Today on mediabistro, Elizabeth Spiers undergoes a self-referential examination of the self-referential nature of media writing which, at the risk of being self-referntial, must be addressed:
Tomorrow isn't just Radar's official debut; it's also the release of Rachel Pine's first novel, The Twins of Tribeca. (We're guessing you may find the latter much more interesting, so bear with us.) The novel is about a young publicist at Glorious Pictures, an edgy movie company started by two brothers, Phil and Tony Waxman. None too coinidentally, Pine was once a slave at Bob and Harvey Weinstein's Miramax shirtwaist factory, and now she's gone and sold her roman
clef to — pregnant pause — Miramax Books. Weirdly meta for Pine, and a viciously smart business move for the Miramax boys.
Drudge and the Times (apparently working hand-in-hand, judging from their ledes) reveal that a notable handful of entertainment execs were in last week's Viacom meeting to discuss the future of CBS News. Attendees consulted for the revamp included Terry Wood (the brain behind The Insider and Dr. Phil's empire) and Larry Rickel, who's served as a consultant on The Insider and Entertainment Tonight. As we've always felt the CBS news promos could benefit from Alice Deejay bumper music, their presence makes sense.
What a tense and terrible and exciting morning it's been. When I began this job at 7 a.m., I had a list of about 3 topics I knew I wanted to cover. Unfortunately, I ran through that list in two hours or so and was forced to write about Donald Trump by lunchtime.
Even if we wanted to go an entire day without writing about Radar, the marketing geniuses behind Pieface Monthly won't allow our attention to wander. To trumpet the mag's arrival (despite what you see on the newsstands, it "officially" goes on sale tomorrow, OMG), there's some sort of sad street campaign pouring forth from Radar's offices, spilling its blood about Soho's otherwise pristine streets. At right, a lampost on Prince and Mercer falls victim to the precise application of edgy, irreverent tape. In fact, every pole on every major corner in Soho has been similarly attacked — which pretty much answers any remaining questions about what all of those contributing editors do all day.
Today's Page Six provides an excellent learning opportunity for everyone interested in the art of gossip:
It's been a bleak couple of... well, years for the newspaper industry. Circulation's dwindling, reporters are being sent to jail, and people actually trust the press less than they trust Joe Scarborough. Now, following on the heels of news that popular schmaltz-factory Mitch Albom, Heaven bureau chief for the Detroit Free Press, invented stories and massaged quotes, we have one more reason to distrust even seemingly innocuous sections of the newspaper:
Today's rejected Post headlines:
RIP, handsome.
I know you all have your calendars marked for the final episode of Tina Brown's Topic A, so surely I needn't note that last night was the second to last episode of Tina's CNBC magudrama. (I just made that word up — not sure how I feel about it. Leaning towards the negative, actually, but it's a trial run.) As the clock winds down, Tina brought in Dan Rather — a kindred spirit? Perhaps, but we won't stretch it. And for those of you looking for the lighter side of Tina, Maer Roshan sits on the editor's roundtable for an intimate discussion of Britney Spears' and Kevin Federline's television trainwreck. After the jump, Henry the Intern's report (filed late because of his Desperate Housewives habit).
· MSN signs deal with Mark The Contender Burnett; his new show (called Rockstar — we can only imagine its premise) will soon infect your broadband connection. [AdAge]
· Former New York Post copy editor/current blogger Dawn Eden is "moving on up" at The Daily News. Congrats, Dawn. We think. [The Politicker]
· UPN throws Chris Rock s Everybody Hates Chris Rock show to Thursday night. Why? Because Joey sucks — pay attention! [NYDN]
We ve been listening, dear readers. You absolutely love our absurdist Radar coverage. You think it s clever and compelling. You think it s hilarious. You want more. You demand it. You crave it.
A starving source trapped in 4 Times Square reports that Condé Nast will stop at no length to ensure that the average employee BMI is safely below average:
Yesterday, we posed an interesting question sent to us by a reader: Why in the world is their a giant mail carton at Condé Nast with Plum Sykes' name on it? The carton was large enough for an entire magazine staff, yet there's one just for Vogue editor and novelist Sykes. We didn't know the non-libelous answer, so we asked you readers. Obviously, as you're smarter than we are, your responses were very enlightening. After the jump, our favorite explanations for Plum's engorged box.
For those of you who remember the glory days of Opie and Anthony before they were banished to XM satellite radio, you'll surely be delighted by the latest stunt from local shock jocks*, in which they managed to get local CBS 2 reporter Arthur Arthur Chi'en to shout, "What the fuck is your problem?" at a meddler during his live shot. The guttersnipe, of course, was an intern from the radio show, who happened to be holding a "O&A XM" sign. The footage is available here for your gigglish enjoyment.
