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Rob Shuter
Posts Tagged “
In Touch
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Rob Shuter
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ZOMG! Facebook Launches FBChat
It's so hard to reach out to people these days. How can I connect? I only have a cell phone, email, gchat, AIM, a personal website, Facebook and MySpace. But good news: Facebook is launching FBChat in two weeks. Finally, another medium for witty inside jokes! If you Facebook messages are primarily for getting laid, FBChat has the potential to spread crabs through UC Davis like whoa. Video demonstration after the jump. More »
advertising
Prankster Helps American Apparel Embrace Porn
Stereotypical hipster brand American Apparel has always walked the fine line between sexiness and porn with its ads (like the one pictured). Or gone over the line, depending on your perspective. But now the anonymous prankster that earlier posted a fake finger-in-the-butt AA billboard has struck again, helping the company along its inevitable path to becoming a full-blown pornography producer. Why beat around the bush? Heh. After the jump, the two new naked AA ad spoofs [via Copyranter] that have appeared in downtown NYC. Possibly NSFW, if you consider simple line drawings to fit in that category. More »
from the mailbox
Have You No Decency? A Britney Chronicler Responds
In the Los Angeles Times, Asra Nomani, a former contributor to People, calls on Time Warner and other media conglomerates to leave Britney alone. Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici compares Nomani's call to the moment when Joseph McCarthy was famously asked: "Have you no sense of decency?" (Who knew dirt-digger Bercovici could raise himself up to such moral height?) The celebrity weeklies are sufficiently on the defensive that they maintain an official silence; but, under the protection of anonymity, one senior editor hits back at the critics. When one of the biggest pop stars in music history — one who no less has had a long and open relationship with the press — loses her children, ties up our court system, and is diagnosed with a major mental illness that also afflicts many other Americans, that is a news story. Are the actions of the mentally ill man who recently murdered the Upper East Side psychiatrist, or the NIU killer, any more or less worthy of exploration and explanation? And is it exploitative of the New York Times to run a series on military personnel who kill and beat and stalk their wives and children when they return home from serving in Iraq? These are people after all who actually did reside in privacy prior to their newsmaking bouts of mental illness. To somehow say that Britney Spears, or any celebrity, who have flown like moths to the flame of fame, deserve more privacy or consideration than private citizens is actually journalistically bankrupt, and a rather pathetic attempt at "morality" cloaked behind celebrity worship. Any person or outlet in the mainstream media who actually attempts to put forth this "morality" argument is a. either ignoring other news and events that have likely gone neglected as his or her own outlet chases Britney Spears (i.e., the Los Angeles Times), or b. desperate to find a new way to draw attention to a topic they know their readers continue to be interested in. Yes, these stories need to be handled sensitively, but to say they are not newsworthy... well, you might as well stop being a journalist, and go bag groceries.
FBI's Paparazzi Probe
The New York Post's Keith Kelly confirms the Feds are investigating an editor at In Touch magazine for taking kickbacks from photo agencies. Not that much new in the piece that wasn't already aired on Gawker on Wednesday. But the allegation is that the celebrity weekly editor assigned lucrative assignments to favored agencies, in exchange for cash payments.
The New York Post's Keith Kelly confirms the Feds are investigating an editor at In Touch magazine for taking kickbacks from photo agencies. Not that much new in the piece that wasn't already aired on Gawker on Wednesday. But the allegation is that the celebrity weekly editor assigned lucrative assignments to favored agencies, in exchange for cash payments.
celebrity economics
Story-Murdering Editor Tale Haunts In Touch
Perhaps Complex magazine missed the juicier side of the FBI's dirty editor investigation: the tabloid editor in question may have been taking bribes to kill stories, not just promote them, according to one former coworker. An English editor based out of In Touch's New Jersey headquarters was, starting four years ago, widely rumored among In Touch staff to have accepted bribes on a regular basis, particularly from a fellow Brit working as a high-profile publicist to a collection of ditzy celebrities. Staff were particularly "horrified" when the editor accepted a rumored $10,000 payment to kill a story involving Jennifer Lopez after her breakup with Ben Affleck, the former colleague said. Though this editor was based on the East Coast, his story helps show why the FBI would be interested in the former In Touch West Coast-based editor on whom speculation has centered. More »
celebrity economics
Will The FBI Get In Touch?
Famously, Al Capone was brought down, not by charges of racketeering or murder, but by a mundane prosecution for tax evasion. Could it be that's what finally crimps corruption at the celebrity weeklies? According to Complex magazine, federal investigators have tapped phones at In Touch, the also-ran gossip magazine put out by Bauer Publishing. The focus of the FBI probe: payments to at least one editor in exchange for prominent placement of certain B-list celebrities. (For more desirable stories, and baby pictures, the money flows the other way, from magazine to source.) Accepting bribes, while a sackable offense, is not illegal. However, if an editor failed to declare the income, he could be hauled up for tax evasion. News of the investigation has leaked because agents have called in former staffers for interviews over the last few days. In Touch: want to respond? Email and we'll publish. (After the jump, Robert De Niro as Al Capone, slamming the Untouchables for "doctoring up" some income tax violation.) More »
hanging from the velvet rope
Pissed Publicists Spurned At Last Night's 'In Touch' Party!
In Touch Weekly's fifth anniversary party and obligatory afterparty went down last night at Tenjune in the Meatpacking. We hear a bunch of folks didn't even make it in the door. A publicist of our acquaintance says: "A bunch of us—from television, film, lifestyle brands, hotels, personal reps—were in line for 2+ hours and never let in while the bouncer 'Alex' at Tenjune let his friends (AKA emaciated underage girls) in. They turned away a reporter from The New York Times but let in Ben Widdicomb from the New York Daily News.... I mean, Tenjune is over, they are lucky the party was there and it looked like a hot spot for the night. And we all collectively agreed that we will not buy the magazine ever again or give our projects or celebs to them. We'd rather go to Life & Style! Seriously." Well, that'll be easy, since they have the same editor!
