'New York' Mag's Total Mindfuck Issue
The image at right is not, of course, of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie bringing home the world's sexiest baby. Instead, the disturbing image is from New York's cover story about the paparazzi scramble to score a photo of the forthcoming baby "that Jen wouldn't give Brad" (yes, a celebrity weekly editor actually said that).
Instead of guerilla baby pics, New York suggests that the couple may just sell a photo to a celebrity weekly. Pitt's publicist Cindy Guagenti says there have been offers, which are undoubtedly lucrative:
"If you sell an extra 300,000 or 400,000 copies at $3.50, there's a million dollars right there," says an editor at one weekly. Beyond newsstand sales, there's the ineffable quality of having the thing that everyone wants. "There's really no price on that," says the editor. "Just having it is good for the brand to show readers that your magazine is the one that gets these sorts of photos." Which is why editors, photographers, and publicists all say that the Brangelina-baby photo could fetch at least $1 million.
And when slaves at that celebrity rag get their benefits reduced or see their holiday party pared down to a karaoke machine and a cash bar, they'll remember that $1 million "get." And then that baby is as good as dead.
