Because we lurve Ashlee Simpson, we were recently flipping through the April issue of Jane (we know, we're behind on the girly mags), and we noticed a couple of things. First of all, it seems safe to say that after a few months under editor-in-chief Brandon Holley, Jane is pretty damn good. The look is fun, the edit is solid — just a good hipster-crafty-feminist revival.
Gawker alumnette and former mediabistro editor Elizabeth Spiers has informed FishbowlNY that this Wednesday will mark the launch of her latest bloggy venture, Dealbreaker. The Wall Street blog is intended to be the first in Spiers' forthcoming blog network, for which she will presumably craft individual blogs the way Condé Nast crafts magazines—each one carefully aimed at some ineffable, deluxe readership. They will all be, however, in niches that target high-spending, well-educated readers—such as gossip, sex, and politics. Spiers' aim is to hit the sweet spot: big readerships, but not hoi polloi.
See, this is why they never should have let his type into the club in the first place.
• You know those crazy "MPA people" that we were scratching our heads about? Turns out they're mass-marketed minorities, probably the first ones to come up when you search Getty for "dignified black man." Diversity is so easy with Photoshop. [NYCCFB]
• Perhaps the first correction regarding Fake Writer JT Leroy that doesn't involve correcting the assumption that the dude exists. [Regret the Error]
• America is dying, and we have our west coast brother Defamer is to blame. Funny, we keep hearing that it's our fault. [Prison Planet]
• Every publication should clarify its non-contributors. [Ignore Mag]
• This really can't be legit, but assuming it is: Any coffee called Bloggers Fuel makes us want to die. When one of its brews is called Bloggers Boot Up Blend, it makes us want to die by choking on our own vomit. [Bloggers Fuel]
• We are officially never getting anything done ever again, thanks to a compelling blog about the best books we've ever read. [Claudia's Room]
• While Gawker Stalker may threaten Debbie Gibson and George Clooney's publicist, it just makes Tony Danza feel really lonely. [OPJLH]
• Nick Lemann has 5,000 words on Bill O'Reilly. Which we'll get around to reading soon. [NYer]
• David Carr thinks VF, underneath all its bullshit, is actually a pretty good mag. [NYT]
• And Jon Friedman thinks that all the other magazine editors are ganging up on poor David Remnick. [MW]
• We always thought Bill Beutel was kind of a little crazy, but that's probably because we only really watched him in his later years. He helped invent Eyewitness News, and he died Saturday. [NYT]
• Bloggers "are the new media darlings," and — shockingly — many hope to get paid gigs with traditional media. [Newsday]
• More breaking insights: An attractive grad student who is raped and murdered makes for great tabloid fodder. [Baltimore Sun]
• No Hachette mags were among the Ellie finalists. Again. [WWD]
Boldface, the Times, March 10:
Aged and increasingly irrelevant gossipeuse Liz Smith, in today's Palm Beach Post:
• Judy Miller finally figured out why her Times career went to hell: It was the bloggers' fault. Of course it was. [Slate]
• Six weeks later, ABC anchor Bob Woodruff is released from the hospital to continue his rehabilitation elsewhere. [ABCNews]
• And 18 months later, NYT researcher Zhao Yan is released from prison after the Chinese government withdraws state-secrets charges. [NYT]
• Jon Friedman's doesn't love Mike Wallace. [MW]
• Coming soon: Isaac Mizrahi: The Magazine? [WWD (second item)]
We were going to be vaguely insulted to be included on Fast Company's list of jobs that won't exist in 10 years. And we were considering challenging the mag's assertion. But then we realized we'd have no leg to stand on: If anyone would know what jobs won't exist down the road, it's the people toiling at an erstwhile "New Economy" title.
Oh, if we had a nickel for every time we tried that line, George...
• More on HBO's new multi-wived drama, Big Love: If you liked the premiere or just needed more reason to hate it, behold the show's cruel marketing tactics. We'll let you plaster the background of Page Six with your logo, but defiling the Times Vows section is simply unacceptable. What was once pure is now maimed by marketing whores. [City Specific]
• A study finds that bloggers do very little original reporting and, less surprisingly, cable news is the most shallow and ephemeral of media outlets. This has been brought to you by the Captain Obvious Center for Media Research. [NYT]
• Even less original reporting from bloggers today, as we hear that Blogger has been down. We love it when bloggers can't even bitch about being unable to bitch.
