Charlotte Gainsbourg: Initials C.G.

NEW YORK'S hideously hypocritical smoking policy (in a city choking on exhaust fumes) was a particular nuisance that morning at the impossibly fabulous Carlyle Hotel, where I sat in the lounge sucking down espressos and daydreaming of the hotel's glamorous, smoke-filled past. Much to my relief, it turned out that my glorious Gallic interview subject, one Charlotte Gainsbourg, would be having none of it.