Former Star editor Bonnie Fuller left the celeb magazine world to start a wondrous vapid celeb website. Now, WWD says former Us Weekly editor Janice Min is working on a website of her own. Can she avoid post-magazine online doom?
Zooey Deschanel sleeps with bands, stars react predictably to Oscar nominations, Hugh Jackman goes to 19th century China and Ben Silverman teams with a Murdoch. You'll catch cold out there! Come inside and have a hot glass of Trade Roundup.
• Sick of the Leno-Conan saga yet? Conan is still negotiating an exit from NBC (and will probably continue ripping the network to shreds on his show until a deal is done). And now there's a rumor that Jay Leno may bolt from NBC as well, since "it looks like he is the reason that Conan is now without a job." The good…
"Eat my panties off me," Mrs. Pratt rhythmically coos. Vogue threatens Anna Wintour's town car, Elin Nordegren invests in another house, Ryan Seacrest cries over Simon. Come, plumb the depths of Wednesday's gossip.
• The epic mess at NBC continues: The last-place network is now thinking above moving Jay Leno to a 11:35pm-12:05am time slot and then having Conan O'Brien follow him for a full hour. But no deal has been reached, and there's still a possibility that Conan will abandon ship. [NYT, LAT, BN, NYT]
• Rudy Giuliani is…
The disgraced former NBC chief who left the network to become the Something-something of Somewhere Online has enlisted Arrested Development's Jason Bateman and Will Arnett to create a new digital production company, called DumbDumb. An apt title.
Kind of like a Harry Potter book, right? Michael Lohan's now Jon Gosselin's contracts expert. Nothing but squares at the Daily News. Robert Pattinson hates his life. Carrie Prejean: monumentally stupider than previously imagined. Here's your Saturday Morning Gossip Roundup:
Ricky Van Veen announced the production schedule for his brand-new TV studio, and it would appear the CollegeHumor founder believes the future of the small screen lies in the past, because he's unleashing a mess of game shows.
As an NBC chairman, Ben Silverman once mingled with true media titans. But now the fallen mogul rolls with a different crowd; we hear he's besties with CollegeHumor editor-in-chief Ricky Van Veen. Now they might be in business together.
• The cuts continue at Time Inc. Fortune Small Business was shuttered today. And as many as 500 employees may lose their jobs when all is said and done. Meanwhile, parent company Time Warner reported a drop in revenues and earnings in the third quarter, as expected. [NYT, WWD, AdAge, NYP]
• Profits were up at News…
• Nell Scovell, a writer on Dave Letterman's show in the late '80s, has stepped forward to detail the show's "hostile, sexually charged atmosphere." [VF]
• Layoffs: Yesterday's cuts at Forbes claimed 30-40 people; reality TV-focused Teen Vogue laid off half a dozen staffers today; the cuts continue this week at W; and…
Nikki Finke officially crosses the Forgetting Who She Is Rubicon in one groundbreaking headline.
You've got to feel for NBC TV's newish chairman Jeff Gaspin; not only does he take the wheel amid the Mother of All Media Typhoons, but he inherits it from a Captain hell bent on steering directly into an iceberg.
• Ben Silverman didn't have much success during his two-year stint at NBC, but that didn't stop him from scoring a super-sweet deal with Barry Diller's IAC. His new venture will reportedly give him $100 million to play with. [NYP]
• Viacom, the media conglomerate controlled by batty billionaire Sumner Redstone,…
That NBC chair Ben Silverman is flying/being pushed out of the peacock coop isn't really all that surprising. He's always been kind of a disaster. A blowhard (in more ways than one) party boy with streaks of ego and irresponsibility.
• After two very unsuccessful years as co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, Ben Silverman is finally leaving the company. He's teaming up with Barry Diller's IAC to start some sort of vague media/advertising firm. He'll be replaced by Jeff Gaspin, who headed up NBC's cable unit until now. [NYT, NYT, DF]
• Disney's G-Force…
Once-celebrated, now-beleaguered NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman is leaving the company, it was announced on Ryan Seacrest's Twitter this morning. (Yes.) Well, OK, the New York Times has confirmed. So what the heck happened? Is this good news or bad?
• The New York Times Co. is selling its classical radio station WQXR to WNYC Radio and Univision as part of a "complex deal." One thing that isn't complex: The sale will pump a much-needed $45 million into the paper's coffers. [NYT]
• Is Rupert Murdoch planning to buy the Daily News from Mort Zuckerman? That's what…
Barack Obama's bizarre alliance with NBC continued last week when the White House invited network chief/seasoned clubrat Ben Silverman over for a highly publicized meeting just in time for the launch of Silverman's shitty new show, The Philanthropist.
• ABC and NBC will face off on Thursday night with competing tributes to Farrah Fawcett, who died today. But you probably expected that, no? [NYT]
• David Letterman beat out Conan in the ratings last week, the first time the Late Show has dominated the weekly ratings since 2005. [THR]
• Rosie O'Donnell will debut a…