• Surprise, surprise: They just might shut down The Falls, where ex-con Darryl Littlejohn worked as a bouncer and was last seen with murder victim Imette St. Guillen. While it's still open, try to have your birthday party there — should be plenty of room for you and yours. [NY Sun]
• Remembering better days, before Angelina Jolie was rescuing orphans and was just another crazy dyke. [Stories You Cannot Tell]
• Mariah Carey buys her own winery — because that's how rich boozers roll. Rest assured, the zinfandel is very full-bodied. [omg blog]
• The best of Amazon, as presented by Andrew Krucoff. [Young Manhattanite]
• Oscar-winner George Clooney takes to the Huffington Post, where he lobs an eloquent "fuck you" to all Democrats who voted for the war. If Clooney blogs, does that make it sexy? Or does it make him less sexy? Discuss. [Lowdown]
• Lindsay Lohan insists she's not wearing hookerpants, but she does find "the act of love" to be "groovy." If we didn't know better, we'd say that sort of talk reeks of virginity. [R&M (2nd item)]
• Britney Spears tightens husband Kevin Federline's allowance, only giving him enough to buy three wifebeaters a day. [Page Six]
• Is the end nigh for Florent, the original gem of the Meatpacking District? [Gatecrasher]
• Alexis Glick, a former contender for Katie Couric's Today show throne, has been banished to MSNBC. [Page Six]
• Sharon Stone says her nude scenes in Basic Instinct 2 should be "disturbing." No worries there. [Scoop]
• If you didn't watch the Oscars, God bless you. But you still need to see the Three 6 Mafia's dramatic interpretation of "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp." It's your duty in maintaining pop culture relevancy. [fourfour]
• Cheers to Macy's in-house designer Allen Schwartz: the Oscars were Sunday night, and already ABS by Allen Schwartz has produced solid red-carpet knock-offs. [Us Weekly]
• When Courtney Love vacates, brokers celebrate! [NYO]
• Beloved local Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman flaunts his asscrack all over the City of Angels. [Liam McEneany Experience]
• The debate rages on: Is Britney Spears pregnant again, or just inhaling gravy? [A Socialite's Life]
• As men in suits gear up to campaign for anything and everything, one man dares to explain NYC's third party system. [East Village Red Man]
• RIP, Gordon Parks. [NYT]
• When art book publisher Powerhouse loses their lease to a restaurateur, what are they to do? Start a blog against "evil," of course. Is there anything these crazy weblogs can't do? [Powerhouse]
It's not so much that we don't quite understand this fish-nor-fowl business of Bruce Bartlett's work being billed on the Times homepage as though he's an op-ed columnist when he's more of a Suellentropian highbrow blogger. It's not that he's seemingly using the Times and this quasi-op-ed gig as little more than an ongoing plug for his new book, which his bio helpfully notes "has just been published by Doubleday." It's not even that his latest bit — the offering being flacked on the homepage — is just repeating the same stuff Paul Krugman has been saying for months.
It's funny: Just the other day we were walking west on 57th Street for the first time in a while, and we were looking at the seemingly near-completion new Hearst tower, and thinking we kind of dug it, and we wondered what it looks like inside. And then last night, like the toothy fairy flitting in with a buck or two, our friend The Guttersniper emailed with news that he had photos from inside the very same new Hearst tower. Kismet!
In light of The Falls' bouncer Darryl Littlejohn emerging as a suspect in the murder case of Imette St. Guillen, the media has naturally turned to wondering about the nature of the "bouncing industry." Littlejohn had a criminal record and yet he was working the door; hadn't management conducted a background check? Or do venues just not care?
Oh, you'll learn the word soon enough, guys. It's short for Web log, and we hear there's a whole set of associated lingo that's becoming all the range. William Safire told us so.
