Hockey player Sean Avery, who made a name for himself by personally pleading with Anna Wintour for a Vogue internship, and then taking his shirt of in Men's Vogue to write about it, looks like he might be trading teams. Yes, he'll still be inventing rules for the New York Rangers, but what's this about his schmoozing up to Marie Claire? CONTINUED »
Follow us on this one, would ya?
Joanna Coles edits a magazine called Marie Claire.
Coles put a one Tina Fey, star of NBC's 30 Rock, on the cover of her May issue.
Fey starred in the movie Baby Mama, which is what the May cover was promoting.
Scenes from Baby Mama were filmed outside the building at 210 Riverside Drive, at 93rd Street.
Coles lives at 210 Riverside Drive. (Before you get huffy about us violating her privacy, her home address is already available to anyone, thanks to election donation records.)
An $649,000 apartment listing from Halstead for a 1 bedroom/1 bathroom co-op at 210 Riverside Drive (Apartment #5D) happens to mention that the building "served as the backdrop for You've Got Mail, Baby Mama, and other recent films."
The realtor attached to the listing, Halstead's Victoria Matus, is also said to be Coles own real estate broker. (Hearst spokeswoman Jessica Pollack says "Joanna has no relationship and has never used Victoria Matus as her broker.")
A coincidental confluence of events? Or a carefully executed marketing ploy where everybody benefits? CONTINUED »
What could be more nauseating than having to trek through an entire column written by Liz Smith? Watching her play videographer. At Michael's. Bothering celebrities. [WOWOWOW]
Breaking news, from the Hearstlink wires! Suzanne Sykes has just been named the new creative director of Marie Claire! This earth-shattering development was revealed earlier today in a stunning mid-day announcement by editor-in-chief Joanna Coles.
But what, you might ask, are Sykes' qualifications?
Answer: She was previously the art director of Grazia, which you've never heard of because it's from the U.K., and prior to that, she was the art director at M magazine, which you've also never heard of because it sucks for the very same reason.
Nevertheless, Coles seems thrilled to have her on board, describing herself as "elated to have lured [Sykes] to the States to work on Marie Claire." Sadly, Coles does not explain exactly how Sykes was persuaded to emigrate here, although we presume it has something to do with Joanna's feminine wiles.
Or possibly an incentive plan that does not, in any way, revolve around company stock.
The full intra-office (inter-office?) memo, after the jump!
Things are no longer stagnant over at Marie Claire.
Apparently, some of EIC Joanna Coles' top staffers are jumping ship, and leaving Marie Claire for greener pastures. Coles is reportedly losing her beauty director to Shape magazine, and her senior editor to, ahem, Tango magazine.
(Related: Two other Marie Claire employees—who wished to remain anonymous—are allegedly in the process of negotiating multi-year contracts with Lambada magazine and Dry Hump Monthly)
Aw, look on the bright side, Joanna. We're sure this has nothing to do with the magazine's faltering sales, and absolutely everything to do with Cleo Gyde's Technicolor Dreamskirt.
With everyone atwitter over the sordid ranking of Marie Claire editor Joanna Coles at Fashion Week – second row, behind Brandon Holley – we did some poking around to see why designers were placing a magazine's top editor in the nosebleeds. And then we came across the above photos.
Who's that? She's Cleo Glyde, Marie Claire's new "style director," as of Jan. 22, coming this way from Vogue Australia.
The photo on the left was shot on April 30, 2003. The photo on the right was shot on June 1, 2005.
Moral of the story? Any magazine that puts a woman who wears the same horrid cocktail napkin multiple times in public over the course of several years in its employ should be pleased as Kool-Aid to even have a seat at Fashion Week.
Update: A Hearst mouthpiece writes in to insist "Joanna Coles sat in the front row for every show she attended," including Vera Wang. Maybe she was just leaning back in her front row chair when she was spotted in the second row.
From our inbox of despair, arriving late yesterday:
joanna coles having a glenn close tv pilot shot in her apartment tomorrow.
TV pilot? Would that be the Glenn Close TV Project we've heard so much nothing about? Where Maire Claire EIC Coles uses her uncanny resemblance to Close to score a cameo?
