• The New Yorker's Lauren Collins briefly depicts Huffington holding hands with ex-boyfriend Mort Zuckerman at the recent Time 100 party. But who is she seeing now? Is it true she tends toward hot younger men? What about her rumored dalliance with Newark Mayor Cory Booker?
• Collins also delves into the much-explored topic of Huffington's affiliation with spiritual guru John-Roger. But what about how she has stocked her site with fans of the culty leader?
• Just one paragraph on the Tim Russert feud? Can she still not come up with anything nice to say? Is it true top NBC News staff hated her even more after Russert died?
• How does Arianna run the Huffington Post? What's it like to work there? It's hardly surprising or scandalous that Huffington can be an "erratic... high-strung boss" or that she has lost 15+ employees, as reported in the profile. Sample quote: "One of the frustrating things was that she had absolutely no compunctions about saying, ‘Hey, do this,’ and then saying, ‘Why did you do that? I never asked you to do that.’"
• The New Yorker might start with HuffPo's political message discipline. Huffington has spiked work that is not "congruent with HuffPost's editorial position against the media's penchant for viewing everything through a left/right prism," a convoluted position she formulated after one of her columns was used against Barack Obama.
• Which raises the question: Was HuffPo biased toward Obama? After the site reported that Obama said "bitter" working-class Americans "cling to guns or religion," HuffPo co-founder Ken Lerer, who himself said to be unhappy about the story, rushed to talk with angry Obama campaign operatives. That would be the same Lerer who convened a fundraiser for Obama at his apartment the year prior, when he was still CEO of Huffington Post. It's worth at least asking whether the Clinton campaign's accusation that the site was a "conveyor belt" for pro-Obama propaganda was more than mere campaign flackery.
• Also, why did HuffPo delay covering the latest scandal stories on Democratic politician John Edwards, despite having broken some of the earliest ones?
• If the HuffPo has been called an "internet newspaper," as the New Yorker reminds us, Collins would have been well-served to take a look at how much it spends on actual reporting. Mayhill Fowler, arguably its brightest star at the moment, paid her own expenses and received no salary. Huffington herself said many staff left because they "wanted to be writers.... the jobs are administrative."

To fit in some of these topics, the New Yorker might have had to cut out the bits about Huffington's "considerable intelligence," her "seductive" charm and how she likes hiking, "yoga, meditation and prayer." But at least the magazine would have broken some significant new ground.

UPDATE: The Huffington Post itself writes of the profile, "readers don't get much insight into how [Huffington] has actually pulled off this impressively successful website and gained a distinctly new status amid the bloody competition of the Internet."

This post was originally written for "Eat The Press' at the Huffington Post, but it was determined that the post was not "congruent with HuffPost's editorial position against the media's penchant for viewing everything through a left/right prism" (see here). With respect, I disagreed, and together we decided that the piece would be best placed elsewhere. Thanks to Jim for that opportunity.

More suggestions for the New Yorker:

• Look into why the Huffington Post ignored the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter affair at first even though it owned the story.
• Commission more hilarious artwork like the drawing above, used for the New Yorker's last Huffington story.
• Find more pointless, deeply inaccurate blog posts by Huffington's celebrity friends, like the awful thing John Cusack just posted.
• Expect Arianna to hold a major grudge. She nursed one against Tim Russert for 14 years for a profile his wife wrote that turned out to be true.
• Don't try to prove Huffington is a cutthroat boss just because she supposedly "fired assistants after one day of work." We know another internet publisher of Southern European extraction who supposedly fired someone after zero days of work. Now that's cutthroat!

[Post]

In any case, we managed to stumble upon a curious casting call on Craigslist which tipped us off to the Russert biopic. The headline reads: "Casting Older Caucasian Woman for Major TV Network Movie." The ad goes on to explain that a "small independent New York based film company is searching for the role of Maureen Orth, the wife of the late Tim Russert. The film will explore the last 24 hours of Russert's life and Golden Globe winner Randy Quaid is set to play the role of Tim Russert."

Well, we certainly can't argue with the choice of Randy Quaid. The two men look as though they were raised in the same womb. But what aspiring actress will tackle the role of Russert's wife? Here's what the producers want: "We're looking to cast an emotionally versatile actress for the role. Should be thin, 40-55, and able to cry on cue." That narrows it down, but don't forward them your resume just yet, Debra Winger. "The network is only interested in working with an unknown, so we will consider any and all women who look the part." Finally an un-famous middle-aged actress is gonna get a break in this town. And all it took was the death of a great newsman.

• Casting Older Caucasian Woman for Major TV Network Movie [Craigslist]

In between innocuous revelations — Huffington listens to meditation tapes, collects dolls (sort of), likes cheese and just bought an espresso machine — is this casual mention of a SECRET HIDDEN BACK ROOM in her house:

Weirdest thing about (or in) your home: The upstairs office, hidden behind a bookshelf. I had it installed since I work at home. ... If you close the wood-paneled door covered by a painting of two Venetian cardinals, you'd never guess there's an entire office behind the bookcase.

An entire office tucked behind a bookshelf? Sounds like someone's been collecting some solid counter-surveillance advice!

[Chicago Tribune]

It is a seriously nasty story that makes Arianna sound like a loopy new-age cut-throat bitch who doesn't even care about orphans. Much like the Private Eye story reported by Ed Rollins some time later (in which Arianna allegedly hired a detective to tail Orth), it's hard to know how much of it is actually 100% true. But it's still a fun ride! Click through for a couple excerpts from the piece.

So. Orth calls Michael Huffington a brain-dead idiot a number of times, quotes a dozen people calling Arianna his pupper-master, and even calls Michael gay, in two separate passages. (Michael Huffington came out as bisexual—though lots of people doubt even that—years later when the couple divorced.) Arianna joins a crazy new-age cult, whose leader organizes her wedding to a wealthy fool. Arianna pretends to volunteer for a childrens' charity but it's all a photo-op and she never does any work. She also fires all her servants and according to one unnamed observer calls Mexicans lazy.

As we said, an unfriendly story.

Years later, after the divorce, when Arianna became (once again, if you believe this piece) a bleeding-heart liberal, Vanity Fair amusingly ran another long profile of her. This one was glowing (comparatively). But then compared to the Orth piece, 13 pages of "WHAT A BITCH" would've been a friendly review. And here are some excerpts!

GALLERY














END

Republican strategist Ed Rollins wrote a memoir in which he discussed his role in Michael Huffington's disastrous run for the US Senate. Attached is the relevant excerpt, reporting the rumor that Arianna Huffington hired a private eye to tail Maureen Orth, the Vanity Fair author who happened to be married to Tim Russert.

Now Orth did write a piece on Michael. And it was terribly embarrassing for both Huffingtons. Since that story, Arianna had a political realignment, divorced her now-gay husband, and became a left-winger. Rollins remains a slimy Republican hack. It's his word against hers, and she's stringently denied the charge. But Orth believes it! So Tim probably did too. And so, obviously, Arianna did not have much to say about the death of beloved newsman Tim Russert.