Crackhead-turned Times reporter success story David Carr is loved by media types for being a cool guy, and is basking in the generally positive public attitude towards his upcoming memoir. But everything is not well in Carr's world. Oh no. Just as Carr has found the strength to open up to the world about his past drug use, an even bigger scandal threatens to overwhelm him: his incurable fondness for potatoes.
Robert Novak-respected conservative journalist/commentator and grim spectre of soulless walking death-ran over a guy in his black Corvette this morning. Hilariously, a Politico reporter got the story by walking by. Novak hit the guy and then continued merrily speeding along until a bicyclist stopped him and said "you hit someone." Novak allegedly threw his head back and cackled for a moment before shooting him. There are no details about the pedestrian's condition. Look, we need to share more details about this with you. Just click.
Former New Yorker editor and Princess Di grave-dancer Tina Brown has been working on a big new internet venture over at Barry Diller's IAC building for a few months now. So how's it coming along on the recruitment front? Well, she'll have the cruise ship beat covered, at least. We hear that Nicholas Wapshott, currently a columnist with the NY Sun, has been telling people at parties that he's going to join Brown's startup. Wapshott's claim to fame: when he came to America in September of 2001, he decided to sail over in style on the gaudy QE2-causing him to completely miss the 9/11 disaster, which had to be handled by a junior reporter he was supposed to be managing. Heh.
Rupert Murdoch and his deputy Robert Thomson are eager to get the Wall Street Journal's new magazine off the ground. The publication, WSJ., is to get the Journal in on a consumer-glossy bonanza that now nets the Times' T magazine $46 million in annual revenue and helped it grow 12 percent last year. Murdoch and Thomson are so keen on this concept that they're racing ahead with WSJ. even though it was conceived under the Journal's prior owners, the Bancrofts' Dow Jones. So convinced are the News Corp. executives of the magazine's future success that, the Observer reports in today's paper, they are making staff sign a "code of conduct" to ensure they will not be swayed by the inevitable mob of overeager advertisers. But to hear one reliable inside source tell it, WSJ. will be lucky to launch without embarrassing itself on the editorial side, to say nothing of selling ads.
You remember Marcus Brauchli? First, short-lived editor of the Wall Street Journal under the reign of Rupert Murdoch and now the newly-installed executive editor of the Washington Post? Well, it's a good thing Brauchli finally escaped the Journal, because Paul Gigot and his gang of conservative editorialists must have given him unending grief over his father's awesome left-wing blog! We were just alerted to the existence of the site, but the dad, a lawyer and contributor to sites like Spot-On and Counterpunch, has been at it for some time, posting items steadily since 2005. Officially, Christopher Brauchli's site is about more than Bush — "political commentary and satire," the tagline reads — but, more often than not, the president makes an appearance. And you know what? The site is pretty damn funny! In fact, I'll take Christopher Brauchli's posts over most of the op-ed content in American newspapers, the Post and Journal included. After the jump, a sampling.
It was less than three years ago that Boston College student Luke Russert, in an indiscretion not uncommon among underclassmen, posted to Facebook pictures of himself sitting in a hottub, surrounded by girls in bikinis. He graduated from that same school this past May and, before the end of the following month, some of the most arduous responsibilities of adulthood were already upon him. Russert was to mourn, bury, and finally eulogize his father Tim, moderator of Meet The Press, before the entire country. By most accounts, he rose impressively to the occasion, particularly with his televised memorial speech, which mixed humor, humility and a moving earnestness of purpose in a way that reminded many of his father. Now, if the Post is to be believed, Luke Russert may reach a national audience once more. Thanks to the positive public response to his eulogy, "insiders say NBC is recruiting [Russert] for its team covering the presidential election." Either that or the Post is trying to embarrass NBC by forcing it to say it does not plan to hire Russert — not implausible, given that NBC News has vehemently denied as defamatory pretty much all other gossip the tabloid has tried to extract from the funeral. Video of Russert's memorial speech is after the jump.
Following the death of NBC's Tim Russert, White House correspondent David Gregory was considered to be on the shortlist to succeed him on Meet The Press. Gregory is known for aggressively questioning White House officials and at one point so upset Bush press secretary Tony Snow that Snow accused him of partisanship, a remark for which Snow later apologized. While such assertiveness no doubt provided some cathartic release to critics of the administration, particularly those outraged at the feeble White House press corps, it may not be enough to get Gregory that Meet The Press gig or any other anchor job. In fact, the Observer today paints a rather grim picture of Gregory's immediate future, asking if he's a "lame duck" at the network, destined end up like — gasp — fellow White House troublemaker Sam Donaldson:
The National Enquirer spent months chasing John Edwards and digging into his relationship with Rielle Hunter before busting him spending the night in a hotel with the woman and the former Democratic presidential candidate's alleged love child. It was impressive and quintessential tabloid work. But there's no reason the paper should have had the scandal all to itself. Isn't this the sort of thing traditional newspaper tabs like the Post used to cover? And even starchy broadsheets should have had some interest — it was the Miami Herald that busted Gary Hart in 1988 (when his mistress left his townhouse — shades of the Edwards affair) and the Times that broke the story of Eliot Spitzer's whoring earlier this year.
