An actor dressed as Tyrion Lannister, poses for photographers with fake severed head before the screening of final episode of “Game of Thrones” on 20-meter-high screen at RZD Arena in Moscow, Russia on May 20, 2019. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

“Cassowaries are large, flightless birds related to emus and (more distantly) to ostriches, rheas, and kiwis”, writes Olivia Judson in the September issue of National Geographic magazine. How large? People-size: Adult males stand well over five foot five and top 110 pounds. Females are even taller, and can weigh more than 160 pounds. Dangerous when roused, they’re shy and peaceable when left alone. But even birds this big and tough are prey to habitat loss. The dense New Guinea and Australia rain forests where they live have dwindled. Today cassowaries might number 1,500 to 2,000. And because they help shape those same forests – by moving seeds from one place to another – “if they vanish”, Judson writes, “the structure of the forest would gradually change” too. (Photo by Christian Ziegler/National Geographic)

Photographer Howard Schatz had an idea: place actors in a series of roles and dramatic situations to reveal the essence of their characters. Such was the premise behind his book, In Character: Actors Acting, which captures some of Hollywood’s most emotive stars in the act of, well, making faces. Luckily for us, he continued the tradition for Vanity Fair. Here are some of the best.

Russian actress and blogger Polina Pushkareva arrives for the screening of the film “L'Amour Ouf” (Beating Hearts) at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 23, 2024. (Photo by Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters)

“The nuclear football (also known as the atomic football, the president's emergency satchel, the button, the black box, or just the football) is a briefcase, the contents of which are to be used by the President of the United States of America to authorize a nuclear attack while away from fixed command centers, such as the White House Situation Room. It functions as a mobile hub in the strategic defense system of the United States. It is a metallic Zero Halliburton briefcase carried in a black leather “jacket”. The package weighs around 45 pounds (20 kilograms). A small antenna protrudes from the bag near the handle”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A U.S. Military officer carries the “football”, which carries nuclear launch codes, on South Lawn after returning with U.S. President George W. Bush to the White House January 7, 2002 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

American media personality, socialite and model Kylie Kristen Jenner and American model Kendall Nicole Jenner are launching a new joint makeup line in the last decade of March 2022. (Photo by Kyliejenner/Instagram)

Randy Scott Slavin's photography is surrealism based in reality. His work portrays land and cityscapes in a 360 degree view, a perspective closer to that of the human eye than a 2D photograph, he says. Slavin's "Alternate Perspectives" is a series of photographs of a single location or landmark pieced together to create a 360 degree perspective in a flat image. The results are whimsical, and occasionally eerie, scenes that reflect the portion and scale of Slavin's surroundings when he took the photo.

Zurich soccer player Loris Benito tries to catch a marten during the Swiss Super League match between FC Thun and FC Zurich in Thun, Switzerland, March 10, 2013. (Photo by Marcel Bieri/Keystone)