• Conrad Black's fraud trial starts today. [Chicago Tribune] More »
  • 03/14/07
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    By abalk2

    Comment by de wolfe: If Black served the maximum penalties for each count consecutively, yes, technically he'd be in jail for 101 years. But... more » | Other threads

  • judith regan

    Regan's Cancelled Mickey Mantle Sex Book To Come

    The book that was the real reason for Judith Regan's firing—at least according to New York magazine—has found a new unscrupulous publisher. The Lyons Press, which according to its website is "proud to publish the most distinguished list of fishing books in the world, as well as quality works on horses" has acquired the rights to 7, the Mickey Mantle bio that reads like bad erotica (For instance: "Mickey enters [Marilyn Monroe], going in nice and easy ..." ). "It's one of those books that a lot of people will love, but some won't," author Peter Golenbock told the Times yesterday. Those 'people' presumably include HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, who "hit the roof" when the book was decried on the cover of the Daily News. Will anyone still care by the time the book comes out? Well, says Golenbock, "The only change was from 'Regan' to 'Lyons." So... no. More »
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    By Emily Gould

    Comment by Eunice X: > "Mickey enters [Marilyn Monroe], going in nice and easy ..." Marilyn arches her back and mews like a kitten. ... more » | Other threads

  • joe dolce

    What If Joe Dolce And Judith Regan Joined Forces?

    So far this is only true in our minds. But with Judith Regan emerging from Remi on 53rd Street this afternoon, her highlights all ablaze, there's no way we couldn't think that some deal like this is in the works: More »
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    By Emily Gould

    Comment by kjc9: Not to bring it back to comics again, but it was pretty common that the What If? storylines all had... more » | Other threads

  • media
  • Fox to do for business what it's done for the Republican party: Convince gullible yahoos that it isn't a soulless machine out to exploit the most vulnerable members of our society for the benefit of those who were born with all of life's advantages in the first place. [NYT] More »
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  • michael wolff

    Michael Wolff's Judith Regan Profile May Have Altered Our Fundamental View Of Humanity

    Oooh, Michael Wolff's got a big Judith Regan analysis in March's Vanity Fair! Let's skim: Judy's not an anti-Semite, just a crazy person . . . perversely, she's a hero in a way . . . the last over the top tabloid personality . . . has a problem with authority . . . Rupert Murdoch's gone soft . . . Jane Friedman's a diva too in her own right . . . Yawn! Frankly, we were a bit more entertained when we read these tidbits last week, in Vanessa Grigoriadis's New York profile which also tilled this increasingly barren patch of earth. But wait! Turns out, Wolff does have something new to say: while Grigoriadis only crossed paths with Regan in a job interview, Wolff's had much more personal experience of her crazitude — they were school chums. Lucky Michael was even privy to Judy's bedroom secrets — and unless you stop reading now, soon you'll share in his good fortune. More »
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    By Emily Gould

    Comment by TedSez: "It is better to keep your fly closed and let people think you are gay than to open it and... more » | Other threads

  • new york magazine

    Judith Regan Makes 'New York' Readers Lose Interest In Anal Sex

    Ah, the onslaught of emails from dudes forwarding the Em&Lo article to their girlfriends with the subject line "See, honey?" has finally ceased. Thanks, Judy! Also, we like this headline even a little bit better than "Even Bitches Have Feelings." More »
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    By Emily Gould

    Comment by yellojkt: They're running 'personal' lubricant ads during Studio 60 trying to reach that upscale ass-fucking demographic. more » | Other threads

  • new york magazine

    Vanessa Grigoriadis's Sliding Doors Moment

    Some publications have stringent, tightly policed guidelines about not assigning reporters to cover stories that they have a personal connection to. Other publications have, uh, the opposite policy. Seriously, do you remember the last time you read a New York mag feature whose author didn't at some point step forward and announce, "Disclosure: I once shared a yoga mat with Madonna in 1995" or some such nonsense? We certaintly don't. But the disclosure moment in Vanessa Grigoriadis's long Sympathy for Judith Regan profile today has to be our all-time favorite: More »
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    By Emily Gould

