The opening chapter of Toby Young's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People involves the Vanity Fair writer trying to crash the uber-exclusive Oscar-after party of Graydon Carter's publication. His ticket ends up in the hands of another reporter, and Young is bumped from the guest-list.
And if you think that was brutal then, you should see what the security is going to be like this year, when VF holds its infamous post-Oscar bash at the even exclusive-r Sunset Towers.
“The party will be a much more intimate affair than in years past; we’re going to scale back the guest list considerably,” Carter says. “We’ll celebrate Hollywood’s big night the way we did when we first threw the party 15 years ago—it will be a cozier, more understated event. And one with familiar decor—given the current economy, and our dedication to the green movement, we will be recycling many of the elements of years past.
Which, on the heels of so many axed Christmas parties (even for Vanity Fair's parent company, Condé Nast) seems like the frugal thing to do, right?
Except, if the economy is so bad, why even bother having a party at all?
CONTINUED »
Vanity Fair is no stranger when it comes to cover story controversies. When Graydon Carter's "downstairs neighbors" at The New Yorker got in trouble for their satiric cover with Barack and Michelle doing some terrorist fist bumping in the Oval Office, Vanity Fair was right there with a parody of their own to lessen the tension.
Since then, the NYer cover (they did it as a goof!) has been subject of several more artist mock-ups, ostensibly to show America how silly it is to have gotten its feathers all ruffled over that one silly cover, when John McCain and Sarah Palin are out there right now essentially putting that sentiment into words.
But since there will always be new and exciting ways to mimic other magazine covers, Vanity Fair figured they had one good push left in them.
Presenting, Out of Touch Weekly:
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Toby Young, the British former assistant to the Vanity Fair editor who turned his six month gopher gig into a book and movie deal, stole passages for How to Lose Friends and Alienate People from a NYT story by John Tierney about the bitchy guys and gals at Conde Nast. Confronted with the accusation, Young is all: Yeah, so? [Intel]
Nice guys the world over are sure of one thing besides death and taxes: people love assholes. Curb Your Enthusiasm fans are also aware of this fact, or at least they should be, considering how much of an asshole Larry David is. Bukowski fans should know this too. And David Sedaris fans.
The obnoxious dickheads always win, people. So why the hell is anyone perplexed by Toby Young's success?
CONTINUED »
Two young, hip, Manhattanite mothers were casually brunching over breakfast at Balthazar one morning, when one turned to the other and said "Hey, your boss in Graydon Carter, he of the Waverly Inn and Vanity Fair, let's see if he will fund our idea of a totes exclusive high school for our spawn right here in the village!"
And it was so, because that is how magical things are in the Big Apple; one day you are just another moderately wealthy teenager from good stock, having to commute to St. Ann's everyday while your friends enjoy the fruits of their parents' labor over at Dalton or Trinity, the next you're at a feeder school to the front-pages of VF, only blocks away from your mom's condo on Christopher St.
So how will the new Greenwich Village High School (helped funded by John John Leguizamo!) differ from any of the other elite private schools NYC offers?
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As part of our regular commitment to public service announcements, may we bring to your attention Vanity Fair's pathetic attempt to celebrate the city — with something called "Campaign New York" — is underway. Kickoff was yesterday and, true to form, the magazine's advertisers, like DKNY, Barneys New York, and Lambertson Truex, all invite you to interact with their brands by browsing or buying something from them. Because loving New York means supporting its luxury economy.
Graydon Carter was so so so excited to tell you about Lance Armstrong's return to cycling, but now the part-time restaurateur's fun is all spoiled due to some unexpected cyber leakage. Like anal leakage, but harder, if not impossible, to clean up.
The magazine interviewed the sexy one-balled biker and lady celebrity dater in his home for the November issue, where Armstrong revealed he'd make a comeback next season. Hoping to get the exclusive in print and maybe drum up some of those newsstand sales, VF kept the story for the magazine — but the story got scooped anyway on Monday by a bicycle website. CONTINUED »
Graydon Carter has such a hard on right now, as Vanity Fair releases its most Vanity Fair-esque piece to date on the defrauded, jet-setting Raffaello Follieri. What makes the seven-page article so perfectly VF, with its mix of celebrity and scandal and a dash of eau de creep? CONTINUED »
Even the Waverly Inn, Graydon Carter's restaurant, is falling on hard times: They can't even afford the phone! Kidding, kidding. It's part of the Wavery's insidery charm to not have a public phone number, because it is above mere mortal dining establishments. And eateries that are technically not open needn't keep a landline. Like destitute New Yorkers.
But when people have started tightening their belt at an establishment that serves fifty-five dollar mac and cheese, it portends doom for all of New York's glitter-and-shitter-ati. CONTINUED »
Graydon Carter, who has arguably done more to destroy the creativity of New York City and turn it into a playground for the rich than any other magazine editor, is now embarking on "Campaign New York," Vanity Fair's excuse to charge American Express a huge sponsorship fee while it "celebrates" culture, art, and style. According to the website's copy, Campaign New York is "a dazzling two-week-long series of events that leverage the very best of what Vanity Fair has to offer against the dramatic backdrop of one of the world’s most exciting venues: New York City." What this actually means, however, is that from Sept. 15-26, you'll have a chance to shop with VF's advertisers. And since AmEx is picking up the tab, of course there must be exclusive offers for cardmembers, right? Yes! Like this one: "Exclusively for Cardmembers, a concierge will be at the V.F. Café @ Nespresso—the official destination for all things Campaign New York. Just show your American Express card to get the latest information on the 12-day event, as well as access to exciting additional extras, such as Vanity Fair gift bags and special offerings from V.F.'s sponsors." That's right: Just pay a $450 annual fee and your American Express card entitles you to a pamphlet and free gift with purchase.
