bonnie-fuller

Bonnie Fuller Lies On Her Mother's Grave

Nick Denton · 05/14/08 09:43AM

Amid general rejoicing in the humiliation of boss-from-hell Bonnie Fuller, have some sympathy for the departing American Media editorial director. Fuller not only failed to turn American Media's supermarket tabloid Star into a real competitor to the glossier Us Weekly; she recently lost her mother. But the driven Canadian-born super-editor-who boasted of her ability to juggle career and family in a recent advice book-may have used her mother's death to manage the news of her departure. New York Post terrier-like media reporter Keith Kelly was sniffing around last week. Bonnie Fuller's shameless response?

Did You Survive Bonnie Fuller?

Nick Denton · 05/13/08 02:54PM

To mark the passing of the much-hated magazine editor, Gawker will run eulogies from former colleagues who survived Fuller's reign of terror at Us Weekly and Star. Let it all out.

The Witch Is Dead

Nick Denton · 05/13/08 02:40PM

Bonnie Fuller, the Canadian mother-of-four who defined both the celebrity weekly and the celebrity magazine editor, is to leave her job. As the demanding editor of Us Weekly, Fuller was the most sought-after executive in the magazine industry; but she traded in her reputation for a richer deal at David Pecker's American Media. Fuller did improve group flagship Star, but it wasn't enough to dislodge Us Weekly, which continued to thrive under Fuller's successor, Janice Min. It became apparent that the peppy formula was stronger than the personal magic which Fuller had sold to American Media's Pecker. Marginalized at her new employer, Fuller spent her last couple of years in increasingly bizarre efforts to promote Star and her own flagging brand, appearing on game shows such as Identity (see screencap) and damning in blog posts the trashy celebrity culture that she had done so much to promote. It was a brutal fall from grace; and now Fuller cannot even claim to be seeking a quieter life. Her book, The Joys of Much Too Much, extolled the virtues of a hectic but full career and home life, over the simplicity and tranquility from which she will now suffer. (After the jump, American Media's press release.)

Yucky Miley Pictures Are Just Like Teen Cult Impregnation, Says Bonnie Fuller

Hamilton Nolan · 04/29/08 12:17PM

Bonnie Fuller, who oversees Star magazine and is therefore the arbiter of American media standards, has a question about this whole Miley Cyrus thing, and its connection to the current Texas polygamy scandal: "Is it OK to sexualize a fifteen-year-old if it is in the pages of a high falutin' magazine and her parents seem OK with it? Or is this really not much different from parents in a cult acquiescing to having their teen daughters wedded and bedded?" Ummm... can we say 'No' to all of the above?

Us Calls Bullshit on Star!

ian spiegelman · 03/30/08 08:43AM

Star overlord Bonnie Fuller is getting her ass kicked this morning. "Online reports that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt tied the knot in New Orleans Saturday are 'complete and total bulls—t,' a source tells Us. 'Bottom line, they aren't even in New Orleans.'"

Brangelina Married! No it's Not!

ian spiegelman · 03/30/08 07:13AM

The poor, poor bastards Star magazine spent Saturday evening furiously shoving out their scoop that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had gotten married in New Orleans yesterday. It was "an intimate wedding ceremony in the couple's adopted city" editor-in-chief and horrible person Bonnie Fuller's scribes report. And that got the kids at People magazine crazy! A couple hours later, they had tracked down a "source" who declared "There was no wedding." Then Star got slammed with The People's Elbow when the rag claimed that Brangelina wasn't even in New Orleans yesterday!

Scientology's Glamorous New Friends

Ryan Tate · 03/28/08 04:17AM
  • Game over, Scientology wins, they have Pete Doherty and Sumner Redstone. Viacom chairman Redstone hasn't actually converted but did have lunch with Scientology bigshot Tom Cruise, probably canceling in his area a personal and business rift with the actor and paving the way for more sweet Mission Impossible money. Doherty has been reading up on the religion and shacking up with a Scientologist DJ who probably hasn't yet mentioned the religion's stance on psychoactive drugs.

Smell The Innuendo

Rebecca · 02/28/08 04:55PM

There's a new book about blogs that the blogs can't stop talking about because bloggers love books about them. But actually reading a book about blogs? Nothing could be more boring. But there are nuggets in Ultimate Blogs: Masterworks from the Wild Web that make reading it, or the reviews of it at least, worthwhile. For one: In Eurotrash Geraldine Hayward takes bad breath to new literary heights describing her former (possibly famous!) boss.

Internets, Gays, Celebrities: Three Things That Will Destroy Your Family This Valentine's Day

Pareene · 02/13/08 12:29PM

The American Family is Under Attack. Homosexuals, liberals, Europeans, celebrities, immigrants—all seek to undermine our nation's moral code. Marriage, parenthood, even chaste teenage courtship are embattled and probably doomed. Movies about children having children out of wedlock, gays trying to marry gays, and wife-stealing media moguls are just symptoms of a deeper moral rot in our culture. Here, we present to you, exclusively, three of the greatest dangers to your family unit that you are sure to face this February—and beyond!

The Canadian Media Mafia

Pareene · 02/11/08 01:31PM

A story in Canada's National Post about how Canadian journo Clive Thompson is secretly jealous of more famous Canadian author Malcom Gladwell made brief mention of "a Canadian mafia of print journos that exists in the Manhattan magazine world." There are more Canucks in the New York media world than you might imagine, and nearly all of them hold positions of terrifying power. Do you know your Canadian Mafia members? Join us on a trip through Manhattan's dirty underbelly with the Molson-guzzling old time hockey aficionados who secretly run the media.

