As the media world finds renewed interest in Olivia Nuzzi’s RFK Jr. scandal due to her ex-fiancé Ryan Lizza’s tell-all series on the subject, the newly hired West Coast Editor of Vanity Fair is reportedly set to appear nude in an abstract art piece in the magazine’s upcoming Hollywood issue.
Painted by artist Isabelle Brourman, an apparent image of the portrait dropped on social media earlier this week — just before Lizza continued to fan the flames surrounding the former Washington, D.C., correspondent for New York magazine with Part 3 of his blog posts.
On Wednesday, fellow journalist Lizza wrote that “Olivia had essentially become a private political operative for Bobby Kennedy, while publicly posing as a hard-nosed reporter … What you have been reading about here is not really a scandal about sex, but a scandal about journalistic ethics.”
According to her ex, Nuzzi allegedly snuck a recorder into Brourman’s bag as the artist sketched Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago ahead of her September 2024 profile on the now-president in order to pick up conversations the then-candidate had with his associates.
“With any luck, Olivia would capture some great material for her piece and some intel for Bobby as he negotiated the endorsement,” Lizza alleged. “According to Olivia, when [Brourman] left the session, [she] was hung up on something she believed Trump might have said about Butler, Pennsylvania — something explosive that, if she were correct, would shatter our understanding of recent history.”
Vanity Fair said last week it is reviewing its ties to Nuzzi in light of Lizza’s prior allegations. TheWrap reached out for further comment on Wednesday.
In a statement to TheWrap, Nuzzi’s attorney responded to Lizza: “This is another example of why Ms. Nuzzi sought the intervention of the DC Superior Court in 2024 amid a harassment campaign that is still ongoing and has now lasted more than 16 months; that legal process was then weaponized and used to escalate the harassment against her and to humiliate her. Ms. Nuzzi will not dignify efforts to impugn her character with any further response.”
Nuzzi, meanwhile, has shared her side of the story in her memoir, “American Canto.” In it, she wrote about her relationship with “the politician,” never mentioning Kennedy by name. She began her job at VF in September after leaving NY Mag in 2024.
For his part, Lizza is said to be planning an eight-part series from his point of view. Vanity Fair’s Hollywood Issue is expected to his shelves on Dec. 2.
