Bloomberg: Crane Collapse ‘Intolerable’The mayor gives developers and union leaders a piece of his mind at a press conference on this morning’s crane collapse, students and colleagues of a popular Wall Street figure are flabbergasted by the SEC charges filed against him, and CNN’s Jessica Yellin gets into a war of words about the war.
Breaking: Bonnie Fuller Steps Down at AMIThat’s right: American Media Inc. executive vice-president and chief editorial director Bonnie Fuller will resign from both of her positions as of Wednesday. But she’s not giving up ‘Star,’ Goddamn it!
multiple choice
Pop Quiz: Know Your Media LadiesYesterday and today, the Times profiled three women in media: Julia Allison, Arianna Huffington, and Lauren Zalaznick. Despite differences in their ages and careers, the three of them seem of a type.
company town
Joe Dolce, Former ‘Star’ Editor, Gets a Taste of ‘Culture’MEDIA
• Former Star editor-in-chief Joe Dolce resurfaces, bringing Culture & Travel magazine back into the spotlight. [WWD]
• Former Seventeen editrix Atoosa Rubenstein resurfaces, bringing Alpha Kitty back into the spotlight. [HuffPo]
• And for those wondering how to keep tabs on colleagues who are masthead hopping, check out e-newsletter Gorkana, brought to your in-box by friendly PR people. [NYT]
in other news
Nation, Gird Your Loins! The Lopez-Anthony Twins Cometh!Jennifer Lopez has checked into her private room at Long Island’s North Shore University Hospital, presumably so that she can give birth to the babies that have been making her look majorly fat lately. This very important news comes to us courtesy of “Page Six,” and since the Post went to press last night, this could mean that babies are bursting out of J.Lo’s vagina right this very second. Not that we would know if they were, because the hospital is on lockdown. According to the esteemed New Zealand Herald, Lopez has “banned staff from entering the room where she is due to give birth.” This is likely due to the fact that People magazine has reportedly offered $6.5 million for pictures of the twins, the most money a baby has fetched since the magazine paid $4 million for pics of Shiloh Jolie-Pitt in 2004. However, since there are two Lopez babies, it’s really only $3.25 million per twin, and that’s is kind of a slap in the face if you think about it. In any case,* the black-market number for purloined photos is said to be significantly higher. We hear Star is offering an undisclosed but gargantuan sum to anyone who can bring them a photo of the twins with the umbilical cord still attached, and Nick Denton, of Gawker, will pay $7 per second of streaming video to anyone who has the gumption to film the actual birth scene, complete with a sweaty, screaming J.Lo and a pallid and revolted Marc Anthony. Placenta, of course, will be auctioned on eBay starting at midnight the day of the birth.
J.Lo Checks In [NYP]
*From here to the end everything we say is lies
in other news
Print Organizations Band Together, But Who Will Remain on the Island?MEDIA
• Print organizations make like Survivor: The New York Times, Hearst, Tribune, and Gannet form an alliance to back a new online company called quadrantONE. [USAT]
• Star magazine makes no apologies for paying sources for scoops. In fact, “right underneath [Candace] Trunzo’s editor’s note in the current issue is an unbridled pitch with dollar signs around the edges.” [NYP]
• Bad blood is brewing between Barron’s and CNBC after the publication ran a critical story about Mad Money’s Jim Cramer. [CJR]
in other news
If the Spearses Insist on Ruining Their Careers, Who Will Be Left for Bonnie Fuller to Kick Around?Like a junkyard pit bull, Bonnie Fuller has got her teeth in the 16-year-old flesh of pregnant Jamie Lynn Spears, and she is not letting go. Today brings Bonnie’s second Huffington Post column on the subject of Spears the Younger’s pregnancy. Yesterday, Bonnie was pissed off that Lynn Spears was paying too much attention to her daughter’s career to notice Jamie Lynn’s pregnancy. “Were you too tied up lining up meetings with record company executives, TV networks, publicists and tour managers to check on whether you were instilling personal values and self-esteem in your daughters?” she asked. Today, after a poll of Star readers showed that 93% of them believed Jamie Lynn should be fired, she’s pissed that Lynn didn’t pay enough attention to her daughter’s career. “If I’m Lynn Spears,” she wrote, “I would have been very concerned about the possibility that she was pregnant on every level — how it would affect her personally and how a pregnancy could also be a career killer.”
intel
Hello, Kettle? This Is Bonnie. You’re Black.We’re a little confused by Bonnie Fuller’s Huffington Post tirade about Lynne Spears. Just a month ago, Fuller wrote a column on the Website thanking celebrity moms for making real moms feel better about themselves. “Every time that our girl [Britney Spears] cluelessly tries to whitestrip her toddler’s teeth instead of brushing them or runs a red light with the court-appointed monitor and her two sons all strapped in her car,” the tabloid queen wrote then, “working moms across the continent can set back our own personal guilt-meters about our mothering skills.” Aw. Perhaps that’s a little demented, but we can appreciate the sentiment. But today she no longer loves celebrity mothers. She hates them. Specifically, Britney’s mom, Lynne, whom she accuses of not properly teaching her daughters about the birds and the bees, and inadvertently causing her young daughter’s pregnancy. “Were you too busy pushing their careers to ever have this heart-to-heart with them?” the Star editorial director demands. “Were you too tied up lining up meetings with record company executives, TV networks, publicists and tour managers to check on whether you were instilling personal values and self-esteem in your daughters?”
office-party patrol
Getting ‘Lucky’ at Pop BurgerThe week of office holiday parties continues on, and we are fully into magazine territory. Last night saw fêtes for Allure at Socialista, Portfolio at Runway, and both Lucky and (maybe) Star at Pop Burger Midtown. We stopped by the last two, so you didn’t have to. Though, really, shouldn’t you be investing in your co-workers this holiday season? A little face time at the company bash might just make those quietly awkward office urinal moments a little more cheery for the rest of next year!
