HOME : TODAY IN JOURNALISM : MODERN HUMORIST'S MEDIAGOSSIPNEWS

Pointer Dean chats up co-ed

Nothing a redesign can't fix
Tina Brown reads
own magazine, gasps.

Dave Eggers
No trouble getting
laid these days.

NYT Magazine's
"What They Were Thinking"

What Were They Thinking?

A nation in mourning
Was coverage of
Frank Lalli's death excessive?

NEXIS Crashes
Journalism grinds
to halt.

TNR: Beinart out,
Gore 3rd in
Younger, more Gore
editor in the catbird seat.

Posted 4:02 a.m. ET Feb. 2, 2000



Modern Humorist's
Media
GossipNews
Wednesday, February 2, 2000

More defections from Brill's Content
Steve Brill is leaving his eponymous magazine for an assistant editorship at
dELiAS.com, the youth-oriented e-commerce venture. Brill tells MediaNews: "I've enjoyed my time at Brill's Content. My departure is amicable; there is no truth to the rumor that I wasn't getting along with myself. This is just an opportunity I couldn't pass up." Candidates to fill the top spot at Content: Tony Brill, Brenda Brill and Brillworth T. Brill (no relation).

Kurt Andersen invited to book party
Keith Kelly reports the
Powerful Media chairman may be leaving his brownstone to attend the release party for a new book. "I'm not sure if I can make it," Andersen says. "It's Once and Again night."
EARLIER: Wine, cheese to be served
Hirschorn: I might drop by
Andersen: If Hirschorn goes, I'll go

Rosenthal staying busy
In addition to his opinion pieces in the
Daily News and his upcoming gig for oldpeople.com, former New York Timesman A.M. ("Abe") Rosenthal will be scrawling a column on the side of a brown paper bag that he will hide under his bed. The column will be between 700 and 750 words, says Rosenthal's cleaning lady, and will be untitled. The first installment will concern tomatoes, and how hard it is to find good ones in the winter, or female genital mutilation.
Frankel: "He's still a prick"

Black Tail lands former Shaved and Ready editor Giliberti
After six years at the No. 3 shaved-fetish magazine, Stan Giliberti is packing up his razor and taking the helm of Black Tail. The African-American-themed
stroke mag has been steadily losing market share since the departure of Kate Betts to Harper's Bazaar. Giliberti has previously worked at Juggs, Granta and Mother Jones.

Old cartoonist dies in Midwest Beloved by hundreds, an old cartoonist for a small Midwestern paper is dead. The cartoonist, known for his stinging but warm caricatures of local politicians, also wrote witty captions. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1942, 1946, 1961-1967, 1969, 1970 and 1998. (Last item)
EARLIER: Bil Keane still alive

Coverage: Merger coverages to merge Reporters covering the AOL/Time Warner merger and the Warner-Lambert/AHP merger announce their intentions to merge their coverage. The proposed merger will free up 45 column inches every day, allowing for added coverage of cold snaps. "This is the season for 'em," says NYT's David Barstow. The merged merger-coverage entity will be called US News and World Report.
MUGGER: Merger!

EDITOR ASSAULTED IN OWN OFFICE: Joan Lunden and her bodyguard were arraigned on charges of assualt and battery after allegedly roughing up McCalls editor Sally Koslow and vandalizing her ergonomic chair. Newsday reports Lunden became enraged after a recent McCalls cover shoot ran two hours too long. Koslow then threw a pile of money at the blond pitchwoman. Lunden said at a press conference outside the 12th precinct, "Bitch think she all that."
EARLIER: Mixed reviews for former GMA host's new album

Shakeup at US: Citing intense consumer demand, Jann Wenner announces plans to take US magazine daily. It will be renamed ME.
Read Rolling Stone's trenchant interview with Stephen Dorff
Sen. John McCain: "I can spot Wenner a mile away"

