pulled — go treat yourself!
