'Times' Reporter Sharon Waxman To Join Metro Desk

We hear that Hollywood reporter Sharon Waxman, who's been based in Los Angeles for years (before her stint at the Times, she wrote for the Washington Post from the West Coast), will definitely be joining Joe "Private Dancer" Sexton's Metro desk when her book leave is over later this year. (Until now, Sexton had not committed to taking her on.) We've heard (from a single source) that Waxman will be on the religion beat. Her current editor, Culture honcho Sam Sifton, said he wouldn't comment on personnel matters, to us "or to anyone else." Waxman responded via email from Cairo, where she is doing research on her book: "I have no comment because Gawker has not shown itself to function by accepted journalistic rules." More »

Was Jodi Kantor's Wedding Totally Tacky?

Poor New Yorker writer Rebecca Mead. Her new book, One Perfect Day, is a takedown of America's overblown wedding culture, but it keeps getting reviewed by ladies who either just had or are planning an overblown American wedding. The latest is the Times former Arts 'n' Leisure chief Jodi Kantor, who takes issue in the Book Review with Rebecca's characterization of "registering—for water glasses, an ice-cream maker, the usual tchotchkes" as "an exercise in 'licensed covetousness.'" More »

Your Minority Nanny Will Make Your Child Obese

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Media Bubble: For No One

• Katie Couric gets her nun on. [Tabloid Baby] More »

Jodi Kantor's Big New Byline

Big news today: Former Arts & Leisure doyenne Jodi Kantor, having officially abdicated her editorial throne, has her first post-reign byline. Congrats, Jodi! Welcome to the, uh, fold! More »

Media Bubble: Attention Must Be Paid!

• NYT Arts & Leisure czarina Jodi Kantor gives up the big job for a reporting slot at The Way We Live. "After a couple of years in the building," she says in the memo, "I'm dying to get out and actually report some stories myself." Sure. And Willy Loman was dying to drive from city to city and make no sales. [Romenesko Memos] More »

Raines gets some culture

Howell Raines wants to put the arts and leisure back in the Arts & Leisure section of the NYT. He hasn't picked an editor yet, but Slate's Jodi Kantor is rumored to be the leading candidate. Raines says he wants to be "as good at telling our readers the history of CBGB as we are about telling them about the Metropolitan Opera." Demonstrating that he's truly hip with the kids, Raines adds that he liked the Eminem movie, 8 Mile, and says that this East Coast/West Coast rap shit is whack, yo. More »