• With Little Children as its news peg, New York magazine ponders whether the city's playgrounds are filled with the type of randy flirtation author Tom Perrotta dreamed up. Not looked into: Whether the city's playgrounds are filled with the child molesters Tom Perrotta dreamed up. [NY Mag]
• Kate Moss pregnant with an 8-ball Pete Doherty's baby. [Mirror]
• Maxim tyke Keith Blanchard finds a new gig at Wenner Media, where he's relaunching Jann's websites the way Alex Kuczynski did her face. [Memo Pad]
• Kurt Andersen – like Michael Wolff – requires too many words (among them, "contraindicator") to communicate the oft-voiced belief that the Los Angeles Times should be about, you know, Los Angeles. [NYM]
• Cost cutting at Hearst affects expensing lunches, not the 24/7 working waterfall. [Radar]
• A round-up of the magazine industry's worst covers wouldn't be complete without regular contributions from Jann Wenner's stable. [AdAge]
• From Gawker's ex-editor comes news of Gawker's new editor. [DI]
• Charlie Rose schmoozing with his interview subjects draws ire. If only he picked one of the less high-profile of his 20,000 interviewees to hob nob. [NYT]
• Perennial party crasher and Conde Nast impersonator Priyantha Silva finds a new home for his personalities at Hearst. [DI]
Another day, another accused child molester. Sigh. The only difference is that today's alleged underage fanny grabber is none other than former Fox 11 reporter Rod Bernsen. Yeah, we've never heard of him either. But that's only because we're not allowed to watch Fox in Brooklyn.
The reporter has been charged with "abusive sexual conduct" and is to appear in court date on November 13. These charges claim that Bernsen molested two boys while aboard a cruise last week. He was arrested Saturday after departing the ship in Long Beach.
According to the criminal filing seen by LA Observed, two twelve-year-old cousins told the FBI that Bernsen made suggestive comments, used his foot to touch the genitals of one of the boys and spanked the other one once on his naked butt. The alleged assault occurred in the Lotus Spa on board the Diamond Princess.
The LA Times also has a summary of the alleged events. As an aside, Radar has a whole shpeal connecting Bernsen to Jew-basher Mel Gibson, spewing their loathe for those who befriend alleged child molesters. Apparently somebody forgot who Ron Burkle's BFF is.
United States v. Rod Bernsen [LA Observed]
After standing his ground against the Tribune Company's attempt to cut staff members at the Los Angeles Times, publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson was forced out of the newspaper during a meeting this morning.
Tribune Publishing President Scott C. Smith was huddling with top managers at the newspaper and was expected to announce after the meeting that David Hiller, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, would immediately replace Johnson as chief executive at the 125-year-old newspaper. Hiller would become the 12th publisher of The Times.
In response to the Tribune's decision to consider selling the company or break it up, Johnson defied executives by insisting slashes at the paper would be detrimental to the paper's "high-quality" editorial content.
New LA Times publisher David Hiller is expected to ask top editor Dean Baquet to stay on, despite his protests against further job cuts and his qualms over selling the paper to movie producer David Geffen. No word yet on Baquat's decision.
Joel Stein & Co. were last ferociously sending their resumes over to the San Fransisco Chronicle and VH1.
Times Publisher Johnson Forced Out [LA Times via Mediabistro]
Can a Hollywood producer own the Los Angeles Times? A real estate mogul can own the New York Observer. A child molester once partially owned Radar. So, why not? Rich people more or less get what they want, especially when it comes to media, right?
We like to take the attention off the small time PR people and random porno filming assistants once in awhile to focus on the actual larger issues in media these days. And DreamWorks SKG founder, David Geffen (the G in SKG) reportedly wanting to buy the L.A. Times is a bigger-ish deal.
Especially when it's being reported that, when the current editor of the L.A. Times, Dean Baquet got wind of that news last year, he was stunned.
“How’s he going to feel the first time we review a movie or music produced by a friend of his?” Baquet asked.
Or God forbid praising and/or not attempting to destroy a rival. And n "insider" tells Nikki Finke that Geffen is “very serious” and “pretty confident” in regards to getting his hands on the paper. Not that Baquet is off Finke's hook, either, though. She hears that the EIC has been hand-picking staffers who will "drum up local support" for a "local buyer" (aka, "golfing buddy") who would snap up the paper. It seems to be a pretty classic "boys club" case.