    Comment by sailor: hey samo, your name's very cute. more » | Other threads

  • vanity fair

    If He Read It: James Wolcott Liveblogs The O.J. Book

    Even though Newsweek already excerpted the only chapter that anyone remotely cares about, James Wolcott breathlessly trumpets Vanity Fair's acquisition of "the whole enchilada" — a shiny new hardcover edition of If He Did It — today on VF.com. (Now we know who was bidding on Ebay!) So what's the book (well, the part we haven't all already read) like? Well, Wolcott calls it "a shameless yet ingeniously opaque cockteaser," and, surprise surprise, so is his 'review.' We learn that O.J. and Nicole Brown had a tumultuous marriage, and that Nicole frequently enraged her husband by wearing whorey outfits. Yawn yawn. Ultimately, the only sort of new information here seems to be that James Wolcott is a weirdo who makes up his own nonsensical slang. Simpson's B-list milieu is given to "normo" leisure activities, while Nicole is "for cert" nothing like Gloria Swanson, though the book is (somehow ) like Sunset Boulevard. But our favorite moment of Wolcottian semicoherence comes later, when he's describing the chapter entitled "The Two Nicoles":
    As [Simpson] tries to move forward, she's stuck in self-destructive reverse, acting and dressing like a teenager with her twat in a snit and, rumors reach him, hanging with a bad crowd.
    Well, we may not care about O.J. or Judith Regan or anything anymore, but we do look forward to using the next time we'll be able to use the "twat in a snit" tag. More »
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    By Emily Gould

    Comment by raincoaster: I had a snit in my twat once. But then, I've studied yoga for years. more » | Other threads

  • judith regan

    OJ Deal Terms Revealed -Omg, Judith Regan LIED?

    From Judith Regan's November 17th cri de coeur:
    I don't know why he did it - why he did the book, and sat for the interview. Was it his own disturbed need for attention? Did he have remorse? Was he ready to come clean and make amends and do his penance? I wouldn't know until I sat down in a chair across from him.
    More »
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    By Emily Gould

    Comment by Fisticuffs: Uh, the contract is, in fact, with Lorraine Brooke Associates, or the "third party who owns the rights." more » | Other threads

  • page six

    The Inconvenient Truth About Leigh Haber?

    We love Page Six's patented Random Reacharounds: those inexplicably crowing, glowing items that detail the achievements of someone readers have never heard of, typically introducing zero new information and blowing several lackluster achievements out of proportion. Today's item about Rodale's Leigh Haber is a classic example:
    Last year, as an editor at Rodale, she published Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," Bill Maher's "New Rules" and Noah Oppenheim and David Kidder's "The Intellectual Devotional." Now, Haber has been given her own imprint, Modern Times. She's already signed up O magazine columnist Martha Beck and Newsweek chief of correspondents Marcus Mabry. "Leigh Haber is recognized in the publishing industry as an accomplished editor and a champion of writers, with a keen eye for new ideas that will resonate with readers," said Rodale President and CEO Steve Murphy.
    Zzzz . . . what? Sorry, we drifted off after the Al Gore part, somewhere in between the list of books we've never heard of and the fawning quote. But we did manage to pay attention to the confusing first sentence of the item:
    FORGET Judith Regan - the new female publishing powerhouse in town is Leigh Haber.
    Uh, we think that's what's known as a "backhanded compliment." As in, "perhaps she's backhanded a few assistants in her time"? You tell us. More »
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    By Emily Gould

    Comment by SonaliPelias: If anyone responsible for these articles knew Leigh they would instantly feel bad for being so quick to judge. Leigh... more » | Other threads

  • top

    Gawker's Personalities of the Year

    As 2006 huffs toward its inexorable end, we decided to take a moment to recognize those personalities that made our job that much more tolerable this year. These are the people who gave us endless fodder for our douchebag mill, who were attracted to the spotlight like moths to a flame, whose stated disdain for our coverage of them was contradicted by their almost pathetic attempts to court it. The adage that there's no such thing as bad publicity has never felt more apt. More »
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    By Doree Shafrir

