Gawker 
Jan 7, 2009 4:57 PM
5,994
We're starting a new, daily media column for all the media news items we can't get to individually. It may also feature pithy remarks and totally exclusive scoops. Read it today, and forevermore:
During the Q&A at America Anonymous author Benoit Denizet-Lewis' book party (hosted at a booze-free "sober living loft") someone asked whether whether being a sex addict made it, er, complicated to report on "Down Low" culture. Benoit's response, we heard, was uncomfortable.
Young hotshot Patrick Gavin, who runs Fishbowl DC, is going to Politico. He is the DC version of Neel Shah, except Neel lives in NYC and went to nightclubs with cool people so much he landed at P6, and Patrick is in DC so he goes to cocktail parties with political nerds and wears a blazer. And does not sell magic berries. [Politico]
A tipster tells us about a new push for buyouts at the now basically online-only Christian Science Monitor and if the buyouts don't come, the editor warns in a memo: "The regrettable reality, however, is that there is no way to meet our budget goal other than to reduce the staff. We estimate the reduction to be 15-16 positions (it could be more or fewer, depending on salary levels)." Our tipster adds, "this seems to [management's] attempt to push out the oldest; if it doesn't work, we (the younger folks) will all likely be sacked, because the monitor never fires anyone who's been there more than a decade. call it compassion, of a sort."
The traditional January round of layoffs-and-other-unexpected-occurrences at Conde Nast hasn't materialized yet. Probably because they just did that two months ago. So it will be at least another month before massive layoffs return. [NYO]
Life & Style's latest cover is one of those diet stories about how celebrities shed pounds. Their cover girls are Jessica Alba, in a photo by Mario Testino that was airbrushed before it went into a Campari calendar, and Britney Spears, in a photo our tipster tells us was taken in 2003 by Andrew Eccles. So, Photoshop and time travel, those are the ways stars lose weight.
The horrifically troubled New York Times has a new signup procedure for free employee backrubs. Presumably given by laid-off bankers. [Nytpicker]
Nat Hentoff works the phrase "He puts on his skunk suit and heads off to the garden party" into his final column. [VV]
Send an email to Hamilton Nolan, the author of this post, at Hamilton@gawker.com.