But the Times’ most pressing problem isn’t whether Geffen or someone else buys it, or Tribune sells it, or Baquet gets fired. Instead, the widespread media coverage has ignored the dangerous game being played with the paper’s integrity between this billionaire boys’ club and Baquet or his surrogates behind closed doors.
Oh, wait. Why are we getting in such a tizz? This is L.A.! We should be expecting as much. They can just sell the paper to Rick Hilton or Donald Trump and Paris and Ivanka can run the editorial section. Except for the part where Joel Stein murders the entire staff, we think that plan is flawless.
Baquet's Billionaire Boys' Club [Nikki Finke, LA Weekly]
The Los Angeles Times is getting interactive with readers, introducing a new feature to their site, LATimes.com called Your Scene. It's where readers send in photos of random stuff they're doing.
Late yesterday, Jossip received a little promo email for the new feature.
Show us who you are and how you live.
Log on today to upload photos, create you own album
and vote for your favorite images.It's easy and fun, so take a shot.
So, of course we went to check it out. We are just so fascinated by how those other people out in L.A. live. And what, you ask, did we find? There are eight wedding photos, 179 gardening pictures, and (jackpot!) 233 pictures of crazy people's cats.
If only New York had a site like this. You know, just a page full of random photos and stuff about the city like bands, restaurants, and cats and stuff.
• Lindsay Lohan knows how to keep the paparazzi away during her "secret" birthday plans: by revealing said plans in Harper's Bazaar. [TMZ]
• Whether Britney Spears had actually anything to do with it is yours to question, but kid sis Jamie Lynn's co-star Alexa Nikolas got the boot as Britney promised. [Page Six]
• Pharrell Williams is in spin control after kicking out a gaggle of top gays from his VIP lounge at a GQ party. "Too much sausage" was his excuse for excusing David Furnish and Burberry designer Christopher Bailey, and now it could cost him a Louis Vuitton campaign. [Gatecrasher]
• Former Jane Pratt assistant Karen Yampolsky's new book doesn't say mean things about her ex-boss — just Anna Wintour. [R&M]
• It's Matthew Perry vs. Darren Star at the movies. [Defamer]
• Brandon Routh doesn't have time for silly little fireworks displays. [Page Six]
• The LAT and NYT find a common ground to editorialize on: the Bush administration. [LAT]
Joel Stein.
Really, he never ceases to amaze us. Despite writing an over all un-amazing column most weeks, every now and again he will spit something out that gets us logging onto the LA Times after we'd sworn it off for the 100th time that month.
This week, Joel teaches us how Hollywood people do humor when he takes a producer to lunch at The American Girl cafe. And like the awesome teen sex scene that Joel just couldn't help but watch, the medialites could not pass up the chance to dine with a half Asian doll.
As we entered the cafe, our hostess, Nicole, asked us if we'd brought our dolls. We had not, so she offered us a choice of tablemates. We chose Jess, who is half-Asian, which, Swanson pointed out, he is too. "Her story is all about friendship and making friends," Nicole explained. "Mine too," said Swanson. Hitting on the American Girl cafe hostess is a major power move.
We can only imagine what kind of nonsense these two would have gotten into had the doll been dressed as a geisha and her story was all about dancing and pouring sake.
All dolled up [Joel Stein, Los Angeles Times]
It's been awhile since we've tackled the column of Los Angeles Times opinionist Joel Stein. But when the pop culture talking head turned columnist contemplates the media, and throws in kiddie porn analysis to boot, we are so there.
(Ok, fine, we're three days late, but we're there now.) This week, Stein responds to the Federal Communications Commission fine of $3.6 million, which they slapped on CBS for airing an episode of "Without A Trace" which showed teens getting it on orgy style.
Stein "immediately became interested in seeing the show," and got CBS to send him the DVD copy from Dec. 31, 2004. He then "immediately put it on." (Is it just us, or does he seem just a tad over anxious to check out this underage romp?)
And even though the moral of the "Without a Trace" episode was that kids shouldn't get involved in teen sex orgies or someone will get murdered by the local sheriff, the slick-looking Jerry Bruckheimer production made the shockingly long, 56-second sex scene look awesome, all blue-lighted and threesome-filled and zit-free. Snoop doesn't have these kinds of parties. Nothing like this would ever happen to teenagers even if they were attending Hugh Hefner High. There's even foreplay. You're really bending the believability of your story in order to titillate when you pretend boys in high school engage in foreplay.
