People editor Larry Hackett sent out a memo late today indicating the celebrity magazine got rid of 18 editorial staff, per the goal it set in early November. The communique, reprinted after the jump, gave no indication of whether the voluntary buyouts the Time Inc. title sought had to be supplemented with involuntary firings. Nor did it specify which staffers were leaving, or which bureaus were most heavily affected. But then it was written by the same guy who let his magazine slide into the common tabloid muck it was once a cut above, only to rationalize and narrowly deny the whole scandal, so what do you expect, forthright, expansive honesty?

We're guessing Hackett will be similarly concise and unrepentantly chipper in addressing the inevitable uproar that will greet his next big bribe to a celebrity, for an EXCLUSIVE baby cover or whatnot, amid economic and media-industry panic. It's what he gets paid to do, and we regret ever expecting better of him. That was clearly foolish.