Variety For Sale
Showbiz mag, helmed by conflict-riddled editor Peter Bart, was offered by owner Reed Elsevier along with 400 other trades. Variety loves jargon, adores short sentences. Hates definitive article, pronouns. No asking price. [NYT]
Who Actually Reads The Drudge Report?
Yesterday I was having lunch with a pal who was schooling me on the real business of the web—did you know some people are really making a killing on the internet? I did know that, but only like, as a concept—and we wondered: Who reads Drudge? Who keeps it such a monster traffic site? So! Variety columnist Brian Lowry …
The Hollywood Reporter has chosen former Variety editor-at-large Elizabeth Guider as its new editor. How does spitemeistress Nikki Finke rate the hire? "[A] joke... an unimpressive choice who sources tell me was passed over and demoted at Variety... [THR] was looking for a softball editor, someone who wouldn't ruffle…
Breaking: Bomb Scare Near SAG, Variety, E! Buildings
Reports are pouring in about a bomb scare stopping traffic over on Wilshire Blvd, close to the headquarters of SAG and across the street from Variety and E! [Ed.note—Has anyone checked to make sure that Seacrest is safe?] A sampling of our nearby operatives' descriptions of the situation apparently created off by a…
Julia Stiles To Gaily Tromp On Plath Grave
"Esther Greenwood has a strong outlook on life, and we're really looking to bring out the humor in the character. We don't want to do a depressing descent into the world of suicide," Bell Jar flick co-producer Celine Rattray told Variety today, announcing that Julia Stiles was signed on to star. Right on! Who wants…
Richard Abate Takes His "Long Classy Track Record" To Endeavor
Richard Abate, the literary agent who sources tell us is "a nasty little man" and "one of those people who refuses to ever identify himself when calling, like you should obviously just be able to recognize the sound of his voice, and then eventually you do, and you hate yourself for it," will be the head of the new…
Britney Spears Not Actually Fed OR Knocked Up
Well, this is embarrassing. So we'd rounded up some gossip items the other day about America's sweetheart, Britney Spears: we mentioned a "leaked song" on YouTube that seemed to be her "Cry Me A River" to K-Fed, and we linked to Jeannette Walls' report that Brit seemed preggish. After Variety broke the story yesterday…
More Successl For The Pessl: Miramax Options 'Special Topics'
More good news for publicity-shy author Marisha Pessl: she not only has a fancy new paintbox, she now has a movie deal. Variety reported today that Miramax Films and producer Scott Rudin have bought film rights to her debut novel, Special Topics in Calamity Physics. A preternaturally prescient Pessl forsaw this…
Judith Regan "Not Going To Take This Lying Down"
At least, that's what lawyer Bert Fields said when he announced yesterday afternoon that our favorite golden-gina'd battleaxe is going to sue the Jew cabal at HarperCollins for wrongful termination. He also contradicts HarperCollins lawyer Mark Jackson's assertions about the content of the phone conversation that…
Perv The Cheerleader, Save The World
A reader excited by the prospect that Variety might be evolving its coverage of the industry to more directly appeal to subscribers with a healthy interest in upskirt photography directed us to page 9 of today's paper, where an otherwise fairly dry story about November sweeps is enlivened with this promotional photo…
'Variety' Trying To Get Into the Matt Drudge Business
Geffen, DIC ready to get Party started [Variety]
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…
Media Bubble: 'Teen People' Kills Article on N**i Teen Singers
• Teen People kills story on Nazi bubblegum popsters after learning that a staffer promised not to use the words "Nazi," "supremacist," or "hate" in discussing the hateful white supremacists, and after Holocaust survivors picket Time Warner HQ. Keith Kelly calls incident a test for new Time Inc. EIC John Huey, but we…
Media Bubble: Newspaper Editorials Are a Way for Editorializing
• At Advertising Week in September, the headline event will be Jon Stewart interviewing four yet-unnamed prominent magazine editors. We really hope it's Newsweek chief Mark Whitaker. We hear he's a laugh riot. [AdFreak]
• "[B]logs are often just a way of making oneself appear on the Internet," observes NYT editorial.…
More launch party: Gabriel Snyder
Recently-departed US Weekly staffer Gabriel Snyder and I reminiscing about the old days hanging out at Slide after closing Marion's and being too lazy to walk more than 5 feet to the next bar. Discussing Gabriel's new job at Variety, the requisite move to Hollywood, and me wondering how long before Gabriel realizes…
Morale at Bloomberg
Keith Kelly reports that Bloomberg LP chiefs have been ordered to make a list of employees who aren't happy, possibly in an effort to find out who's been talking to the press. Says one insider, "There isn't enough paper in a printer to print out that list." On a side note, Kelly says that US Weekly's Gabriel Snyder is…