Stein does eventually conclude that despite its awesomeness, "sexualizing children is creepy." And we conclude that Joel probably didn't get laid that often in high school.
A fine mess at the FCC [Joel Stein, Los Angeles Times]
Earlier: Joel Stein's incendiary Op-Ed
• We thought the Vanity Fair Oscar party was the best party in world, but, apparently, there is a whole week's worth of parties that are not likened to a "Hollywood Prom." [NYT]
• Pausing for thought on the life of Otis Chandler — in our version of Heaven, the Daily News is replaced by infinite copies of the Los Angeles Times. [LAT]
• Cooking Light opens a restaurant. Even though it's "healthy food," this is the last thing the fattest city in America needs. (You know Chicagoans are just going to run for gyros and brats after their grilled salmon and zucchini plates.) [NYT]
• Black Book teams up with Thompson Hotels to custom publish a magazine on the metaphoric Orwellian experience of hotel culture. It's ok, Jeff Bercovici doesn't really get it either. [WWD]
• Today in blog hysteria: the Wall Street Journal continues the obsession by telling everyone to stop obsessing. [WSJ]
We thought a requirement of being a journalist was that you do drugs? Ok, maybe not James Frey style crack pipe drugs, but at least most writerly types tend to smoke a joint now and then. Just look at the likes of Rolling Stone, GQ, Jane, the Seattle Post-Intellegencer … the list certainly goes on.
The Los Angeles Times, however, does not seem to agree with our theory. As Matt Welch, an assistant editorial page editor at LAT reveals, he was forced to pee in a cup. Just like some kind of Wal-Mart employee or something.
Yet it's been company policy for at least 18 years that every new hire excrete on command while a rubber-gloved nurse waits outside with her ear plastered to the door. Those who test positive for illegal drugs don't get their promised job, on grounds that someone who can't stay off the stuff long enough to pass a one-time, advance-notice screening might have a problem. (And yes, it has happened in the newsroom a handful of times.)
But, it’s California, you say? Isn’t everyone there baked off their gord all the time? If not, then why the hell are they always smiling so much? So many questions, so much to ponder. The greatest of them, perhaps could be: however did Joel Stein manage to get off grass long enough to land his Op-Ed column?
His cup runneth over with annoyance [Matt Welch, NYT]
We're still learning how to adjust from Joel Stein the VH1 commentator to Joel Stein the L.A. Times Op-Ed columnist.
Stein is pretty much the only reasons we keep LAT on our RSS, but this last crack made us do a double take. Like that time in Newark Airport when we swear that was him stocking up on Star mags and gum.
Anyways, we don't usually associate the journo/hearthrob with such political controversy. But, if pissing off a bunch of red staters isn't an Op-Ed columnist's prerogative, than what's the point? In Stein's latest column: "Warriors and Wusses," he calls those who support American troops in Iraq big freakin' sissies.
And that made a bunch of really big Midwestern dudes and ex-patriots with guns want to come kill him.
"I don't support what they are doing, and I don't the see point of putting a big yellow magnet on your car if you don't," Stein told Reuters in an interview. "I don't think (soldiers) are necessarily bad people. I do plenty of things that are wrong too. But I don't agree with what they are doing so I don't see the logic of supporting it."
Now that's a side of Stein we never got to see on VH1. We originally feard that that this was a transformation from his funny un-incendiary rubbish to some stuffy columnist crap. But all we had to do was keep reading (an important skill we're still perfecting) to realize that he hasn't lost his talent for humor writing.
His response to the 100s of hate e-mails?
"They're telling me to leave the country, which sounded good at first because I thought they meant a vacation. But they didn't mean a vacation," he said.
Is that sort of like when Lindsay Lohan said she was making herself sick but she didn't mean bulimia?
L.A. Times writer defends incendiary Iraq column [Dan Whitcomb, Reuters]
We expect this from the New York Times, but we thought they had their shit together over in LA. We were wrong again!