We're still not all sure what's going on at Bauer Publishing out in the wilds of New Jersey. But what has happened is that the editor of In Touch is now also the editor of Life & Style. Which is nutty? But what that means for the staff or the mag (if anything!) we don't yet know. [Mediaweek]
connecting the dots
Hey, Why's Everyone Leaving 'In Touch' At Once?
What's going on with the Englewood, N.J. celeb weekly? Well! Staffers are leaving for Star, of all places, and In Touch keeps insisting that Brad and Angelina are on the rocks, despite all photographic and other evidence to the contrary. And... they're in New Jersey? Yeah. Today, Keith Kelly reported that two In Touch editors, Casey Brennan and Aaron Rasmussen, have fled to the welcoming arms of Star Mama Candace Trunzo—and now senior reporter Cristina Everett has left as well, to become a senior reporter. So in what known universe is Star considered actually a desirable place to work? More »
media
Nike uses the Don Imus controversy for an ad campaign it hopes "will spark continued conversation about race in America." And sell sneakers. [AdAge]
Anderson Cooper scurries back to the U.S. from Afghanistan to cover the Virginia Tech shootings. [TVNewser]
The New York Observer invokes Henry James to review Portfolio. The verdict? "Expensive and vapid, glossy, superficial, stale and, above all, safe." [NYO]
In Touch treads on People's turf with a cover story on the shootings at Virginia Tech. But will a real-life human interest story play well on its fluffy celeb-driven pages? [WWD]
Some of Barry Diller's best friends are black. His new friends, on the Internet. [WSJ]
More »
Media Bubble: Air Imus
adage
'AdAge' Only Lives to Love 'More' More Each Day
Not only has AdAge crowned Vogue Editor Anna Wintour the Magazine Editor of the Year, they've put together a list/chart of "The A List," their top ten books for 2006. You can download it here. It gives a nice perspective on where the industry is going: More, the magazine of the year, is lauded for its pursuit of women whose best eggs are behind them. Rapidly-rising In Touch Weekly just cracks the top ten, coming in four slots below People. New York magazine is at number four, and AdAge declares it "a title that should be read around the country." It's true: How else will folks in Hamtramck learn to assemble a Malcolm Gladwell Halloween costume? More »
anna nicole smith
Final, Dollar-Fetching Moments Between Anna Nicole Smith and Her Son
As first reported on Friday afternoon, Getty Images sent an email out to celebrity weekly editors hawking photos of Anna Nicole Smith, her newborn daughter, and her son, Daniel. The pictures were taken in the Bahamian hospital where, the next day, Daniel was found mysteriously dead. For an initial asking price of $200K, Getty would provide a handful of the tender! heartbreaking! tragic! images, the only caveat being that the buyer had to refrain from running the photos with any sort of negative press — which may be easier said than done if and when toxicology reports are released. More »
in touch weely
Reading About "Reading": "In Touch" Circulation Grows!
In the year since last spring, InTouch has put on some weight - 1.8 million adult readers worth! In fact, readers love the magazine so much they're passing it along to their friends! The little book that could is still growing - unlike People and Us Weekly! More »
media bubble
• Bauer to sell Life & Style and In Touch for only a quarter in two weeks. Hey, it worked for the Post. [Ad Age]
• The Forbes family seeks outside investors for European expansion. Being filthy rich apparently ain't what it used to be. [NYT]
• The Times new Weddings/Celebrations videos: Appalling, addictive slideshows. [Slate]
• Kaavya ain't the only plagiarizer out there. [NYM]
• Michael Jackson is mad at GQ, which made fun of him. [BBC]
Media Bubble: 'Times' Has Good Circ News; 'News' Loses More Than 'Post'
• In latest stats, newspaper circ is — of course — down. One exception: The mighty NYT. Yay. Elsewhere in town, the Post-News gap narrows, as Rupe's tab loses fewer readers than Mort's. [E&P]• Bauer to sell Life & Style and In Touch for only a quarter in two weeks. Hey, it worked for the Post. [Ad Age]
• The Forbes family seeks outside investors for European expansion. Being filthy rich apparently ain't what it used to be. [NYT]
• The Times new Weddings/Celebrations videos: Appalling, addictive slideshows. [Slate]
• Kaavya ain't the only plagiarizer out there. [NYM]
• Michael Jackson is mad at GQ, which made fun of him. [BBC]
photos
Bauer Publishing Hedges Its Bets, Part 2
Yesterday's Life & Style has a great speculative scoop: Could hottie stoner Matthew McConaughey be married? Perhaps to his girlfriend, Penelope Cruz? The mag has a photo of him wearing what seems to be a wedding band on his left ring finger, so it would seem he's done the deed, right? Well, actually, no: As the backwards Nike swoosh on his shorts indicates, the photo is flipped and the ring is on his far less interesting right hand. Which the folks at L&S's Bauer stablemate, In Touch Weekly, were able to figure out.Apparently they don't look at pictures on the bus ride to Jersey, either. More »
tom cruise
Bauer Hedges Its TomKat Bets
We mentioned earlier today that Bauer Publishing's Life & Style is insisting upon its TomKat-breakup scoop even while the rest of the celeb-weekly establishment begs insists the mag wrong. Now a charmingly catty contact at a rival pub points out that even Bauer's other celebrity title, In Touch Weekly doesn't buy it:You'd think the Bauer kids would compare notes on the bus ride out to Jersey. More »
