This just in! In Touch's incontrovertible text message-related evidence attesting to Britney's pregnancy might, in fact, be totally made-up!
"A source close to Britney Spears' former producer (and ex) J.R. Rotem tells Usmagazine.com the text messages In Touch Weekly claims to have received are 'faked.'"
Even worse? Now JR has released a statement saying "There is absolutely no truth to this." Anyone else smell a libel suit? [Us]
Breaking: The confirmation of Britney's latest pregnancy rests entirely on a hastily written Blackberry text exchange between In Touch magazine and star-fucker turned rumored baby-daddy, JR Rotem. We imagine this is exactly how shit went down during the Valerie Plame leak. [Mollygood]
Is it really already Wednesday? It seems like only yesterday that last week's celebrity tabloids came and went, albeit without being summarized in light of it's being the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and Intern Whitney's being home for the holidays…Anyhow, the biggest bombshell this time around involves Britney Spears and the (alleged!) pitter-patter of little feet, but we're hoping it's simply a case of Spears consuming too much turkey over the holiday.
GOSSIP IS EXPENSIVE Since Bauer increased by $1 the cover price of In Touch and Life & Style to $2.99 two weeks ago, newsstand sales have slipped by 25 and 10 percent, respectively. But two weeks is a short time to judge, some might argue. And so is the season: Autumn is bad for tabloids. And also: "According to an industry rule of thumb, a title can expect a percentage decline in newsstand sales equal to half the cover price’s percentage increase, however." Errrrrgh, math hurts. [MW]
Is In Touch magazine "unethical and paying off poor folks for bad Brangelina stories?" wonders a tipster. Perhaps!
And while that question-slash-accusation could, conceivably, be applied to any number of stories In Touch (or Us Weekly! Or Star!) has published over the past two or three years, it appears to be directed at this week's cover story, which claims that Angie and Brad are on the verge of losing custody of baby Zahara.
Not so! disagrees Reuters (a.k.a. a legitimate news source) who counters by pointing out that the adoption agency has confirmed the legality of Jolie's adoption and rejected "reports that the child’s relatives want her back."
Brangelina has an impressive almost-monopoly on the tabs this week, appearing on the covers of four out of five celebrity weeklies! We'd say congratulations, only it seems the reason for the couple's resurgence is that they're in jeopardy of losing adopted bird-flipping daughter, Zahara. In other news, the writers' strike continues, which makes us all the more grateful that we have all that unscripted reality television (like that totally spontaneous confrontation between Heidi and LC on this week's episode of The Hills!) to keep us adequately entertained all winter long.
Meanwhile, Intern Whitney discovers it was another busy week for Britney Spears. The inspirational pop tart enabled her kids to contract pink eye from one of her neglected quadrupeds, failed a recent court-ordered drug test and has talked about uprooting the entire fam (including the kids, the nannies and the conjunctivitis carrying pets) right here to NYC.
This week's tabs feature everyone's favorite couple, Brangelina. Angie is cheating on Brad! And by "cheating," we mean "making out with her co-star, on camera, as it calls for in the script." Hussy. Meanwhile, it turns out Rita Cosby's hastily penned Anna Nicole Smith tell-all did a whole lot more than simply piss off Howard K. Stern and his elite legal team. It also started an annoying new craze of unauthorized celebrity exposès ! Coming soon, to a Barnes and Noble near you: Tom Cruise's unauthorized biography! Lynne Spears' patented guide to parenting! We see those future New York Times' bestsellers flying off the shelves faster than you can say "Discount rack."
And then, of course, there's Intern Whitney's very favorite part: the obligatory Britney update. Friends now suspect she has severe mental problems. Their evidence? She spends almost $5,000 a month on food (that's a lot of cheeseburgers) and another $16,000 on her wardrobe. Which strikes as more as sad than anything else.
Today's Halloween edition of Talk of the Tabs in an exercise in brevity. This week, we're telling you everything on a strictly need-to-know basis (never mind the inherent contradiction that all of this is, in fact extraneous). First up: the covers!
Us: Lauren Conrad's new dating rules! Which, shockingly, don't include not dating people exclusively for the ratings. In Touch: A wedding to keep Brad. But can Angie muster up the strength? Based on her current state of malnutrition, the jury is still out. Life & Style: Britney could be pregnant again! She's not, of course. But she could be! The mere thought of it gives us goosebumps. Star: TomKat is being torn apart! Can't you tell? The sinister blue tinge on Star's cover totally gives it away! And lastly, OK!: Tom and Katie making it work. No blue cover here, folks. This time the Scientologist lovebirds are all smiles and warm earth tones, which means it's for reals!