Apparently, the lack of news around the holidays doesn't just create the need for Top Ten lists, it also creates the need to make up fake news. Based, obviously, on fake news. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times ran a front-page story on the successful reintroduction of wolves into nature. Their supporting quote came straight from a reliable source: an April Fool's press release. Super reporting, guys.
In Wyoming, for example, Gov. Dave Freudenthal last April decreed that the Endangered Species Act is no longer in force and that the state 'now considers the wolf as a federal dog.'
A federal dog? Umm, that kind of sounds like the type of quote you might want to check. Though, we do understand the pressure a reporter forced to cover news in Wyoming must be under.
Hey, did you hear the fake Wyoming news that "the state now considers Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger doin' it doggie style a federal requirement?"
• Kate Moss Watchâ„¢: The latest celeb to come to the supermodel's defense is British rocker Robbie Williams, who says that he's stunned she hasn't committed suicide over all the bad publicity. Maybe now that he's endorsed her, she will.
• We always knew Judy Miller's story was ripe for a movie of the week, but a graphic novel? Only if it stars Tribeca emigrant Bobby De Niro.
• Not that you've cared since Pieces of April, but Katie Holmes does indeed get busy between the sheets — but only when Tom Cruise is nowhere to be found.
• With Harvey and Bob Weinstein raising just enough cash to best the value of Donald Trump's nursery, the Los Angeles Times thought it might be nice to give them a free, full-page ad. They call it a thank you, we call it a handjob.
After seeing what Boldface Names did for the New York Times (uh, nothing?), the Los Angeles Times is finally getting into the game of celebrity worship. If their receent ode to Marilyn Monroe didn't seal the paper's "Us Weekly-on-newsprint" fate, new EIC Dean Baquet admits he's considering the addition of – gasp! – a gossip column!
Apparently, Hollywood going-ons actually matter to the city of L.A. And you thought New York was self-involved.
One major change will be the paper's push into more coverage of celebrities and the city's hometown industry, Hollywood. With this move, Dean Baquet, formerly the paper's managing editor who became editor in August, is walking a tightrope because he doesn't want the reputation of the Times as a journalistic heavyweight to suffer. Mr. Baquet says he remains committed to tough reporting, citing his dedication to coverage of Iraq. At the same time, he's considering re-establishing a gossip column. "I would be lying to say there isn't going to be tension," says Mr. Baquet.
We win! We win! The LAT, the last bastion of "hard journalism," is caving to the industry. Damn those old readers who insist on dying, which, we're told, means they stop reading the paper.
Obviously, it's all an effort to attract new, younger readers, who have the dolla-dolla bills to spend that advertisers salivate over. Which explains Baquet's second major change of scenery.
Mr. Baquet also wants to see shorter stories. The paper often runs stories several thousand words in length, including its trademark "Column One" feature on the front page. "We publish stories sometimes that are too long," says Mr. Baquet. "I want to encourage shorter stories."
Shorter stories for shorter attention spans — and do Nicole Kidman or Renee Zellweger really deserve more than 300 words anyhow? There should be a three word per pound maximum, here.
When not getting his balls tugged by Jon Friedman, The New Yorker's Ken Auletta is taking on the Los Angeles Times this week about how, well, it's crappy and will die a sad and painful death. (As will we.)
Well, unless David Geffen gets his hands on it, but perhaps we're being overly dramatic.
Anyhow, a funny thing happened on the way to printer: Despite The NYer's "vaunted fact-checking process," Auletta's piece just won't have the "this is real media crit, people!" kick it was meant to.
Writes New York Sun editor Ira Stoll:
The New Yorker out tomorrow carries a long and interesting article by Ken Auletta about the Los Angeles Times. It's full of gloomy statistics about the future of newspapers. Yet despite the New Yorker's vaunted fact-checking process, the article misspells the name of an editor at the L.A. Times, Joel Sappell, rendered in the New Yorker as "Joel Suppell."
Somehow we just won't be able to take it seriously now. But it will be quite an entertaining read during Rosh Hashanah services.
• Adam Penenberg is running away from the sinking ship that is Wired.com (and you thought NYT's layoffs were destructive), heading for the sandy shores of Slate where he'll be refocusing on his technology and culture niche.
• While Us Weekly handles the PR nightmare of their Hot Stuff editor Tim McDarrah's underage sex arrest, now they've got marketing chief Gary Armstrong's trip to alcohol rehab to spin.
