The ‘Post’ Is No Great Friend to Friends of Dorothy, But This Is Insulting
It’s entirely incidental to the Brooklyn cyclone, but the line, silly Posties, would be “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Or maybe just “We’re not in Kansas anymore.” But Dorothy Gale does not say “ain’t.”
in other news
Bad Dreams
Funny thing we noticed last night about People magazine: People seem to be having a lot of nightmares lately. (Above, this week’s cover at left and the May 28 cover at right.) Horrific family tragedy equals, apparently, a lazy headline writer’s dream!
Horror in the Night [People]
in other news
New ‘Radar’: This Time, Prince Harry in BoxersYippee: The September Radar is almost here! Which means it’s time for early teases of the cover story! The mag posted the new cover yesterday, and Drudge picked it up today, and we’re sure you’re shocked to discover it features a Photoshopped image of a celebrity’s head on an underwear-clad body. (Interestingly, the underwear isn’t white.) Also, “Pop, Politics, Scandal, Style” has given way to “Fresh Intelligence” as the slogan, and there’s nary a mention of Paris Hilton, a presidential candidate, or any sort of homosexuality (in either babies or pets). We barely recognize the thing.
The Trouble with Harry [Radar via Drudge]
Earlier: The March of ‘Radar’
the in-box
Please Call Andrea Peyser a BimboWednesday we pointed out what might well be the best New York Post cover ever, a Photoshop job of adoring throngs lifting a fresh-out-of- prison Paris Hilton. But we also noticed a curious coincidence: “Paris Liberated, Bimbos Rejoice,” read the cover line — and inside the paper marquee columnist Andrea Peyser was, in fact, rejoicing. Was the Post calling its own writer a bimbo? And, if so, how would she feel about that? From today’s e-mail:
From: Peyser, Andrea [SMTP:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 11:00:56 AM
To: intel
Subject: bimbo? I love you!
Oh, we love you, too, you little bimbo.
Earlier: ‘Post’ Either Loves or Hates Paris Hilton
in other news
‘Post’ Either Loves or Hates Paris Hilton
Just wanted to make sure you got a good look at what might well be the single greatest New York Post cover ever. “If Paris wasn’t born, she would have to be invented,” Andrea Peyser writes in her column. “If she did not form naturally, we’d have to build one of her.” We can’t tell if Peyser’s “we” refers to American society, dismissively, or to the Post’s circulation execs, appreciatively. Maybe a little of both?
(Also: Isn’t that cover line effectively calling Peyser a bimbo? Fun!)
She’s the Naughty Gift Who Keeps on Giving [NYP]
Related: Paris Was Pig in a Pokey [NYP]
intel
The ‘Portfolio’-ing: When You Premiere the PremierIt was no mere typo. There must have been a conscious decision to use “premier” to describe the first issue of Condé Nast Portfolio, which nearly all copy editors, this reporter included, would have called a “premiere.” You don’t make a mistake like that across the board — on the cover flap (“premier issue”), in the table of contents (“premier issue”), and, most telling, in the promotional letter (“premier issue debuts” [itals added to nauseate]). No, this one seems to be intentional, a style statement by the new publication. Perhaps the someday-to-be- monthly business magazine is indicating that what you hold in your hands is indeed the top of the line, that this is as good as it gets, it’s the premier one, the most important, the preeminent, the top, the Colosseum, the best! For a premier issue to debut — well, it’s spelled out right there. If they intended the correct “premiere” (which means first, debut), they wouldn’t have coupled it with “debut.” So they must mean what they say. This is the premier, not the premiere; the best issue you’re gonna get. Take it as it is. —Carl Rosen
A ‘Time’ to Laugh, a ‘Time’ to WeepSo the new Time magazine is out. We must say that we find it much like the old Time magazine, except that it is, well, a little prettier. (The Time logo on the cover is smaller, the cover teasers are now in boxes like, perhaps, a banner across a Web page? and the inside pages have a lighter, airier feel, with big, bold headlines.) It looks lovely which we’re sure we’d say if it hadn’t been designed by our admired pal Luke Hayman, who was New York’s creative director until he was lured away to work on Time’s makeover. Surprisingly, though, a controversy has arisen over this first new Time cover.
in other news
Tara Conner Can’t Catch a BreakCover girl for New York Fallen Beauty Queen, sure. But New York Dog? That’s just mean.
New York Dog [Official site]
intel
The March of ‘Radar’
The new Radar arrived in yesterday’s mail. We’ve seen it before, when Roshan & Co. leaked its cover to the Huffington Post’s uniquely uncynical media blog, Eat the Press. But actually holding the thing in our hands suddenly brought back memories of so many Radars perdu. And so we took a walk down memory lane, examining all six Radar covers (you can click on them for larger versions) and noticing what’s changed and what’s stayed the same in the nearly four years — four years! — since the mag’s first premiere issue.
in other news
Rupert Murdoch Is Shocked, Shocked by ScandalmongeringAt the McGraw-Hill Media Summit yesterday, Rupert Murdoch confirmed that his Fox Business Channel will debut in the fall of this year, and he explained how it will differ from its GE-owned competition, CNBC: It will be more restrained and responsible. “They leap on every scandal,” he said of CNBC. Murdoch’s New York Post, for example, today displayed News Corp.’s vaunted corporate restraint in the face of scandal. “Anna Nicole Mystery: Was It Murder?” asks its front page, soberly. — Lori Fradkin
News Corp. Plans Fox Business Channel This Fall [AP via USAT]
in the magazine
Anna Nicole and ‘New York’: A No-Love-Lost StoryWe said yesterday that there was no particular New York connection to Anna Nicole Smith. But as it turns out, there is a New York connection. Savor, if you will, our August 22, 1994, cover (click on it for a larger version), which featured the then- already-former Playboy Playmate illustrating a Tad Friend analysis of the ascendant “White Trash Nation.” Miss Smith wasn’t pleased with the depiction, filing a $5 million defamation suit against the magazine in Los Angeles Superior Court that October. “She was told that she was being photographed to embody the ‘All-American- woman look’ and that they wanted glamour shots,” her lawyer told the Times then. The avec–Cheez Doodles pic, he charged, was a just-for-fun outtake and wasn’t supposed to be used.
in other news
HarperCollins, Still With the DecapitationsSpeaking of HarperCollins: Lit blogger Bookburger has notices a curious new trend in the design of covers for teen novels: Decapitation. More and more releases from HarperTeen — Bookburger cites three examples from the spring catalogue — feature cover images of teenage bodies with the attached head conveniently cropped off. It’s a strange trend, and an objectifying one, but it’s also sort of inexplicable to be coming from Harper right now. If nothing else in the last few weeks, hasn’t the publisher learned it might be best to stay far away from beheadings?
Headless Wonders [Bookburger]
Earlier: Our coverage of Judith Regan