Idea of Alex Kuczynski's firm thighs haunts Michael Wolff
Upon learning that statuesque, "
Valkyrie-like" media reporter Kuczynski was a swimmer in college, Michael Wolff writes, "I can't stop thinking about her. She's so pretty." The NYMag critic admits to riding his dirt bike past the Times building three times a day, and insists, "She'd really like me if she knew me."
Wolff: "I have an idea for a new media company"
EARLIER: Wolff: "I have an idea for a new media company"

Inuit press scoops Toronto Globe and Mail on incremental glacier movement
In a coup for the scrappy indigenous people's daily, the Nunavut Democrat-Gazette uncovers news that the Upper Baffin Bay ice shelf has moved one full inch since the last readings were taken three years ago. G&M glacier editor admits, "We got caught flat-footed on this one."

Nation relaunches with color Editor Katrina vanden Heuvel emails, "Uh, we've been in color since 1996."
EARLIER: Nation devotes special issue to campai— zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
EARLIER: Wolff tapes picture of Kuczynski's face onto Heidi Klum's body

WSJ portraits to include facial imperfections
Celia McGee reveals that the Journal's front-page halftone illustrations will now depict the boils, moles, nose veins, eczema patches and uni-brows so common among the business class. "We need to stand out from the
Barnes & Noble portraits," an art director explains. "Sumner doesn't have the porcelain skin of a Brontë sister."

PLUS:
Salon launches "Whores Who Think"
Carl Swanson emails link to really funny Mahir site
Eggers: Still getting laid
MUGGER: My kids are funnier than this
Kurtz: Media full of assholes
Assholes: Media full of Kurtz
Otis Chandler: I'm not wearing shoes!
Kausfiles: NYT wrong on welfare, marinara sauce


DISCLAIMER:
This site is a parody of
Jim Romenesko's MediaNews. It used to be "gossip." Now it's news. How odd. Click here for the names of those responsible. Nothing in this Modern Humorist parody should be mistaken for the truth. Except the Rosenthal thing. Swear to God.

 Modern Humorist Dailies

New on MH

Today's Centerpiece:
This tasteful arrangement of perennials—
snapdragons, irises, baby's breath and black-eyed susans—makes a perfect complement to a thought piece on Ira Glass.

Who said it?
"For the fourth time in my life I found myself face to face with a naked Bill Shatner. But this time I was prepared."
Find out in Modern Humorist's Media GossipNews.

Today's Tip
Only ten percent. I'm sorry, but she never came around with refills.

What Would You Decide?
Jonathan Alter poses some interesting questions about that drawing that looks like a pretty young woman from one angle and an old hag from another. Weigh in with your thoughts in our bulletin board section.


MediaNews Links

General Media
Amer. J-Rev.
Brill's Content
Entertainment Tonight
Howard Kurtz/WashPost

Howard Kurtz/CNN
Howard Kurtz/Talk
Howard Kurtz/Brill's Content

Howard Kurtz/Touchstone Books
Howard Kurtz/Black Tail
Slip-Up Daily

NYT Writers Who Have Gratuitiously Written About or Name-Dropped "The Sopranos"
Ginia Bellafante
Frank DeCaro
Maureen Dowd
Neil Genzlinger
Walter Goodman
Laura M. Holson
Verlyn Klinkenborg
Steve Lohr
Matthew Purdy
Ilene Rosenzweig
Joe Sharkey
Michael Sragow

Best New Artist
Christina Aguilera
Kid Rock
Macy Gray
Britney Spears
Howard Kurtz

Six Coolest Presidents
George Washington
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Abraham Lincoln
Thomas Jefferson
Howard Kurtz
William McKinley

Highest Grossing Films of 1983
(in millions)

Return of the Jedi
$309.1
Terms of Endearment
$108.4
Flashdance
$94.9
Trading Places
$90.4
Howard Kurtz
$80.2
WarGames
$79.6

Animals That Can Run Fast
Cheetah, 70 mph
Wildebeest, 50 mph
Whippet, 35.50 mph
Mule deer, 35 mph
Wart hog, 30 mph
Grizzly bear, 30 mph
Cat, domestic, 30 mph
Black mamba snake, 20 mph
Turkey, wild, 15 mph