Celebrity Gossip Condemns What She Created

Richard Lawson · 02/07/08 04:59PM

Bonnie Fuller, the salacious former editor of US Weekly and the woman responsible for the Star magazine revamp, is now trading in her pap card and getting all motherly toward the ailingest of ailing pop stars, Britney Spears. In a piece on the Huffington Post, Fuller is upset about Britney's treatment. She suggests that if Britney wasn't famous she never would have been released so soon. (Well, that's probably true.) A great injustice has been done to the bewigged pill popper, she argues, and someone must take action! "...message to Jamie and Lynne Spears: If you love your daughter, now get two 'neutral' conservators," she writes, "and since a hospital won't hold her, see if you can get a 100% Britney sympathetic psychiatrist/babysitter who can treat her." This is all pretty rich coming from the queen of the rags. Bonnie are you feeling pangs of guilt about this whole celebrity experiment? Or are you just looking for a new angle? After the jump, an interview with Fuller from last summer. [Huffington Post]

Bonnie Fuller

cityfile · 02/03/08 09:35PM

Until May 2008, Fuller was the editorial director at David Pecker's publishing conglomerate AMI, where she looked after tabloids like Star and the National Enquirer. She is now the editor of Hollywood Life.

Bonnie Fuller Seeks Gay Star Sex To Destroy Lives!

Choire · 12/27/07 02:11PM

Bonnie Fuller is on a perverted and desperate hunt for men who have had sex with noted hero actor Tom Cruise! For reasons known only to the American Media Inc. editorial director, she is solely searching for "Tom Toppers." ("Top" is a "gay slang" phrase for "the active partner in homosexual intercourse.") My stars, woman! How much further into depravity and sadness can the already-invasive tabloid media delve? STAY TUNED.

Merry Christmas From Laurel Touby And Her Creepy Friends

Maggie · 12/19/07 03:42PM


Mediabistro founder Laurel Touby and all her Laurel Touby-loving friends have put together a very special Christmas video to wish you happy holidays! From Touby's "media family" (which includes husband Jon Fine, Bonnie Fuller, and Arianna Huffington) to yours (which probably doesn't), please have a "warm and fuzzy New Year!" It's just like that I Am African campaign but without any social good and slightly less funny!

Bonnie Fuller Imagines Brangelina's Nightmare Thanksgiving

Jen · 11/20/07 11:50AM

This Thanksgiving, as you add the last pat of butter to the mashed potatoes while trying to ignore your great uncle's comments about how your mother's like Crisco because she's fat in the can, be thankful that you're not Brad Pitt. So says Bonnie Fuller, who, in her latest HuffPo blog post, points out that she believes her own magazine's report about how strained things could be at the Pitt home in Missouri on Thursday!

Bonnie Fuller Is A Good Mom, Compared To Britney Spears

Emily Gould · 11/14/07 09:40AM

AMI EVP Bonnie Fuller does some ethical backflips to justify the redeeming value of Star magazine and its ilk in a HuffPo blog post: "Now, gossip high priestess Liz Smith wrote in her November 13 column that "celebrity madness fueled by instant technology" is her top choice for Time magazine's "person" of the year. And I have to second her choice." Whoa, way to bite the feeding hand! "But while Liz may agree that celebrities and celeb newsweeklies like Star serve the purposes of entertaining us, informing us about popular culture, fashion and style," —wait, what?—"I bet not even she understands that celeb mommies play an all-important role as guilt-evaporators." She goes on to tell her "frazzled compatriots" to "give yourselves permission to pat yourselves on the back for a change. You may not be the perfect mom, but you ain't Britney." But where are we to turn to expiate the guilt we feel over reading Star? [HuffPo]

Julia Allison Is New 'Star' Editor At Large

Emily Gould · 06/27/07 08:40AM

"Oh yeah, baby, it's all downhill from here. ;) i do hope i can stick with tv. writing is far too much effort ;)" asserted Julia Allison back in March, when she was fired amicably separated from her job as AM New York's online dating advice columnist. Maybe she's been reading The Secret, because it seems like Julia just got her wish! She'll be Star's new Editor at Large, a position that really plays to her "strengths:" "She won't be editing or writing, but she will be appearing as a talking expert whenever TV comes calling for someone to go on air to comment on the latest celebrity gossip or scandal." Congratulations, Julia! We knew you when, and for some reason we still know you now. As for those "wondering why Star actually needs a permanent full-time TV person, since Editorial Director Bonnie Fuller relinquished day-to-day control at Star to Candace Trunzo and seems to have more time on her hands these days," we'd meekly posit that maybe it's because Bonnie Fuller doesn't have an ass on which you can bounce a quarter.

Star is Born [NYP]

Jill Dobson Ditches 'Star' For Fox News

Doree Shafrir · 06/12/07 12:00PM

We hear that Star News & Style editor-at-large Jill Dobson—you know her from all her pimping of the magazine on the morning chat news shows—is leaving the magazine, and Candace Trunco and Bonnie Fuller, for the presumably more lucrative pastures of the Fox News Channel. Meanwhile, Star is wasting no time in hiring a replacement for Dobson—recruiters are now sniffing around for a Star head-reporter type who can give TV. Send in those audition tapes, talking headettes!

Bonnie Fuller's Homepage Is Just Like 'Us'

Emily Gould · 05/31/07 11:30AM

Maybe she was doing some research for Star's daring online takedown of Us Weekly's cover story, which calls that magazine out for relying on "recycled previously published Jolie interviews from other media outlets." Because Star never does that! They just make shit up.