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South Beach novelista Gwen Cooper is making her press rounds after the debut of Diary of a South Beach Party Girl on Tuesday, where it hovers around #1220 on Amazon. There's the review in People this week and, plugs in Entertainment Weekly and Cosmopolitan, and, more interesting to us, an interview with Jump On Mark's List, where very serious questions are asked.

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Apr 13, 2007 · posted by David Hauslaib, Jossip · Link · 2 Responses

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We're heading into the long weekend giddy like a school girl. How come? Because on Tuesday, the much-talked-about Diary of a South Beach Party Girl – from former Wenner Media marketing staffer Gwen Cooper – hits bookstore shelves. Sure, the final copy we sneaked a peak at didn't have the lurid tales of J. Lo and Chris Paciello that we were jonesing for, but in its place is 300-plus pages of what Vanessa Williams' show South Beach should've looked like.

Published by Simon Spotlight Entertainment (where He's Just Not That Into You got its start), Diary isn't feted at its book party till April 17th, so you'll have plenty of time to read up on Gwen Cooper Rachel Baum's storied tale from non-profit nobody to South Beach celebrity-cum-New York literary chic.

(In the interest of full disclosure, we consider Gwen a friend.)

Apr 5, 2007 · posted by David Hauslaib, Jossip · Link · 9 Responses

Since we've been covering the Steve DeLuca fallout at Rolling Stone, we thought it might be worth updating you on our other favorite Wenner Media scandal: the case of Gwen Cooper.

You remember Gwen from September, when rumor of the Wenner marketing staffer's South Beach fictionalized tell-all Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves: The Memoirs of a South Beach Party Girl began surfacing in publishing and media circles and set Rolling Stone's flacks-a-flaming.

Turns out – predictably – that when Cooper finally inked the paperwork for her manuscript, Wenner thought it'd be best to severe their relationship. It was Jan. 24 when the paperwork with Simon & Schuster imprint Simon Spotlight was signed (we're told Patrick Price, editor of last year's He's Just Not That Into You, will be heading the project) and, three days later on Jan. 27, Cooper was let go by Wenner CMO Gary Amstrong.

We asked Gwen how she felt about it. Like a true media-savvy pro, she issued this friendly response:

My three years at Wenner Media were a blast, but it's always been my dream to write a book. I'm just thrilled and amazed at how quickly everything has happened.

We thought about asking Wenner Media for an official comment, but we really don't want to distract them from all their DeLuca dealings. And either way, we're just pleased someone was let go from a publishing firm outside Ann Moore's way of doing things at Time Inc. Now can someone please update us on Jodi Peckman's status?

Related: All Gwen Cooper coverage

Feb 22, 2006 · posted by David Hauslaib, Jossip · Link · Respond

UPN's South Beach

Back in September, we were all a twitter over Wenner Media staffer Gwen Cooper, who was flipping her stint in the South Beach social circuit into the fictionalized roman a clef Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves: The Memoirs of a South Beach Party Girl that would – besides tell the tale of a girl suddenly thrust into the party scene – name drop the likes of Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Chris Ciccone, and Diddy and all their diamond-and-coke fueled fetes.

So who better to weigh in on UPN's very-late-to-The-O.C.-game South Beach, which premiered last night, than Ms. Cooper herself?

Disclaimer: I’m a Miami Beach native (rare in a town where people occasionally die, but nobody seems to be born), and will admit to being somewhat possessive of my hometown and how it’s depicted in shows like UPN’s new offering, South Beach. Sure, we’ll beat you over the head with our sex-drugs-club triad, but we do it self-consciously — for fun. The faint whiff of citywide corruption and graft is something we like to dab lightly behind our ears like a fine perfume, not wallow in like a bathtub of Paco Rabanne.

But stereotypes are the lazy scriptwriter’s stock and trade, so let’s see if South Beach has our full allotment of South Beach clichés: Hyper-buff no-necks in shiny suits, cruising the nightclub scene? Check. Gratuitous poolside boobie shots? Check. Hooker – er, "model" – with a heart of gold? Check. Slow-motion gunfights? Well, maybe I shouldn’t write that one off — I mean, I was involved in, like, five gunfights before I’d even finished the third grade. And every single one of them happened in slow motion. Yeah. Anyway.

