Pulse: Chatter: Philadelphia Magazine 100 Years: Thing of Beauty

In honor of our centennial, we look back at some of the stories that shaped Philly Mag

Long before Brangelina was on our radar, Angelina Jolie got her big break playing Gia Marie Carangi in a 1998 HBO docudrama. But the tragic life of the tough-talking Philly-born model was first chronicled by Philly Mag writer/editor Stephen Fried a decade before. Having appeared on a bevy of high-profile magazine covers (including this one), Gia was the quintessential local girl-made-good. But in the November 1988 issue, Fried detailed how her mercurial rise to supermodel stardom ended with heroin addiction, then death in 1986 from AIDS. (The piece eventually became a 1993 book.) “Gia thought her story should be a cautionary tale," Fried says. "And it was.”

Click here to read "Thing of Beauty," by Stephen Fried.