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Joe Dolce's boyfriend has been a favorite of New York's forevs, but even we were a little shocked to see the Best/Worst issue venture so far up his ass as to create a category for him: "Industry Star." According to Boris Kachka,

With Miramax Books in turmoil in 2005, it surprised no one that founding publisher Jonathan Burnham decided to go his own way. But most expected him to spin off one of those personality-based imprints (like Jonathan Karp's Warner Twelve). Instead he became publisher of the flagship division at HarperCollins, a many-tentacled behemoth better known for celebrity tell-alls than high literature. So what's he doing under the same Murdochian tent as Judith Regan? Making Harper more respectable, for one thing.

Hmm, so he's been classing up the joint, eh? One industry insider begs to differ:

That little bit about Jonathan Burnham in this week's NY Mag is egregious. Michael Cader only linked to it and mentioned the books in Pub Lunch, but he didn't point out the ridiculousness of describing and dismissing HarperCollins as a house that was primarily known for celeb books, and needing Jonathan to pull it out of the gutter. With editors like Terry Karten, Hugh Van Dusen, and until he retired, Larry Ashmead (just to name a few, and putting aside Harper's illustrious but more distant past), Harper has published-since the 80-s and to the present-authors such as Louise Erdrich, Isabel Allende, Thomas Moore, Howard Zinn, Michael Dorris, Vikram Seth, Barbara Kingsolver, Simon Winchester, FROM DAWN TO DECADENCE by Jacques Barzun (a NBA finalist), and Herbert Bix's HIROHITO AND THE MAKING OF MODERN JAPAN, which won a NBCC and a Pulitzer Prize. And these are just the ones I can remember, and none of them had a thing to do with Jonathan Burnham. Frankly, if he has any class at all, he'll write a letter to NY Mag himself to correct the record-I mean, these are his editors that NY Mag has insulted.

In case our tipster lost you somewhere around "egregious," we'll translate: Harper Collins has always been plenty classy, and publishing Anderson Cooper's bio shouldn't give Burnham any respectability bonus points. Hiss! Scandal! Think he'll write that letter to the editor?

Best In Books [NYMag]