After the jump, Gwen illustrates how producers can simply adopt the plotline of, say, North Shore, The O.C., One Tree Hill, Laguna Beach, 90210, or The Mountain and simply find a new locale for a brand new series — even if they can't figure out that the sun (still, and forever) rises in the east and sets in the west.

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Jan 12, 2006 · posted by David Hauslaib, Jossip · Link · Respond

South Beach

We don't really want to go all Hudson Morgan and furnish a stink when someone's claim against us goes awry, but we can't let last week's Gawker snub go unmentioned.

As we told leaked to you last week, Wenner Media's Gwen Cooper's South Beach tell-all is already keeping her agent at The Firm a very busy man — with publishers and film studios fox trotting to have a hand in it.

Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves isn't just going to explicate on the Katrina-donating Naomi Campbell or ratings disaster guarantor Diddy, but it's irking her bosses at Wenner since, well, they have relationships with a good portion of the talent name dropped in Cooper's SoBe tome.

But our cousins in criticism at Gawker didn't think it was such a big deal, or that Jann Wenner could be distracted from ensuring your pens are organized by color in staffers' drawers.

So why does this matter? Why are “tabloids hovering?” We’re guessing they aren’t, actually, since Cooper reportedly hasn’t sold the damn thing and has thus resorted to hyping it as some scandal around the blogosphere.

Funny, then, that Page Six ran the item yesterday, the New York Daily News has been making phone calls to all parties involved and the Miami Herald took an interest on Saturday.

Not that we noticed, or anything. Anyhow, it's Fashion Week — let's leave the catfights out the the blogosphere for a week if we can catch them on the runway instead.

Sep 12, 2005 · posted by David Hauslaib, Jossip · Link · Respond

South Beach

It's only been a few hours and already Wenner Media's shitstorm is, well, a shitstorm. Full on diarrhea here, folks.

The upcoming Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves: The Memoirs of a South Beach Party Girl is causing many a headache at 1290 Sixth. Even though Jann Wenner's reps won't say much officially, they're well aware many a tabloid are already hovering over the SoBe tell-all from Gwen Cooper (yes, we can reveal her name now), who actually doesn't answer to Janice Min or anyone in editorial.

Thus far the only comment we could wrangle out of Wenner's camp is as follows:

The author of this book is a Wenner staffer who is in a non-editorial position. She is a fourth generation Miami native and her decision to write this book is separate and distinct from Wenner media.

Completely separate? Lovely. We're sure that'll turn media hounds exactly zero degrees away from the connection.

Meanwhile, we hear Jann himself offered to match contributions made to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort at tonight's Us event in L.A.

Sep 8, 2005 · posted by David Hauslaib, Jossip · Link · Respond

Jann Wenner

What's that we hear? More scandal coming out of Wenner Media's walls?

The house that Rolling Stone built might be tidying itself up and begging staffers for Hurricane Katrina donations, but that's going to do little to dam the coming waterfall of borderline slander oozing from 1290 Sixth.

We're told a Wenner staffer just put the finishing touches on a South Beach tell-all, with notorious negotiators The Firm already repping the scribe and shopping it around to publishers (and film studios).

The "fictional" roman a clef Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves: The Memoirs of a South Beach Party Girl is going to name drop SoBe's boldface names, from Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and Todd Oldham to Chris Ciccone, Niki Taylor, Patricia Field and Diddy — with the drug-fused, sex-laden tales to match.

We've got nightclub impresario Chris Paciello caught in a compromising poolside position with Jennifer Lopez at the Delano along with Candace Bushnell parading naked with a local party boy.

Anna Wintour's reaction to The Devil Wears Prada should pale in comparison to the seething that's sure to infiltrate the SoBe set.

Oh, plus there's the coming-of-age tale of the Wenner writing narrator, from her befriending of an heiress to her eventual New York (and Jann Wenner office) arrival. And with the fat book deal (we're hearing a six-figure sum is on the horizon), this Wenner staffer might wave goodbye to her desk — and leave it a mess just to spite Jann.

(In the interest of maintaining a smidge of journalistic integrity, we placed a call to Jann Wenner's office. Thus far, "No comment." For now.)

Sep 8, 2005 · posted by David Hauslaib, Jossip · Link · Respond