Our sources tell us that recently "resigned" GQ Editor Art Cooper has a fan at Razor. A letter dated the 27th from Razor publisher Richard Botto included the following choice flatteries:
· "If Conde Nast thinks your time has past, we're ready to give you a forum to prove they're wrong."
· "You have proven that you know more about men than any of the 'boy' editors out there."
· "I don't care if you consult from a lounge chair in St Bart's."
· "You can be a hero once more."

Rival editors make suggestions about where the newly editorless GQ should go from here: Keith Blanchard, Maxim Editor: "I d change the title to LPFQ: Lesbian Pillow Fight Quarterly." Greg Gutfeld, Stuff Editor: "First I'd invite it over for a slumber party. Then I'd do its hair! We'd stay up talking about boys and call Esquirebut get nervous and hang up!"
Man's work [NY Mag]

Newly retired GQ Editor Art Cooper says he'd like to do a talk show and his first guest would be Conde Nast chief Si Newhouse. "...I've been thinking about it and you have to admit, I am much cuter than Tina Brown and I have a better voice. Aren't I made for TV?"
A gentleman editor bows out of a Maxim world [Ad Age]

Have they no decency? Quicker than Art Cooper's tears can dry, the media commentators are handicapping the race to succeed him as editor of GQ. Keith Kelly is offering odds.
· Dylan Jones, editor-in-chief of British GQ: 2-to-1 favorite
· David Zinczenko of Men's Health, although he's taken himself out of the running: 5-to-1
· Michael Hirschorn, past editor of Spin: 10-to-1
· Kurt Andersen, resting at public radio: 35-to-1
· David Kamp, a VF editor: 35-to-1
· Maer Roshan, if Radar doesn't fix: 50-to-1
· Glenda Bailey of Harpers, because SALTYT thinks it's time a lad's mag had a woman editor.

Now that Art Cooper is leaving GQ, everybody knew it all along. Sridhar Pappu does the post-mortem. The pullquote, a bitter remark by the GQ editor overheard at the magazine's Christmas party: "I m 65 years old: I just want five more years. Five fucking years. And they re not going to give it to me."
Bad Day at Pink Rock: Si Tells GQ Editor It's Time to Go [New York Observer]

Ah, so maybe there is a retirement policy at Condé Nast after all. Word inside, officially denied, is that Art Cooper, 65, isn't long for GQ. Of course, Graydon Carter didn't get the memo: he plans to stay on till he's 75, relying on his kids and, presumably, by then, his grandkids, to keep him fresh.
· Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair since 1992
· Art Cooper, editor of GQ since 1982
· Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue since 1988
Cooper: I'm staying [Keith Kelly]

We're going to play a game. (No, not that one. Being drugged and shipped to Zimbabwe is only fun the first time.) It's called "Guess Which One of the Following Is a New York Band."
· The Upper Crust: Band members appear on stage dressed as 18th Century English Aristocrats while performing songs like "Friend of a Friend of the Working Class" off their debut album Let Them Eat Rock.
· The Yuppie Pricks: The band "wears John McEnroe-era tennis gear and denounce the 'service-industry scum' who come to their shows.
· The Sumerians: The band "wears animal-pelt loincloths and claim to be Mesopotamian time travelers from 16 million years in the future." They sing about weed, aliens, and Mesopotamia.
Bands courtesy of Neal Pollack and GQ.
"That sucking sound" [GQ - February issue]

Stuff Editor Greg Gutfeld: "That thing about [GQ Editor] Art Cooper coming out against Iraq and people calling him daring, that s just bullshit...That s just an example of how idiotic journalists can be. I was going to buy him a ticket to Baghdad, but I m too cheap...If he were to come out in favor of war in front all those left-wing editors, that would have shown real balls." Cooper responds: "I just think this guy shouldn t criticize real magazines when he editshowever you want to define whatever junky little thing he does."
At the Journal, identity crisis on page one [Observer]

If you missed the Kate Winslet brouhaha at GQ or the current one at Harper's Bazaar, here's the back story: Winslet's GQ cover was airbrushed without her approval. (She's been very vocal about her belief that beauty should not and does not equal "thinness.") Now Women's Wear Daily is saying that Winslet's Harper's Bazaar cover is actually a shot of her head digitally grafted onto the fashion director's body. In light of all the controversy, we're having a Kate Winslet photoshop contest. Send us your work and we'll publish the best ones.