We've all been there, posing for Good Housekeeping magazine while inhaling the zesty aroma of a pasta dish so succulent that there's a little movement— ooh— aahh— please turn to page 162 for stain removal tips.

In your spotless Tuesday media column: more stories of magazine poop, business journalists web-surf predictably, a Florida politico type applauds the layoff of newspaper "pieces of shit," AMI's not for sale any more, and alt-weeklies bombarded with cash.

We hear that there were four editorial layoffs at Good Housekeeping today as part of the broader Hearst layoffs we mentioned yesterday. And FishbowlNY reports 20 layoffs at M. Shanken Communications, the publisher of Cigar Aficionado, Wine Spectator, and Food Arts. And Eric Schurenberg, the managing editor of Money, was laid off today as part of the Time Inc. layoffs.

So, was Esquire's last-minute inclusion as a finalist in the National Magazine Awards a stroke of luck for the languishing Hearst magazine, or merely the result of a fix? As you might have read, David Granger's men's title, which used reliably to feature in several categories in the magazine industry's annual exercise in mutual flattery, only received a solo nomination for its work in the past year. Mixed Media's Jeff Bercovici explained that even that was a fluke: the nomination was to have been New York's, until the judges realized that the magazine, an awards hog, had naughtily entered material it had already submitted in another category. So, a lucky break. Or maybe not.

Late-night TV host Conan O'Brien was surprised to read about his "St. Patrick's Day Stew" in Good Housekeeping given that he doesn't cook, has never tasted the dish and has no idea how the recipe got into the magazine. O'Brien devoted three prime minutes of his show, immediately following the monologue, to the recipe. He said the Hearst magazine "completely made this [recipe] up" and made a jokey statement about feeling "a little exploited." Well, Conan, just imagine how the rest of us feel: First we lost any faith in the accuracy of personal memoirs, now we can't even trust that celebrity magazine recipes aren't totally fabricated? Video after the jump.

We're sure there must be easier ways to lose 30 pounds, though.

Today's Times brings news of a classic brand's renovation:

• Remember how Women's Wear reported last week that Mort Zuckerman's doesn't like how he's characterized in onetime News editor Ed Kosner's forthcoming memoir? Well, he still doesn't. And now he's demanding corrections. [NYP]
• OK! America is now apparently doing OK in America. [Guardian]
• Charlie Gibson knows he's old, and he hopes he doesn't get hit by a truck. [Newsweek]
• Ellen Levine got to pick her Good Housekeeping replacement: Prevention's Rosemary Ellis. [WWD]
• Obligatory Romenesko-isn't-working-today-but-we- still-are post. [Romenesko]

Another week, another magland up-and-out maybe promotion. Last week it Time M.E. Jim Kelly who was either upped or maybe eased to the brand-new position of company-wide managing editor, where he'll troubleshoot and help recruit but not have direct oversight of any Time Inc. titles. This week it's Good Housekeeping's longtime EIC Ellen Levine, who is being upped or just maybe eased to the brand-new position of Hearst Magazine editorial director, where she'll help develop brand extensions and new titles but not, as we read the memo, have direct oversight of any Hearst titles. While you debate among yourselves whether or not they're promotions, the full Hearst memo — touting, among other things, Levine's "unparalleled record of putting the reader first" — is after the jump.

• Hearst mags get move-in dates for new tower, where the cafeteria will serve sushi five days a week. [NYP]
• Four Time Inc. mags will move their TOCs to the first page, sponsored by Philips Electronics. Finally, the cure magazines have been searching for. [WSJ]
• Housekeeping no longer so good for EIC Ellen Levine? [WWD]
• High-end book pubisher Rizzoli looks to enter U.S. magazine market with a title that's "Time Out meets Star magazine with N mero kind of fashion," whatever the hell that might mean. [FWD]
• Critics should stop worrying so much about the Times and focus more on the sins of local TV news, says Brian Montopoli. Coming soon from Public Eye: Is your weatherman really jolly?! [Public Eye/CBS]
• More Times blogs: Now covering state politics. (Oh, shit. Were we not supposed to be talking about the-paper-that-cannot-be-named anymore? Sorry.) [The Politicker/NYO]
• Elizabeth Spiers popularized the word "snarky" when she worked for Gawker. It's a testament to our precocity, then, to have been miraculously using it even before blogs existed. [Downtown Express]

Just what you've been waiting for: The new issue of Ms. is out today. And right from the cover, it is, as always, a cutting-edge, groundbreaking, transgressive, and incendiary break from traditional gender norms and patriarchal societal roles.