Can't wait to hear the rest? Reexamine your priorities, why don't you! And when you're finished with that, let Intern Whitney give you the complete condensed rundown, after the jump.
In Touch's Martin Gould, the west coast news director and someone who might be referred to as a "superstar reporter" by peers, is taking off for the greener pastures of … Star.
We had to re-read the email he sent to colleagues to believe it, but it does make sense: Star has been raiding the mastheads of other celeb weeklies in recent weeks, especially In Touch. That, and Gould's career is filled with breaking some pretty big stories in this biz, like Pamela Anderson's Hepatitis C status, which her publicist repeatedly denied only to later acknowledge in a "proper" media outlet.
Gould will become senior executive editor at Star when he starts there – or picks up where he left off in 2002 – next week.
"I wanted you all to hear it from me," Gould writes in his email, "because I am sure you will soon hear from someone else." So true! CONTINUED »
Another week, another slew of already-reported Britney news: This time Us Weekly surrenders and creates a whole entire section devoted solely to the walking disaster. Other tabs resort to the tried-and-true diet stories, featuring people on the covers that don't really need to be dieting in the first place. Because there's nothing potential readers enjoy more than listening to thinspirational celebs whine about their nonexistent backfat.
So join Intern Whitney as she takes you the through a slightly mean-spirited edition of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and comes to grips with The Hills' Heidi and Spencer acting like famewhores (again) Angelina and Brad almost—but not quite!—breaking up (again) and the real reason Ellen's crying about that dog she never wanted. Again.
Is Richard Spencer's double duty at In Touch and Life & Style costing the two Bauer tabloids their singular identities? Critics are quick to say "absolutely." Naturally!
Not only are both magazines running very similar content and storylines, but there are also instances of the weeklies having their cake and inhaling it too, by supporting a celeb in one rag and trashing him in the other.
"They're definitely trying to have it both ways," says one veteran staffer at a competing tabloid. And when they run "what's basically the same story in both magazines, they look cheap."
Well, they are only $1.99. CONTINUED »
After months of living in certain doom, American Heritage is to be resurrected! The long-running mag (geared towards intellectuals and history buffs) is already looking to resume publication by working on its December/January issue.
When reached for comment, AH's closest competitors In Touch and Life & Style Weekly replied, "Curses! We thought we had that market cornered."
Nobody was more surprised last week to see OK!'s exclusive Lindsay Lohan post-rehab interview than the editors at In Touch, who thought they had scored their own exclusive when their reporter (and Lindsay BFF) Kate Major filed a lengthy (by celeb gossip terms) Q&A with the struggling starlet.
And then the sky began falling.
Reports began swirling around Bauer's offices that Lindsay's publicist, Leslie Sloane Zelnik, had been denying OK!'s interview ever took place. But in a threeway – conference call! – with Leslie and OK! editor-in-chief Sarah Ivens, Leslie denied to us that she said anything of the sort. And why would she? She claims to have had no involvement in Lindsay's interview with In Touch, and didn't even know about the OK! piece until it hit newsstands. Leslie, after all, only handles Lindsay's movie PR.
Sarah, meanwhile, insisted the OK! interview is legit. And although it carries the byline of Laura Schreffler (Ben Widdicombe's former lass), Ivens says Schreffler didn't conduct the interview. But she wouldn't say who did, as a matter of policy.
But we're still a bit confounded. CONTINUED »
This is Jossip publisher David Hauslaib getting bleary-eyed with Post media scribe Keith Kelly. (Yes, that is one thumb way up.)
Keith had just returned from the bar with a Ketel One and soda for David, and a proper beer for himself. You see, when Keith arrived at In Touch's fifth anniversary party, he had been handed some sort of raspberry-and-pommegranite beer concoction. He did not like it. We're sure of that.
What we're unsure of it whether he enjoyed Kanye West's performance, because we were too busy noting how many feet apart a Post columnist and a New York Daily News columnist (in this case, Ben Widdicombe) should keep between them.
Eyeballing it, we guessed at least six or seven. CONTINUED »
This just in: JLo reportedly contemplating a cameo appearance at tonight's In Touch shindig! We hear the hardworking interns over at BCBG were scrambling to make Ms. Lopez a dress for tonight in honor of the maybe-occasion. Presumably another giant flowy monstrosity or else just something that's really stretchy. Especially in the uteral region.
