Remember when book writing was a lonely craft, back when the quill pen had given way to the portable typewriter and authors lived in garrets? … Back then, authors did their own research, actually went places, met people and filled notebooks with local color.

Welcome to the real world of today–celebrity books and group journalism. Do you truly believe that presidential candidates, movie stars, realityTV-show performers and NFL quarterbacks write their own books? Surely, you jest. Take Tom Brokaw … Unlike most "celebrity authors," Brokaw is upfront and refreshingly candid in tackling this prickly question, and about the debt he owes to others ["Team Brokaw"] in writing his books.

[...] Years ago, Peter Jennings, Brokaw and Dan Rather were the iconic anchormen of our time. Today, Jennings is dead, Rather is an angry man suing the network that sacked him and Brokaw is happily retired and writing best-sellers. Why not? This is how books get written these days, and he's got the formula.

–Excerpted from James Brady's longer piece "Team Brokaw" appearing in today's Forbes.com

• Good luck getting another author booked on Oprah, Random House!

• Had we joined Cindi Leive and James Brady for lunch, we wouldn've fallen asleep in our soup.

• Redbook fattens up to attract middle-aged heavyset women.

• Surprise! Dean Baquet is job hunting 'round these parts.

• Anna Wintour maintains straight face while telling Barbara Walters the pulse of the nation can be felt in the pages of Vogue.

• WaPo brings the holiday cheer. Err, the holiday jeer.

If you've ever reached the end of a Cindy Adams or Liz Smith column, you know how dreadful a party report can be. The hue of the red carpet might be the lede, while the way Barry Diller shakes hands turns into a three paragraph anecdote of how Cindy learned to tie her laces. But a James Brady party report reads appropriately like a fly on the wall — and what else would you expect from Page Six's creator? Writing for Forbes, James files copy from Hearstette Cathie Black's holiday party. Granted, Cathie's bash at her townhouse took place before Thanksgiving and the article took until today to find its way online, but you know how the Internet works these days: things take forev to post. Those "Save" buttons are tricky.

CONTINUED »

Sir Harold Evans is a pretty important guy. You should know who he is … mostly because he's a sir, is married to Tina Brown, holds some disdain for Mort Zuckerman, and (as insinuated by our previous theory) doesn't need to go to the Dominican Republic for his tea.

Currently, Evans' job as editor-at-large for Felix Dennis is likely being threatened. (Surely James Brady couldn't have known that when he filed his online article praising this fab position.)

Before Stuff and Maxim, though, Sir Evans did spend some time at Conde Nast. As did his wife. And they just love Si Newhouse. Well, come on, he bought them a house.

Si Newhouse? "I love Si. With Si's backing and resources, you can't go wrong unless you're a bloody fool."

And when Sir Herold is not having tea in his Sutton Place apartment, he's schooling Ariel Foxman and explaining why the Cargo editor only got a one-bedroom.

Sir Harry Never Rests [James Brady, Forbes]

Gael Green, the Jessica Cutler of the 60's, mixes her passion for food, fucking, and helping the homeless in one saucy package — her latest novel Insatiable.

Yes, we all read the excerpts printed in her former place of employment, New York, and we all felt nauseous when she talked about bedding Burt Reynolds. But (and we didn't think this was possible) old lady sex just got grosser. Because Gael's old pal James Brady weighs in on the loose lipped food critic. (Yep, we went there.)

Gael "tells all" so often and so charmingly that you wonder if she's auditioning for the lead in a touring company's, "The Lady Is a Tramp."

Gael is a delicious writer with a knack for nailing a character in a few swift brush strokes. And she writes wonderfully of the sensuous passions of eating and drinking, for a nation of foodies. But must we really know everything about Gael's love life?

Um hello? She's competing against other femoirists like Stephanie Klein.

And while Gael may have Elvis and Clint Eastwood, Stephanie has her own secret weapon: a pussy full of Pam. And it's pretty tough to out-slut that.

But Can Gael Greene Be Trusted? [James Brady, Forbes]
PRIMETIME.COM [Mandy Stadtmiller, New York Post]

Update: Thank you nit-picky readers for pointing out that the Pam may have actually been used for, ahem, other purposes. However, we don't feel that would make our conclusion necessarily incorrect. And now, if you'll excuse us, we have to take our 15th shower of the day.

• In this week's installment of James Brady, Peter Bart goes to Hollywood. [Forbes]

• What would be the point of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes suing Life & Style? Come on, TomKat, they live in New Jersey, cut them some slack. [Arizona Republic]

• David Pecker points out that the magazine world is just like the life of Lindsay Lohan — so full of uppers and downers. [NYP]

• Thanks to GQ, we can learn about all the things we never wanted to know regarding Dick Cheney. [WWD]

• What's all the debate about? Budget Living didn't just die … it was more like Don Welsh decided to kill it. [Fishbowl, NY]

• Radar, Sync, and Breathe all let the IV drips run out on their online lives. [Fishbowl NY]

• He lies, cheats, steals … and kills? Abramoff is a Jack. [HuffPo]

• We've been looking forward to James Brady's insider media dish, but … we got a Bonnie Fuller re-cap instead. (Still, it is refreshing to see a media man take the high road now and then.) [Forbes]

• Bill O'Reilly's about to get some competition for conservative viewers — William Bennett is added to the roster of CNN commentators. [MSNBC]

• Teaching journalism is much more difficult than actually "doing" journalism. At least when you're trying to teach CUNY kids. [NYSun]

Keeping your resume to one page is so LY.

Today, when Forbes announced the editor of their new media column, James Brady, they just had Brady announce himself. Never forget that before Bonnie Fuller, Kurt Anderson, and Richard Johnson, there was this guy.

After going from a copyboy at the New York Daily News to a Women's Wear Daily reporter, and eventually founding the Intelligencer column at New York magazine, Brady's latest stint was on camera for CNBC.

Wow, this guy is really accomplished, right? He's done tons of reporting, interviewed celebrities, hell, he even edited Star and created and wrote Page Six. What a bomb life! Brady is obviously a natch choice for this new media column — plus, how thrilled are we that the new whole in our hearts, (left by the empty space once occupied by Jon Friedman) will now be filled.

Brady asks: Why did Steve Forbes and Forbes.com Editor Paul Maidment hire me to write weekly about media?

The answer: I'll be reporting what people in the business say, do or even suspect–writing what Maidment calls "off-the-beaten-track media stories."

A media reporter reporting on what people in the media business are saying and doing? Brilliant!

Resume Of A Life In Journalism [James Brady, Forbes]