Tina's back! She turned down Howell Raines, Adam Moss, and Graydon Carter, all of whom wanted her as contributor, but she has agreed to write for Maer Roshan's new mag, Radar. In addition, her gossipy Times of London column will be appearing in Salon.
Tina back on U.S. radar [Keith Kelly - Post]

· Michael Moore horrifies Londoners by saying that people on the hijacked September 11th planes were "scaredy cats because they were mostly white." [Page Six]
· Viacom honchos Sumner Redstone and Mel Karmazin are trying to collect $200 million from insurance companies for ad revenue forfeited during 9/11 coverage. [Page Six]
· Jamie Lynn Sigler, a.k.a., Meadow Soprano, gets engaged to her manager [Page Six]
· The National Post's Larry Krotz says Graydon Carter was acting like the editor of a big glossy even at 25. [Page Six]
· Blind item: 60-something year-old CEO of NYSE-listed company throws holiday party at the Helmsley Carlton complete with Christmas coke'n'whores. [Page Six]
· Corcoran exec Wendy Sarasohn started a petition to get soap opera actress Robin Strasser back on "One Life to Live." [Cindy Adams]
· Fur is back. Nicole Miller spotted at a movie premier in full-length rabbit. [Cindy Adams]
· Paul Alexander and Angelica Torn are developing a play based on the life of Sylvia Plath. [Liz Smith]
· David Bouley is selling the Mohawk Electric Building at Hudson and Duane to architect Joseph Pell Lombardi; and DeNiro and Naomi Campbell rumored to have a rendezvous for old time's sake. [NY Daily News]

Graydon Carter uses the February Vanity Fair Editor's Letter to rail against smoking laws and complain about Starbucks forcing him to use Italian words when ordering coffee. Again.

East Hampton may be getting a Starbucks. Won't Graydon be disappointed! Won't the rest of East Hampton be disappointed! We're actually a bit surprised that there isn't a no-Starbucks zoning law. This has to be a major blow to all the city's hard work in ensuring that Main Street's fake gourmet shops run by large national corporations maintain their requisite small town facades. Expect an antique exterior and a name change to something vaguely European. "Maison Starbucks" or "Il Cafe Starbuci."
Intelligencer [NY Magazine]

Conde Nast is a notoriously political and opaque organization, and the seating plan at Si Newhouse's Christmas lunch is one of the few ways to work out which magazines are in favor. At the top tables: David Remnick of the New Yorker, Graydon Carter of Vanity Fair, Alexandra Golonkin of Lucky, and Linda Wells of Allure. Tom Florio, publisher of Vogue, and Walter Anderson, president of Parade Publications, were further from the power seats. Am I really writing this?
Si's power luncheon [New York Post]

· Graydon to drag queen: "Tina Brown has a cock." [Page Six]
· Alec Baldwin suggests that Ground Zero would be a great spot for the new Yankee Stadium [NY Daily News]
· Luhrmann's La Boheme described as "more fun than Walter Annenberg's funeral." [The Word]

This one's for Graydon, who, while Blaming Seattle in this month's VF editor's letter, also holds the city responsible for the godforsaken existence of Starbucks, which he laments, "does not let you have a cigarette with your coffee."

Lighting up in the front of the Mayor a few weeks ago at a public event wasn't enough. Graydon Carter, the Fourth Estate's resident tobacco evangelist, is now railing against proposed anti-smoking legislation in the editorial pages of Vanity Fair. We're not big fans of the policy ourselves, but we're not sure that referring to Bloomberg's New York as "potentially Seattle" has the sting for which Graydon's aiming. The fact that Graydon's never actually been to Seattle is irrelevant, of courseex cathedra pronouncements from the royal chambers of Condé Nast being self-fulfilling prophecies. If Graydon says Seattle is a horrendously cold place where people iron their socks and no one has sex, then obviously it is, or it will be. You Seattle residents that disagree can go start your own damn magazines.
"Seattle on the Hudson" December 2003 Issue [Vanity Fair]

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