Lucky Magazine. We weren’t sure what to expect when we went to midtown to crash the Lucky holiday party. For one, it was on the second floor at Pop Burger (yeah, that’s right, it’s a three-story club) and we weren’t sure we’d get in. And for another, we weren’t sure that sending a six-foot-three man to blend in with a bunch of tiny fashionistas was the best plan.
company town
Kanye West and His ‘Bazaar’ Angel MuralMEDIA
• Kanye West says Harper’s Bazaar “pissed me off” when they reported the rap star’s L.A. home features a giant mural of himself with angels. “That made me so mad. Because who would want to hang out with a guy with an 8-foot picture of an angel of himself?” Too bad Harper’s got almost every detail right, and Kanye is indeed featured in the painting. [WWD]
• CBS News writers voted to authorize their own strike. Watch out, Katie Couric! [NYT]
• Did Star really pull on an online poll because Ron Burkle, the billionaire investor the mag flattered with a recent photo spread, wasn’t doing well enough? Star claims they’re just planning to publish the results in the next issue — plenty of time to stuff the ballot box. [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
gossipmonger
This Movie Is Innnsaaane!Danny DeVito is trying to make a movie about Crazy Eddie. One of Lindsay Lohan’s MySpace friends sold online correspondence between Lohan and Samantha Ronson to Star magazine. Philip Roth complained about showing up in “Page Six.” Jane staffers stole a lot of stuff from the fashion closet after learning the mag was folding. Former Jets QB Boomer Esiason may replace Don Imus as WFAN’s early-morning D.J. Gore Vidal is annoyed that Los Angeles Department of Water and Power tore out his solar-power system. Congressman Charlie Rangel is offering $1,000 to anyone who can prove he went on a “date.” Today show contributor Amy Jacobson was fired from her Chicago post after being caught on tape in a bikini at the house of a woman whose disappearance she was covering. Gisele and Tom Brady PDA’d at Palma on Cornelia Street. 50 Cent canoodled with Ciara.
gossipmonger
Judi, Judi, JudiAmong the skits to be put on by the city’s political journos at the upcoming Inner Circle roast is one featuring Judi Giuliani as a blow-up sex doll. Us Weekly, Star, and other weekly tabloids are upping their negative coverage of Brangelina because they are sick of getting scooped by People. A handful of people are angling for a portion of deceased Dr. Robert Atkins’s $600 million estate. Mike Bloomberg’s 98-year-old mother sometimes pretends she’s not related to him so people don’t ask her to hook their grandkids up with jobs. NBC’s Today show is losing serious ground to ABC’s Good Morning America and even CBS’s Early Show in the ratings game. Charlie Rose and Amanda Burden may not be broken up, despite reports they are. Jay-Z has plans to ink a deal with Champagne label Ace of Spades to replace Cristal as his drink of choice.
gossipmonger
Kaplan to the Rescue!Former CNN and MSNBC honcho Rick Kaplan is coming to save Katie Couric’s CBS Evening News. Bono disagrees with an Ad Age’s cover story saying that his RED campaign has been a financial failure. Brandon Davis mocked Paula Abdul for having an Arabic-sounding last name. His real surname? Zarif. Two staffers quit Star’s beauty department. Leslie Stahl’s contract at 60 Minutes is almost up, and it’s unclear whether she’s staying. Stephen Colbert’s new Ben & Jerry’s flavor is called “AmeriCone.” (And we told you all about it on Tuesday.) Buddha Bar fired its CEO. Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown hung out at their kid’s birthday dinner.
company town
Breaking: Banks, Bankers Make a Lot of MoneyToday’s big news in the city’s big businesses.
FINANCE
• J.P. Morgan had a very good fourth quarter, but is $4.53 billion enough to top Citigroup? Answer on Friday. [DealBreaker]
• Projected versus actual 2006 Wall Street bonuses. Either way, they were big. [BankersBall]
• Taking a cue from its bonus-giddy brokers, Bear Stearns looks to invest in some Manhattan real estate. [NYO via DealBook/NYT]
office-party patrol
Eating — and Eating! — With the ‘Daily News’; Drinking and Dancing With ‘Star’With less than a week left till Christmas, company-holiday-party season is nearing its end. But for a last few fabulous nights, it keeps going strong — and naturally crasher extraordinaire Julia Allison is there. Last night she hit the Daily News do at the Copa and the Star shindig at Dirty Disco. Which one had a face-painter? Which one had only caffeinated vodka? Julia’s reports await.