Behind-the-scenes at fashion magazines is, like, so current! Remember that Devil Wears Prada book, and then the movie, and then Ugly Betty, and then Vogue's Anna Wintour agreeing to an A&E documentary? Totally awesome and nouveau, no? Even Joanna Coles' Marie Claire is getting in on this, capitalizing on the barely-there attention span of its dwindling readership "to produce a series of minidocumentaries on life at the magazine, available as video podcasts beginning Tuesday at marieclaire.com." (Which means footage of Joanna will be available before Cathie Black removes her. Groovy!) Video podcasts are all the rage, especially with Vogue and W joining the technology panty parade.
Future episodes will introduce staffers as they go about their work, including, Ms. Coles noted, a scene in which the manager of the fashion closet throws a stiletto. She said it is not as scary as it sounds.
OMG awesomeness! It's like Star's reality show One Park Avenue that never got made, mixed in with Star's blogazine that was an utter disaster. Except with video. Which is, like, a guaranteed way to get readers interested in an assistant beauty editor who wears sneakers to work and slips on the Louboutins in the elevator ride up to the office. Rad!
When we ran this item seeking to explain why Marie Claire editor Joanna Coles was suffering so much bad press, we received a prompt note from Hearst's PR department insisting we remove the item, since it was wildly inaccurate. Naturally, we declined. And asked to be invited to Hearst's next soiree.
Now Nat Ives pops in at AdAge today with a report on how Marie Claire's brass are handling all the bad press. What bad press?, you ask. The bad press where Joanna is consistently doubted as a leader of the magazine, targeted for trying to publish a "smart" women's title, and overall unimpressiveness. While we're perfectly willing to accept some of the blame, Radar gets dumped on as being the source of an article that's being passed around to MC advertisers as a warning against buying ad pages from a woman who knows not what she's doing.
But, claims MC publisher Susan Plagemann, the "poison pen letter" has had the reverse effect!
"This undermining mailing has had such a positive effect on my business, and has had the complete reverse effect that the person or persons behind it wanted it to," Ms. Plagemann added. "It motivated people to call me in droves in full support."
Glad the troops could offer an ego massage but ad pages this period versus last year are, uh, down. Get back to work, Susan.
We love us some Joanna Coles. Really, truly do. Smart lady, outgoing, dare we say genuine? But it's no secret the Marie Claire editor is underwhelming Cathie Black & Co. at Hearst, what with her circulation disappointments month after month. Some are blaming the way Joanna revamped the magazine to smarten it up and get rid of the frilly beauty and slave-to-fashion items that were MC's bread and butter under Lesley Jane Seymour.
But us? We're going to place nearly all the blame on MC's lagging on the fact that each of Coles' covers include the creepiest eyes ever to peer out at us from the newsstand. It's not that they're making us see dead people; it's that we're used to seeing Maggie, Sarah, Ashley, and Jennifer as women who wouldn't stick a serrated knife in our spinal column.
• Jessica Biel is Derek Jeter's new beard.
• The Devil Wears Prada TV producers shadowing Marie Claire editor Joanna Coles might need to find a new personality to follow.
• Michael Jackson indeed showed at the World Music Awards, but he didn't fail not to disappoint. Meanwhile, his rider demands put sister Janet's to shame.
• People magazine names George Clooney the sexiest man alive. Isaiah Washington has one more reason to laugh at Patrick Dempsey.
• Rachael Ray faces her first sex scandal, adds EVOO.
• Sacha Baron Cohen sits for an interview that doesn't involve the words "sexy time" or "vagine."
• Joanna Coles is disappointing her peers at Marie Claire. And while the numbers speak for themselves, we're hearing there's some very hardcore agenda setting going on. [WWD]
• FCC reminds you that "fuck" and "shit" are still naughty words. [B&C]
• R&M goes political. Readers turn the page. [R&M]
• It's the first election night for all our news anchors playing lead. [NYT]
• Dateline's "To Catch A Predator" Series claims its first pedophilia suicide. NBC plays dumb. [NYT]
• Tucker Carlson, back on the tie fix? [TVN]
Is Joanna Coles planning an Ivanka Trump cover for an upcoming issue of Marie Claire? We would be a little surprised if she was, but we know she's planning to include at least a piece on the socialite cum magazine covergirl. And the New York Observer's legendary writer George Gurley is penning the piece.
Though, we may have to expect some of the sass and brass to missing from the article. Lowdown reports that Gurley was lookin' a little bit smitten after his chat with the heiress.
… George Gurley, looking dazed and dreamy after lunching at Michael's yesterday with a Very Important Person. "I'm overwhelmed," Gurley marveled after he bid his lunch companion farewell. "I'm dazzled."
And then, as he headed toward the door: "I think I'm going to walk it off."