"So many people are trying to make a statement by hiring bodyguards," one bicoastal club owner tells W magazine. "They want the stares and the whispers. It's ostentatious." Well, we always tell our guys to keep a low profile, but I suppose we're a bit more cultured than most. The magazine explores the etiquette of bodyguard-having in a new article-which, like having bodyguards, is primarily motivated by a desire to be ostentatious. But it does have some valuable clues as to which celebrities are the worst self-important assholes:
Overrated ball-thrower Brett Favre recently announced his intention to un-retire from American Football. He announced this on the program of terrifying Scientologist (and family friend of Joe McCarthy!) Greta Van Susteren-which was odd, because he was looking to be released from his contract with the Packers, not for a lost white girl. You know who else thought it was odd? America's sportswriters! That elite league of old white dudes coudn't understand why their favorite good ole boy QB broke this news to a lady instead of one of them. Thankfully, Greta is not merely a top-rated television hostess-she is also a blogger! So she responded to a couple utterly obscure small-market sports columnists with typical internet heroism. Enjoy!
Is A Small World, the Harvey Weinstein-backed social networking site for the rich, having money problems? A tipster tells us that on one recent Friday, employees at the "Myspace for Millionaires" didn't get their checks as scheduled. We hear they were told that the company was waiting for a money transfer from Weinstein himself so they could pay the bills. Hey Harvey, pay up! This would be terribly awkward PR for such an exclusive enterprise. If you are—or have heard anything from—a disgruntled staffer at ASW, email us. (And if you have a membership on the site, we'd like an invitation to join, too!).
Bushwick, Brooklyn was once a minority neighborhood. Really! Recently, a bunch of hipsters have moved in there. But here's a secret: Bushwick is still a minority neighborhood. It even has ten separate housing projects, which are not full of whites! But Brooklyn's minorities are boring, because they're hardly on the cutting edge of art, culture, or cheap imported beer. So when Paper Magazine set out this month to answer the head-scratchingly inane question "Can the hipster ghettos of Brooklyn really replace Manhattan?", they took the logical step of including only the relevant people in the neighborhood: tattooed nilla hipsters. Check out these scans of the magazine's photo shoot and play "Guess the area's demographics":
The multi-tentacled jellyfish menace is loose in New York waters and nothing you can do will stop it! Quickly, swim, swim for shore, damn you! The floating blobs of fury are breeding as we speak. A swimmer died during the New York triathlon last weekend, and while doctors say there's no evidence a jellyfish sting was involved, the media is doing its part to keep you safe; no fewer than four newspapers today run stories about jellyfish, and how you definitely should not PANIC about their invertebrate invasion. They're replacing sharks as the media darlings of the sea!
Page Six today brings news of a faaabulous bash in St. Tropez on the yacht of Denise Rich, the Clinton pal and wife of disgraced financier Marc Rich. And to help her bring out the real stars to her party, Denise has teamed up with Erik Wachtmeister, who runs A Small World, the much-hyped "Myspace for Millionaires" social networking site for the rich. How symbolic! Two years ago, fading mogul Harvey Weinstein invested in ASW, which got a bunch of press casting both of them as the vanguard of the Next Big Thing. Now, they're more like a coalition of the washed-up.
So what's going on with hip hop radio queen Wendy Williams' new morning TV talk show these days? Strife, anger, and war, that's what! You can't say Williams isn't a pro. She knows she has a reputation for evil herself, so she went out and found one of the most widely despised semi-celebrity figures in America-ex-Apprentice star and insane person Omarosa-and invited her on the show yesterday. Chaos ensued! Highlights and the very special video, after the jump.
When Katie Couric read a page from her "notebook" back in June, highlighting sexist media coverage of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, we wondered if maybe she wasn't also talking about herself. Couric was, after all, facing record-low ratings, and her bosses said sexism was partly responsible for viewer apathy. Well, Couric put to rest any doubts she identifies with Clinton in an interview with Haaretz newspaper in Israel, where she is traveling on vacation. In it, she argues that sexism is more common than racism in America, and that she has felt its effects — just like Hillary:
Adorable publishing tyke Jared Kushnergot got back together with girlfriend Ivanka Trump! Really, how could he not, they have so much in common: Both are attractive, both rich due to inherited real estate wealth and both have fathers who get extremely nasty while feuding with enemies. But Kushner is a Jew and Ivanka's a shiksa, and this has been a problem for Kushner's Orthodox family. In fact, the religious divide may very well have been behind the couple's mysterious breakup in April, around the time of their one-year anniversary. To get Kushner back, Ivanka has promised that, if things get more serious, she'll convert to Judaism. So sweet! And I'm sure the socialite feels a profound, authentic connection to the religion. Totes! Well, sort of. A friend tells Page Six the conversion is "a possibility, but that's way down the line." A brief recap of the Kushner-Trump romance, for those who have not been following along at home:
