In case you missed the Rake's interview with SPY co-founder and Studio 360 host Kurt Andersen, I'll summarize:
The Rake: Spy, Spy, Spy.
Andersen: Yes, Spy.
The Rake; Spy, Spy...Spy?
Andersen: Well, Spy. Spy Spy, and then Spy. But Spy.
The Rake: Really? So, Spy Spy Spyyyyyy, Spy?
Andersen: "Spy," he said ironically.
There's also something about a SPY retrospective with co-founder Graydon Carter (he of geometric haircut.)
Q&A with Kurt Andersen [The Rake via Romenesko]

"I am terribly amused by the note that your Conde Nast mole [Ed. noteActually, we have several Conde Nast moles.] sent in regarding his/her (perhaps I should just assume it's a her) Anna Wintour sighting. Despite her outsize persona, she is an employee of this company, and rides the elevators with the rest of the plebians. Were there a VIP elevator, I'm sure sightings of this elegant, bony creature would be fewer and further between, but there she is, when not in Europe viewing the collections or courting high society in Houston or whatever else it is that she does. She's bizarre, certainly, and people do love to hate her (and perhaps some of this is well-deserved) but personally I think the most objectionable editor in this building is Graydon Carter."

A reader writes, in response to Jared Paul Stern's Post column ("Tips for flacks") yesterday:
1. Never, ever, fuck with Alec Baldwin or Tim Robbins, they are really big guys and won't hesitate to punch your lights out or throw a drink on you.
2. Just because you wear a fedora and eat dinner at Elaine's, it doesn t make you a journalist and I ll answer your stupid questions about my clients drug habits however I damn please.
3. Being friends with Mickey Rourke doesn't make you cool. [Ed. notePage Six columnist Richard Johnson and Mickey Roarke have a history of very publicly threatening to kick each other's asses. They're not friends. But you're right; being friends with Mickey Roarke doesn't make anyone cool. UPDATE: Nevermind. I'm told that A.J. Benza is friends with Roarke.]
4. If you are or were gay, just admit it and don't write a book about it.
5. I've seen your kid doing crank at a party in the East Village, you shouldn t talk about other people's kids.
6. Relax, Graydon gave you that money as a pay-off, he doesn't actually expect you to contribute a story to the magazine.

Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter always has an Annie Leibowitz shot of himself above his monthly Editor's Letter. It's always the same shot. Almost always. Last month, the "Editor's Letter" was a short Oscar-appropriate essay on Hollywood. To the immediate right is the usual Leibowitz shot: Graydon reclining, smiling and probably fantasizing about his next cigarette. Then, the May issue. The topic is the war in Iraq. The letter was written very shortly after President the 43rd gave Saddam Hussein the ultimatum. Graydon admits that he has no idea how things will turn out, but predicts disaster for all involved. The Leibowitz shot looks the same, except...was the frown photoshopped in?

Thursday. 03.20.03. Thirteen hundred hours. I have successfully infiltrated the Conde Nast cafeteria. Over the course of the last few weeks, I have spent countless secondsentire minutes, evenin preparation for this mission. The careful transmission of multiple electronic mail messages to people on "the inside," the establishment of a plausible cover ("lunch"), and careful analysis of the enemy's behavioral patterns have paved the way for what will prove to be my most ambitious espionage operation yet.

· Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter has rescinded press invitations to VF's annual Oscar party because, as one insider says, "what star is going to want to be seen partying while bombs are falling?" Apparently, the rationale for the move is that at least no one will be there to write about it if they do. [Page Six]
· Publicists are furiously lobbying to get their clients included in an upcoming Details story about the best-endowed leading men in Hollywood. [Page Six]
· Tavern on the Green is "de-Frenchizing" its menu. It's now serving "roast prime rib of beef with natural juice" rather than "roast prime rib of beef au jus." [Page Six]
· Rumor has it among restaurant owners that Mayor Bloomberg may delay the smoking ban for 60 to 90 days. Says one source, "I mean, reallyNew Yorkers can't not smoke in wartime." [Page Six]
· Post columnist Linda Stasi on the curtailing of red carpet festivities at the Oscars: "They worried for a while that their revered awards show might appear superficial and tacky in the midst of a war. As opposed to what? The great good-taste fest that it normally is?" [Liz Smith]
· A.R. Gurney's new drama, "O Jerusalem"a drama about a Texas oilman who crosses paths with his ex-lover, a Palestinian beauty who's become an activisthas generated much controversy at the Flea Theater. [NY Daily News]

Forbes nominates the best media blogs.