Well, either that or he just polished off three bottles of champagne and was starting to glaze over.
Snark Attack! [Lloyd Grove, Lowdown]
• The bed springs finally popped out of Tom Cruise's couch of crazy.
• Paris Hilton's Internet "experience" won her a fab new gig with YouTube.
• Jann Wenner believes in sharing; otherwise known as making celebrities go through the back Us Weekly door to get to Rolling Stone.
• Joanna Coles proves that she really was made for women's mags. And she has new BFF Maggie Gyllenhaal to prove it.
• Tactless Dennis Publishing picks really great times to give their employees bad news. Well, at least they can't blame that one on Chris Wilson.
• Wolf Blitzer is a moron, Michael Noer is a douche, and Tucker Carlson likes to be sparkly.
• Budget Travel doesn't think its appropriate to celebrate the fact that their entire staff is leaving for Travel + Leisure.
• No more Kitty Delicious at Life & Style.
• No more SHOP Etc. or Weekend at Hearst.
British import Joanna Coles is already doing a fine job making Marie Claire a title worth talking about. When it comes to Hearst, we usually dedicate our energy to chronicling Atoosa Rubenstein's MySpace friend requests — but suddenly Coles influence has given the staid (though healthy, circulation-wise) Marie Claire an injection of sexy. To be sure, it helps to "jump into" Cathie Black's car.
But around the new MC, there is one type of injection that doesn't seem to have a home: Botox. Joanna told us so herself last night – pointing to the wrinkles in her forehead – amid apple martinis and a live band at a private screening for Sherrybaby at Hearst's new glass tower. And that sort of thing makes sense, given Joanna's feelings toward nose jobber Ashlee Simpson and her kin.
Last night's event, however, was not just a chance for the former More editor to shake hands with other Hearsties while proving she can pull off an all-white ensemble. The editor was also hosting September covergirl Maggie Gyllenhaal (who arrived flanked with soon-to-be baby daddy Peter Sarsgaard) — Joanna's first issue for the magazine (it helped that she learned how to pronounce Maggie's last name).
Though reluctant to say much about where she's moving (she and Peter living in the West Village, though plenty of rumors suggest a move to Park Slope is imminent) and whether brother Jake will be playing Lance Armstrong (and here we though that bit of news was already confirmed be PR types), Maggie did let on that the paparazzi scene in Los Angeles is, to our surprise, much more bareable than it is here in New York. "We were at breakfast yesterday with my brother and all of a sudden these 12 photographers appeared and started taking our picture," she says. In L.A., the paps leave her alone. Who knew?
But it was during the post-screening Q&A that Maggie let on a more incriminating detail of her movie career. After her success with Secretary, where the director allowed her to control much of her character's portrayal, she actually thought Hollywood types would solicit her input about the characters she played. Not so, she found out while filming a movie she wouldn't name (though our guess is Mona Lisa Smile). It was "horrible" and they made her cry.
And crying she did plenty of last night — though only on screen, and only in between exposing her breasts and having sex with every other male character in the film. And that, apparently, is just the type of Hollywood Joanna Coles wants in her magazine. By which we mean, of course, natural breasts.
Remember a week or so ago when we read that Marie Claire EIC Joanna Coles landed her new gig by making the ballsy move of jumping into Hearst prez Cathie Black's car and riding to the airport with her? We were mad impressed yo! She had the guts and the backbone and she made something happen for herself. How unique and non-cliche we thought. Maybe MC really is going in a new direction.
And then, today, our free access to the New York Sun took a million pins and burst every little bubble that was floating around us. The truth comes out about why, exactly, Coles jumped in Black's ride.
I was away on vacation and only found out on the day I got back that I had an interview with Cathie Black," Ms. Coles recalled. Ms. Black is the president of Hearst Magazines, which, with Marie Claire Album of Paris, owns Marie Claire. "So I rushed out to have my hair done, and then went over to her office. But there was a mix-up and they told me she was just about to leave for the airport to go to Europe for a week on business. I knew I had to see her. After all, I had had my hair done! I went to her apartment and just climbed into the car with her."
It's like finding out Ashlee "everyone is unique and beautiful" Simpson got a nose job.
Editor Puts Her Stamp on Marie Claire [Myrna Blyth, New York Sun]
Industry insiders are learning to fear the fast wrath of Joanna Coles. Not only has she completely turned around Marie Claire in the hot minute that she's been there, removing all traces of neon, throwing polititicians in the well, and landing Maggie Gyllehnaal on the cover, but Coles is sticking close to the her cover line "strong, confident and sexy." Confident indeed.
