James S. Brady, a former press secretary for Ronald Reagan, died today in Alexandria, Virginia. He was 73. Brady became a tireless advocate for gun control and founded the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence after getting shot by John Hinckley Jr. in an assassination attempt on Reagan in 1981.
James Brady, Editor and Celebrity Gossip Pioneer, Dead at 80
When he interviewed celebrities, typically over lunch, longtime Parade columnist James Brady often did not take notes; he only needed three soundbites, which he memorized.
Allow James Brady To Tell You About His Illustrious Career
Name-dropping old man James Brady is just about the oldest old man in all the working media. He's turning 80 on Saturday, so he decided to dedicate his Forbes column to that most interesting of topics: his own career. This is a slight departure from his usual practice of reciting as many names as he can in 800 words…
James Brady Shocked To Find David Carr Was On Drugs
Hawk-faced elderly man James Brady, the name-dropping veteran of 600 media outlets who has now eased into his retirement job as Forbes' "media columnist" (ha), is primarily skilled at being befuddled about the point of things (though he hasn't lost his name-dropping talent). So faced with an early copy of former…
James Brady On Maureen Dowd On Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
Forbes columnist James Brady's review of Times columnist Maureen Dowd's review of Camelot-era historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s terrible-sounding diaries IS A LITTLE BIT OF HEAVEN. The MoDo review is basically the longest blog post ever published in the Times, and Brady's LiveJournalling response is superb: "She…
James Brady devotes an entire Forbes column to a new book that he absolutely loves which, uh, turns out to be written by his daughter. Conflict of interest? Some think so! We're going to be more charitable and suggest that maybe Jim was too senile to remember that the author was his daughter when he wrote the thing. […
James Brady Suddenly Realizes George Steinbrenner Is Not All There
James Brady is not easily shocked, but in his recent Forbes column, he admitted to surprise about the subject of George Steinbrenner's alleged senility.
James Brady, Manhattan's Best Name-Dropper
One of the great pleasures of James Brady's media column for Forbes is the sweet anticipation one experiences while wondering how Brady is going to set up his full-page litany of name drops. The current edition uses the recent Peter Braunstein case—and the suggestion that working in the fashion industry drove…
Old Man Thanks Heaven For Little Girl Magazines
James Brady takes a look at mags for teen girls and discovers that, in the post-Atoosa era, they're all going for a less racy presentation. We're not particularly interested one way or other (the sooner tweens learn the "17 Fastest Ways To Get Him Off," the sooner they'll be prepared for middle school), but the column…
Media Bubble: Nappy Headed Nos
James Brady Names Names
Forbes columnist James Brady is living proof that senility is no bar to name-dropping. There is also a brilliant Brady-ism in today's column: "Howard Rubenstein was there and introduced me to his son. Whom I know." That's all you need to read, so, as a service to our readers who might otherwise object to sifting…
Gawker Explainer: Guest Edition
It's a special edition of Gawker Explainer, the fun feature where we help you correctly pronounce names in the news so that you don't sound like an idiot when you sneak into Conde Nast parties. What's so special? Well, this edition comes to you directly from guest-explainer James Brady, Forbes media, uh, guy?…
Atoosa Rubenstein: Res nullius
There's a precious moment in James Brady's most recent media column for Forbes. Jim hits up Hearst prez Cathie Black's holiday party and rubs elbows with the twiterati, running into a few old friends in the process.
Dave Zinczenko Has Better Abs, Life Than You
We're not sure whether Dave Zinczenko likes blowjobs - Oh, who are we kidding, everyone likes blowjobs. And he's Dave Zinczenko! - but he gets one today from James Brady, in what has to be the most mortifying public display of oral attention from an elderly person ever. Brady even takes out his teeth. The piece…
James Brady, Media Party Bloodhound
This week, Forbes.com's presenile media columnist James Brady takes us to the Core Club for a casual schmoozefest in honor of Katie Couric, thrown by Hearst president Cathie Black and editorial director Ellen Levine. With a nose for news, Brady cruises the scene, gathering important information like Couric's new sleep…
The Wit and Wisdom of Crazy Ol' Jim Brady
Let's ignore the irony of Jim Brady's Forbes.com column focusing mostly on an old, aged media exec who increasingly doddered on, oblivious to his surroundings (you'd have no idea what that's like, right, Jim?) and instead focus on just one line, down near the end. Jim is recalling a fancy lunch on Central Park South…
Media Bubble: 'NYT' Turns Off TV Division
• As expected, the Times dumps its unwatched Discovery Times channel. [Media Mob/NYO]
• Did Bill Keller's gin-heiress wife kill Boldace? Probably not, but she sure didn't help. [WWD (second item)]
• We love conflicts of interest; the Pulitzers board, not so much. [E&P]
• Forbes media kibitzer James Brady wonders, "Is…
This Week in James Brady: In Which We Meet Harry Evans
Forbes' agenda-setting media reporter this week catches up with an up-and-comer named Harry Evans, and he fills us in on the breaking news that Evans is married to Tina Brown, used to edit London's Times, and currently does some work for Felix Dennis's The Week. (Who knew?) We particularly like his meet-cute account…
Hard-Hitting Media Coverage From James Brady: This Week, Peter Bart
It's kind of hard not to adore James Brady's thoroughly ridiculous new media column for Forbes. It's not that we adore it because it's so well-crafted, or so interesting, or so informative — far from it. We adore it because it's so much fun to see what new and interesting ways Brady will find to serve up happy-talk…
This Week in James Brady: What a Happy Holocaust
Last time we checked in with Forbes media columnist James Brady — the Parade celeb-swaddler, Page Six creator, and longtime Murdoch factotum — he was, rather generously, praising Bonnie Fuller's "successful" stint at AMI and spinning the time Conde Nast fired her as Bonnie's own decision to leave. This week,…