Madonna wedding guest and "international man of mystery" Vivi Nevo has more than an awesome name. He also has the ear of Dick Parsons, Bill Gates, and Rupert Murdoch. Except nobody — you know, beside his inner circle — really knows who this guy is. On paper, he's Time Warner's largest individual shareholder, but never more than five percent, because that would trigger disclosure requirements. But aside from the general story about his Israeli-by-Romania roots and his turning a modest family sum into a media fortune, and that he's engaged to Chinese A-lister Zhang Ziyi and invested in Amy Sacco's failed restaurant Bette, we know almost nothing about him!
How could this be?
Because Nevo is as equally skilled about making the right investments at the right time as he is maintaining his public persona as a jetsetting mysterioso. CONTINUED »
With Simon Pegg as Sidney (Toby) Young and Jeff Bridges as Clayton (Graydon) Carter, How to Lose Alienate People will bring to life the author's mildly fictionalized account of working as the Vanity Fair editor's assistant in the Big Apple. Herewith, the movie's trailer, which is worth watching if only because Kirsten Dunst appears in it, and you do not immediately want to hit her.
This summer's Photoshop Media Wars has, so far, gone like this:
• In the beginning of the month, Fox News' Fox & Friends Photoshopped pictures of New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and editor Steven Reddicliffe after their late June "hit job" piece on FNC, which described how CNN and MSNBC were closing the ratings gap. Link
• Upset over the criticism aimed at FNC — you know, because there was no mention that the photos were altered — Bill O'Reilly last week called out the Times for its own Photoshopping of him back when it reviewed his book. Link
• Vanity Fair decided to get in on the fun, yesterday releasing its own gallery of Fox News personalities Photoshopped all caricature-y. Link
And now, Fox News adds the fourth chapter: Going after Graydon Carter with the "Photoshopped" photo you see here. CONTINUED »
An interesting thing is happening inside the walls of 4 Times Square, and we like to call it cannibalism. Times two.
The first act of cannibalism is taking place between Vanity Fair and Portfolio, the anemic Conde Nast business magazine that wouldn't mind putting an A-lister on its cover — say, Will Smith? — and dissecting his Hollywood profit margins. Except doing so would infringe upon VF's territory, eating up Graydon Carter's editorial base.
And the second act of cannibalism?
That would be when Graydon Carter wields his power inside Tinseltown to keep Joanne Lipman and her charges from ever locking down an A-list cover. CONTINUED »
After, presumably, watching (or hearing about) Todd Purdum's CNN appearance, where he defending against allegations his article on Bill Clinton "insinuated" anything, VF editor Graydon Carter finally got around to weighing in on the controversy: "The responses from the former president and his camp are very saddening in their own ways. Characteristic, but nevertheless shocking." [NYO]
It's just like when we learned Graydon was smoking again. Characteristic, but nevertheless shocking.
In the movie version of Toby Young's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Graydon Carter isn't the pompous blowhard he's depicted as in media reports. He's the pompous blowhard who discards bad fashion. [P6]
When not issuing belly laughs and chortles at the Waverly, Graydon Carter is turning on his charm for this new thing called web video. He's using it to plug the new issue of Miley Cyrus porn Vanity Fair, the June issue, and you can tell he's making his best effort at comedy. Giving us a tour of June's pages, Carter also reminds us of those timid NY1 anchors doing "In The Papers." Video here.
Supposedly, it's Graydon Carter's idea to make VanityFair.com more of a destination site. Err, rather: "A fun, funny, spunkier version of the magazine." Okay! So that explains why the new site "will include regular weekly postings of events and increase its coverage of A-list diners at the Waverly Inn to a few times a month on the restaurant's un-bylined blog." As if Mediabistro's list of Michael's patrons weren't grating enough.
Cindy Adams, who publishes her column by stringing together press releases and the parts of the day when she's conscious, brings us news of Tuesday night's party opening the Tribeca Film Festival, thrown by Vanity Fair, which has had blue balls ever since Graydon Carter canceled the Oscar party. No-need-for-first-names Seinfeld, Gandolfini, von Furstenberg were there, as were L. David, A. Huffington, H. Weinstein, and R. De Niro. So what, besides the guest list, did the uninvited miss? CONTINUED »
When we saw Graydon Carter bumbling down West 10th Street the other week, with his wife and a dog (child?) in tow, we thought to ourselves, "Hey! He's looking so much less bloated these days!" Turns out, our petty assumption is true: The Vanity Fair editor is losing weight — by smoking. News of which will send sales of the May eco-friendly Madonna issue skyrocketing by the fives and sixes.
Editorial Director