We had no idea Coles went about landing that EIC job by jumping into the back of Cathy Black's limo, while en route to JFK, but we must say, that takes some serious edge.
Earlier this spring, Joanna Coles jumped into Hearst president Cathy Black's airport-bound car on just a few minutes' notice, determined to show Black before she went on vacation that she had what it took to turn around Marie Claire. Black, Coles said, "wanted someone to come in and make the magazine smarter and more sophisticated," and somewhere on the way to JFK, Coles convinced Black that she was the editor to do it.
See, folks. That's why gossip is important. If you don't know an EIC like Lesley Jane Seymore is on her way out, there's no way you can swoop in all Bond style and try to steal her job.
Stoking The Coles [Irin Carmon, WWD]
Remember the obnoxiously florescent Marie Claire magazine? How it looked like we imagine Mariah Carey's bathroom must? Well, now that Lesley Jane Seymore is out, and Joanna Coles is in, the bright orange stars and neon green exclamation points are falling to the wayside.
“It has always been the smart girls’ book,†Ms. Coles said last week in an interview in her airy perch in the new Hearst building in Midtown Manhattan. “But it drifted off-brand, partly due to the assault on the newsstand from celebrity weeklies. It happened to everyone, not just Marie Claire.â€
The "we were attacked by glossies" comment comes on the heels of their Ashlee Simpson cover, which quoted Jessica's shadow as praising "one's God given attributes" a few weeks before getting her shnoz chopped down. Readers were not pleased with Marie Claire, calling the magazine hypocritical and freaking out that anyone besides FHM would put Ashlee Simpson on a cover.
So, now the new"smart girls' book" gives us indy intelligent Maggie Gyllenhaal, who, like many Marie Claire readers makes more money than her other half. (Or at least we assume she makes more cash, considering she makes about 30 more movies a year.) The most amazing part of this? Coles is managing to give the mag a complete overhaul without axing the entire staff.
Ashlee’s Nose Job Is Last Straw for New Editor of Marie Claire [Katharine Q. Seelye, New York Times]
In April, news that Marie Claire EIC Lesley Jane Seymore was out of a job was all the buzz in media land. Her replacement, Joanna Coles, laid low for awhile, leaving staffers walking on eggshells over her next move. But now that Joanna's gotten a bit comfortable in her EIC chair, she's made her first "move."
Executive editor Patrice Adcroft has been ousted, and Coles is bringing in Lucy Kaylin from Conde's GQ to replace her. Haven't heard of Kaylin? Maybe this will ring a bell.
… she has also done quite a bit of writing, including a cover story on Tom Cruise in May 2006 in which he jokingly said he wanted to eat the placenta of his new child after he cut the umbilical cord.
"I thought that would be good. Very nutritious," she quoted Cruise as saying.
We can think of no higher qualifications for landing second chair at a women's mag than spending 19 years at a men's mag where the highlight was a chat with Tom Cruise on eating Katie Holmes' placenta.
Coles Raid [Keith Kelly, New York Post]
Earlier: Lesley Jane Seymour Out of Marie Claire's hair
Lesley Jane Seymour, who played the role of editor in chief at Hearst's most florescent mag Marie Claire since 2001, is out.
Her replacement, Joanna Coles, comes from Meredith's stomping grounds, where she was the executive editor of More magazine. The initial lack of "reasons for leaving" and an absence of a next step led us to believe Seymour's move was more of a push than a jump … and Mediaweek more or less confirmed our speculation.
"Lesley did a great job, but the magazine needed a fresh perspective," said a Hearst spokesperson. "We think Joanna is the right person to do it."
Can't get much more cut and dry than that.
Previously at Redbook, Seymour, had been the EIC of MC since 2001 — and as Jeff Bercovici points out, this axing makes her the first replacement of a Hearst EIC since October 2005, "when Stephen Drucker replaced Mark Mayfield at House Beautiful."
It's almost impossible to imagine such shift changes and exoduses by the higher-ups while all the while Bonnie Fuller hasn't even moved her stapler. We truly believed she was the only one who could cause such chaos in the wily world of women's mags.
Marie Claire Announces New EIC [Jeff Bercovici, WWD]
More Veteran Coles Named Marie Claire EIC; Seymour Exits [Lisa Granatstein, Mediaweek]
