Your Ad HereThe L.A.‘Times’ and other media outlets are giving ads more prominent placement, and sometimes even disguising them as front-page news stories! More on the media meltdown in our daily wrap-up, sponsored by your mom.
L.A. ‘Times’ Duped on Tupac-Diddy StoryFor all of you I Love the 90s fans who are heartsick for a little East Coast–West Coast rivalry, last week was a big one: The Los Angeles Times reported that the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur in the lobby of the Quad Recording Studios in midtown was carried out by associates of none other than Sean “Diddy” Combs, who knew about the whole thing beforehand.
gossipmonger
Jay-Z ‘Took Rihanna Aside’ to Talk About Rumors of Their AffairRihanna said she used to feel self-conscious about the rumors that she hooked up with Jay-Z, but now just ignores them. Observer prepmaster general David Foxley will now be the person to call to get reservations at the Waverly Inn. Billion-heiress Anna Anisimova slept at her mother’s place on Tuesday, which is a good thing because a 400-pound Venetian chandelier collapsed and fell fifteen feet onto the bed at her own place. Rapper 50 Cent has to pay an undisclosed sum to a Post photographer for knocking him down after he tried to take a photo of him. MSNBC accidentally flashed a graphic of Osama bin Laden as host Chris Matthews was discussing Barack Obama. Robert John Burck, a.k.a. the Naked Cowboy, says he has high-profile investments. DJ AM has invited ex-girlfriend Mandy Moore to hear him spin at Room Service on Friday.
company town
Thay It Ain’t So! Merrill Chief Loses Part of BonusFINANCE
• The falling market has shaved off a big chunk of Wall Street hottie John Thain’s compensation. Don’t worry, Thainie-boy, we still love you. [DealBook/NYT]
• Wondering what the hell’s happening in the markets? Watch one trader lose his life savings in a single day. (NSFW) [Crossing Wall Street]
• Ex–Goldman banker becomes underwater gravedigger. Say what? [NYT]
gossipmonger
Billie Jean Is Not My Talk-Show HostBillie Jean King says she wouldn’t mind taking fellow lesbian Rosie O’Donnell’s spot on The View. Socialiterank.com will post no more, but its (still anonymous) founders do have a book deal. Arthur Sulzberger Jr. was marginally insensitive toward deaf people at the New York Times Co. annual meeting. American Idol contestants put on a private performance at Rupert Murdoch’s house. Christie’s exec John Hays made a quip about Katie Couric at the Children for Children benefit. Cameron Diaz went shopping in Soho, then freaked out when the paparazzi showed up. Kate Winslet likes New York’s paparazzi more than London’s. A woman obsessed with Sandra Bullock tried to run over Bullock’s husband with a car. Hugh Grant was arrested on an assault charge after throwing baked beans at a paparazzo.
it just happened
Tribune Co. Goes to Sam Zell (for Now)
The big idea lately in newspapering — poor, beleaguered newspapering — has been the proposition that newspapers of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the people might just be the best kind of newspapers. (One well-known billionaire, goes the logic, is better than anonymous private-equity firms or, worse, Hassan Elmasry.) The proposition hasn’t worked out quite as believers hoped in Philadelphia, and in Boston Jack Welch hasn’t even been allowed to try. But this morning Chicago’s Tribune Company — owner of the eponymous paper, plus the insurrectionary Los Angeles Times, Long Island’s Newsday, and other newspapers, TV stations, and a baseball team — announced that it has accepted an offer from local billionaire Sam Zell.
it just happened
Dean Baquet Joins ‘NYT,’ Dashing California’s DreamsWell, so much for that. Dean Baquet, the Los Angeles Times editor who was fired in November for refusing to enact layoffs sought by the Tribune Company, has been appointed Washington bureau chief of the New York Times, which nicely quashes the hopes of those in L.A. who were hoping a new owner of their Times — maybe some local billionaires, maybe even the founding Chandler family again — would buy the paper and reinstall the beloved Baquet. (Delving into Timesology: This would seem to be a slap in the face of Philip Taubman, the longtime Timesman who’s currently running the Washburo, but, then, he’s been given the “associate editor” title previously held only by the sainted Johnny Apple. So who knows.) Innumerable Angelenos are no doubt disheartened by this. But three months ago, New York’s Kurt Andersen took a hard look at the L.A. Times and decided that the paper’s problem wasn’t so much Tribune’s ownership but its out-of-whack ambitions — and that Baquet might well not have been the right person to solve that problem anyway.
Vanity Kills [NYM]
Baquet Rejoins Times as Washington Bureau Chief [NYT]
company town
Lindsay Lohan, DumbstruckThe big news today in the city’s big businesses.
FASHION
• Lindsay Lohan’s Miu Miu ads keep coming — now she’s a vibrant, dumbstruck dolly. [Fashionologie]
• There’s a bimbo logjam at the top of Mr. Blackwell’s annual worst-dressed list. [Downtown Darling]
• A Paris court dismissed Karl Lagerfeld’s claim against journalist Alicia Drake. He sued her for invasion of privacy — but really, people say, because she called him middle class. [WWD]
gossipmonger
Bob Dylan Criticizes What He Can’t Understand (At Least Until He Sees It)Bob Dylan claims that upcoming Edie Sedgwick biopic Factory Girl falsely portrays him as the cause of Sedgwick’s suicide, threatens to sue unless he is allowed to see the film before it is released. Chuck Schumer wrote a book. An employee of Wyclef Jean was kidnapped in Haiti and held for ransom; he was released for free. An L.A. Times reporter scored an “exclusive” interview with Martin Scorsese, featuring quotes that are actually two years old. Popular Greenwich Village drinking hole Boxers lost its lease, is shuttering. Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s restaurant partner, Phil Suarez, put on quite the culinary show at an apartment party he threw. Access Hollywood host Billy Bush might be leaving L.A. for the Today show here. Tom Brokaw made an “insensitive” joke about public housing that doesn’t really seem to be that offensive. Uma Thurman was bailed out of a stuck elevator by her buff bodyguard. Marc Jacobs and Jason Preston are officially broken up, according to Jacobs. The high-octane friendship between Paris Hilton and Britney Spears is over, because the latter was told to stay away from the former if she ever wants to make a comeback. Nancy Sinatra celebrated what would have been her father’s 91st birthday at his favorite restaurant, Patsy’s. Peter Boyle’s greatest regret was not taking the role of Popeye Doyle in The French Connection. Mariah Carey is pitching a “lifestyle-type book-cum-pseudo memoir.” Let Meryl Streep eat steak!