The spring auctions, which raise extraordinary amounts for private schools, are in swing. It is, as parents display their generosity and status, "an exquisitely calculated social occasion," writes Alex Kuczynski. But she botches the key question. The two tickets to Vanity Fair's Oscars party, donated by Graydon Carter for the Tuttle Hall auction: how much did they go for?
At School Auctions, Prestige Is the Prize [New York Times]

Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter, in a lengthy Mediaweek profile following his "Editor of the Year" award by Adweek, says, "I have a fashion readership. I have a political readership. I have a literary readership. I have New York's social scene, Hollywood. I have America. I have Europe." What he left out: "I have a readership that consists entirely of baby boomer divorcees who drive matching Astrovans in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. I have two guys in a cocktail lounge in Michigan who think the In-and-Out list is "very cheeky." I have a soccer mom in Des Moines whose four-year old slipped the February issue into her shopping cart while she was in the checkout line at Walmart. I have half the Rotary Club in Geneva, Illinois. I have a young woman in the Bloomberg administration who circles my editor's letter references to the smoking ban with a yellow highlighter. And, oh yes, my mother reads it...most of the time."
AdWeek Magazine's Editor of the Year: Graydon Carter [MediaWeek via IWantMedia]

· The Vanity Fair staffers at the annual Oscar party will be deprived of their swimming pool this year, as it will be closed all weekend. [Ed. noteExpect Vanity Fair to bring their own pool. "Si'll pick it up."] [Page Six]
· Kelly Osbourne on her brother's friends: "They are like the world's biggest [bleep] bags. One brain cell in all of them. It's like snowing outside and they are in like nipple covers, and that's about it." [Page Six]
· Madeleine Albright on her favorite North Korean dictator: "I am the only high-ranking U.S. official to ever meet with Kim Jong-il, and we are the same height and both wear high heels." [Page Six]
· Lizzie Grubman and Hans Blix live in the same building but she gets more packages than he does and photographers aren't standing outside waiting to get pictures of him. [Page Six]
· Thanks to Chicago's success, Miramax is swamped with agents claiming their clients "have always been singers." [Liz Smith]
· Anna Wintour's former assistant's book, The Devil Wears Prada, includes a demanding editor who tells her assistant, "When I call, you respond. It's actually simple. See? I call. You respond. Do you think you can handle that, Ahn-dre-ah?" [NY Daily News]

Folio's Simon Dumeneco thinks media world shenanigans are the stuff of movies. "Soap operas" seems more accurate, but we'll go with it. (IWantMedia did this a month ago with TimeWarner execs.) Dumeneco's casting choices? Meryl Streep as Tina Brown; Penny Marshall as Bonnie Fuller; Catherine Zeta-Jones as Anna Wintour; and Anthony Hopkins as Graydon Carter.
Glossies, the Movie [NY Mag]

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]

I have a minor obsession with Spy magazine circa 1988. I don't remember the exact details of my conversation with Kurt Andersen (Spy co-founder with Graydon Carter and Studio 360 host) but I think it may have gone something like this:
Me: "Spy, Spy, Spy! Spy, I love Spy, Spy, Spy, Spyyyyyyyyyy, Spy. Romenesko. Did I mention Spy?"
Andersen: "Um, yes." (Shifts uncomfortably.)
Me, later, to a friend: "I was briefly thinking of becoming a more overt media whore and getting 'Kurt Andersen reads my blog' tattoed on my forehead. Would that be 'over-the-top'?" (Friend shifts uncomfortably.)

We love Google, and Google apparently loves us back.
Search: Graydon Carter
Search: Glenda Bailey
Search: Courtney Love, naked
Search: David Gest, psycho

Yo, Graydon! [Google]

Latina Magazine is running a formal campaign to teach Graydon Carter about Latin literature. They're asking readers to buy books by Latino/a authors and send them directly to Vanity Fair. It doesn't sound like Graydon's getting a bad deal there. I've been meaning to pick up the latest Allende. What do I have to say to get people to send me books?
Responding to Dame Edna and Vanity Fair [Latina]

· City Club hotelier Jeff Klein says, "I wholeheartedly support Leona [Helmsley]and I'm gay!...I want to start a Leona Helmsley support group." [Page Six]
· Toni Morrison on the mayor's anti-smoking provisions: "This is a one-term mayor." [Page Six]
· Graydon Carter is about to be inundated with Latino books and educational materials as part of a campaign against Dame Edna's humor column last month which suggested that the only reason to learn Spanish was to talk to your help or leaf blower. [Page Six]
· Busta Rhymes ordered a Courvoisier the other night at Sessa on West 23rd. Thinking the bar would comp the drink, he protested when the bartender asked him for $30. Said Sessa owner Stratis Morfogen, "I didn't hear you sing, 'Pass the Courvoisier for free' in your song." Ben Elliot brags that his new concierge service, Quintessentially, once delivered a drum kit to a yacht moored in Monaco harbor during a party for the Grand Prix. [NY Daily News]

Ex-NY Post gossip columnist Chris Nolan writes in:

Mayor Mike suggests that telling cell phone users to "shush" is a better solution than fining them if they're chatting during public performances. Bloomberg does something remotely libertarian; Graydon Carter would be pleased.
NYC mayor vetoes cell phone limits [NYT]

Graydon Carter, 53, prepares for his elevation to editor-for-life at Vanity Fair.