Tomorrow night In Touch is throwing a bash at Tenjune, which is being billed as their fifth anniversary party, but, let's be honest here: It's more a celebration of EIC Richard Spencer taking over Bauer's sister tabloid. Or at least that's how we'll be treating it. The Bloc Group wrangled a performance out of Kanye West, while industry friends Paul Sevigny and DJ Cassidy take care of the decks.
We're a wee bit curious, meanwhile as to what their guest list is looking like, given tabloids' mixed results at securing celebs. Us Weekly, for all its newsstand clout, has trouble stocking a suite with talent but snags some decent guests at its Hot Hollywood event. For what it's worth, we've been promised "a bunch A-list stars."
Meanwhile, the Bauer weekly is facing off against Conde Nast Traveler's own anniversary party; they're celebrating 20 years in the biz, with LL Cool J and Debra Messing confirming for the Cooper-Hewitt Museum event.
For obvious reasons – say, the magazines' different, um, appeals – we imagine RSVP conflicts will be kept to a minimum.
This week's Talk of the Tabs is considerably shorter than usual, because the latest copies of In Touch and Life & Style are apparently nowhere to be found in New York City. Intern Whitney spent an hour racing through the streets of Manhattan (okay, maybe just the four or five blocks surrounding the Jossip offices) only to come up empty-handed. Why the mysterious absence of two of our favorite Jersey tabs? It remains a mystery, but according to multiple street and subway vendors (or at least the ones who understood what she was talking about), "It come out tomorrow."
So on to the mags that did show up on time: All three are covering more of the Britney saga, but each have different covers (way to go, guys!). Us Weekly decides to bring back news from April, featuring a spread on Heidi Montag's new nose and boob job. OK! covers more old ground with an in-depth look at Tom Brady's out-of-wedlock offspring. And Star goes out on a limb with the never before reported claim that Tom Cruise is crazy. What a week! If only we knew what "breaking news" the other tabs would have brought us…
What a week! First we found out the Life & Style was folding joining forces with Bauer sis In Touch, then we found out Britney was a certified alchy (who knew??) and then we learned that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie need a "bigger bed." And because of all the excitement, this week's celebrity weeklies all feature different cover stories.
OK! gets the most creative with a feature on how irrelevant actress Jennifer Aniston has gotten her life back on track, while Star provides the most entertainment by tantalizing us with the unsubstantiated claim that Joel Madden is cheating on on Nicole Richie. (At least, according to Nicole, who "considers any interaction between [the two] cheating." You know, because she's crazy.)
So grab a tub of popcorn (not too much, mind you) and allow the indefatiguable Intern Whitney to guide you through the wonderful world of celebrity gossip.
Nobody at Bauer has any idea where those rumors about Life & Style shutting down entirely came from. But the Bauer dust has settled, leaving In Touch EIC Richard Spencer in charge of both celeb weeklies.
There's no plan to fire anyone at L&S, says a source there. That doesn't mean the climate won't change by next week, of course, but we're told both magazines will maintain separate news reporting staffs. Spencer has met with senior level L&S staffers already and, from what we understand, everyone is well-liked. At least enough to keep the friendly game of smiles going on in Englewood Cliffs. Staffers at L&S tell us they're "thrilled" and "so happy" to have new leadership.
Not making that list of well-liked, of course, is Mark Pasetsky, the now-former L&S chief who took the reigns in November to, um, our chagrin and delight. He was a "nightmare manager," says one knowledgeable source, "demanding to get stories that didn't exist." Well, yeah.
Who cares about the trials and tribulations of Fashion Week when everyone's least-favorite celebrity weeklies are back to skewer everyone's favorite oversaturated celebrities? This time, the primary focus is once more on Brad and Angelina, with not one but two magazines taking a minor lover's quarrel grossly out of context and predicting it to mean that their just-for-publicity relationship is already over.
Meanwhile, in addition to ruining the VMA's opening act (and her chances for a successful comeback) the inconsiderate and hopelessly out-of-shape Britney Spears also had the lack of consideration to schedule her drunken clumsily lip-synced performance for the day before the magazines closed. This, in turn, left each of them scrambling to put together their last-minute "Britney Totally Blew It Y'all" stories, and reliant on such uninteresting angles as "Exclusive: Britney Fired Her Hair Stylist Right Before The Show."
So allow us to put you in the capable hands of the lovely and talented Intern Whitney, who's fresh off the plane from Abilene, Texas and thus hardly even seems to mind that her first official intern duty involves reading and summarizing the annals of celebrity smut.