    Comment by htotheomo: Muffman: double the ewwwww. more » | Other threads

  • rupert murdoch

    Enemies List: Rupert Murdoch

    No one but the Devil knows every name on Rupert Murdoch's enemies list, and that's only because Satan takes dictation from Murdoch. Still, the News Corp. chairman has an impressive history of racking up nemeses on several continents. So far, he's either wrestled them to the carpet or held them at bay in one form or another. But even with regular infusions of industrial-strength nookie from a wife half his age, the man still has to watch the ramparts for skulking invaders. To that end, consider a short and by no means comprehensive list of Murdoch's opponents — past, present, future, or some combination thereof. More »
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    By Chris Mohney

    Comment by zibby: I gave him and his wife a dirty look in a restaurant one time. Don't go thinking he's forgotten... more » | Other threads

  • gawker book club

    'Because She Can' Book Club: Rudith Jegan Is One Brazy Critch!

    As we mentioned yesterday, this edition of our bookish little coffeeklatsch revolves around a work of literature whose villainess reminds us a bit of one of our favorite Gawker whipping gals: freshly canned publisher Judith Regan. That might be because author Bridie Clark used to work for her, but then again, it might not. Who's to say? (Well, besides lawyers). Anyway, in today's excerpt, we learn how "Vivian Grant's" employees go about guarding their lives and sanity. Our favorite part? "I'm not saying our phones are tapped. I'm just saying that it's not a bad precaution to leave the building when making a private call." More »
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    By Emily Gould

    Comment by MissMoose: Ladies and gentlemen, the goyim have left the building. more » | Other threads

  • gawker book club

    Gawker Book Club: Extra-Timely Edition

    Some people like to say that living well is the best revenge. Well, living well is pretty good revenge, but the best? We think that'd have to be something along the lines of: writing a roman a clef about your evil ex-boss that's being published at around the same time that said ex-boss is getting fired and dragged through the mud in the media. Congratulations, Bridie Clark! You're one lucky bitch, and your book, Because She Can, is the next subject of our occasional Book Club. If you've sat around the coffee table with us for previous installments of the Club, you recall that the way this works is that we flip to a random page and give you a little dose. But this time, we're going to focus on the bits of the book that squeaked most narrowly through what must've been the most scrupulous legal read EVER. After the jump, our heroine's job interview with Rudith Jegan. Okay, okay, "Vivian Grant." More »
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    By Emily Gould

    Comment by RandomHookup: So perhaps Timothy McDarrah should have worked for her so they could have bonded over teenage girls? more » | Other threads

  • judith regan

    Oh No, Judith Regan Might WIN

    In times like these, we're really grateful that being a lawyer is so sucky. Why? Because it means that the lawyers who've defected to the blahhgosphere can give us plenty of expert legal analysis. Over at the HuffyPo, ex-lawyer Rachel Sklar and co. provide some much-needed insight into whether or not Judy will triumph in her wrongful termination suit against HarperCollins. Their conclusion? Basically, yeah. Their contention is that HarperCollins couldn't use the OJ book as a reason to fire Regan because it was greenlit by her higher-ups, so they pulled her "anti-Semitism" out of a hat. But her previous slap on the wrist for the mezuzah thing might ruin their case:
    Regan was known to make outrageous, offensive statements, and that it was accepted at HarperCollins as the norm. The New York Times reports that Regan had an HR reprimand three years ago. An HR reprimand, three years ago. That says "slap on the wrist, now please resume raking in boatloads of cash" if anything does. The more evidence there is that Regan talked trash like this all the time, the harder it will be for HarperCollins to suddenly claim that they were shocked — shocked! — that she would dare speak that way.
    Aw, MAN! Well, no matter what happens, rest assured that the stymied legal eagles of HuffPo will continue to keep you updated every time anyone involved in this case, like, takes a shit. More »
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    By Emily Gould

    Comment by Clarence Rosario: Yeah, The One, I meant to say "unless she has a specific agreement with HC that overrides the standard employment... more » | Other threads