• New LAT editorial/op-ed editor Andres Martinez will only help the newspaper continue to lose subscribers, but then again you'd expect Nikki Finke to say something like that.
• Current TV's clever way of including advertising into programming means they run "50 to 60 percent few ads" than other networks. They also count 98 to 99 percent fewer viewers.
• Despite reports you may have heard, Sumner Redstone claims he isn't rude to his employees and would never do something like throw a lobster at a Viacom underling — but only because he rarely eats lobster.
• Ted Koppel is finally on the way out at Nightline, with ABC News brass looking to replace him with either Cynthia McFadden, Terry Moran and (holy shit) Michael Jackson's favorite interviewer Martin Bashir.
• At the 26th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards, onlookers were treated to CNN interviewing their very own Christiane Amanpour about – what else? – reporting!
• Entertainment mogul David Geffen is truly serious about buying the Los Angeles Times, but maybe he's looking more toward spin control than a new playing. After all, the LAT did hound him on DreamWorks SKG's being a flop and his refusal to allow public access next to his Malibu pad.
• Tom Wolfe doesn't need the name of his book I Am Charlotte Simmons to actually be on the book to sell copies. Just his name – in big-ass, bold letters – will do.
• Google is facing its latest lawsuit from book writers, who claim the search giant's plans to scan and create a database of entire libraries amounted to "massive copyright infringement," while the Mountain View firm says its plans to wrap the books' contests in ads constitutes "fair use."
• At yesterday's memorial service, Peter Jennings was remembered as a "devoted father, hard-driving journalist and a man who befriended homeless people," but there was no mention he practically was a definitive version of How To Lose Friends And Alienate People.
• If you were lucky enough to give the Wall Street Journal your business rather than home address, you might've been lucky enough to miss their new Weekend Edition.
If David Geffen gets his hands on the Los Angeles Times, we're not sure whether we'll see more or less coverage of porn, but either way we're pleased to see the real local economy of L.A. get some play in the form of scribe Joel Stein's retelling of his porn premiere adventure of Digital Playground's Pirates.
Yes, a porn premiere — complete with red carpet. Except excitement levels were at, well, a View From The Top level.
The discomfort, however, never arrived. For the first 20 minutes, the very young, exceedingly tattooed audience kept yelling back, "Rocky Horror"-style, at the screen. They also enjoyed clapping wildly at the climax of each scene. The audience members not only weren't squirming, they were bored. An hour in, the yelling and cheering died off and everyone felt fast-forward-deprived. Cassandra got so bored she left. Remember when they made the mistake of super-sizing "Friends" into 40-minute sitcom episodes? Imagine that in porn time.
Luckily somebody took it upon himself to make sure the night would have something of interest to discuss at the espresso machine the next day.
Gary Gray, a Playboy producer, brought an enormous crew. "This is our Katrina," he said.
Nothing like a gratuitous sleeze to make everyone feel at home.
• In Touch falls victim to its own publishing schedule (and failing to make the proper phone calls), publishing a very out-dated two-pager on Renée Zellweger gushing over her "partner, my soul mate," otherwise known as her soon-to-be ex-husband Kenny Chesney.
• David Geffen has already tackled the music and film industries, so why not print? Rumors abound that the mega millionaire is eyeing the Los Angeles Times for a new plaything.
• Embroiled Us Weekly "Hot Stuff" editor Tim McDarrah is out on $50,000 bail, awaiting his Oct. 14 preliminary hearing on charges he tried to bang a 13-year-old girl. It needn't be said, but he's grounded from using the computer and interacting with minor children.
• Judith Miller's got 99 problems, and a bitch ain't one. Her 11 weeks at the Alexandria Detention Center have seen nearly 100 guests come and go, and we don't think any of them were bloggers!
• If the Wall Street Journal would put its frickin' content online, it'd be much easier for people like us to tell you how much it sucked.
• Meanwhile, the New York Times is taking some of its online offerings behind a wall of its own with today's debut of TimesSelect. Now if only they would let us register for a free trial without a credit card we could tell you how much it sucked.
• As Details' publisher Chris Mitchell leaves to pursue a career in stuff we plant our asses in, Vanity Fair associate publisher Paul Jowdy is moving in to the envious position of Dan Peres' masthead mate.
Hollywood studios aren't exactly admitting their films are lowbrow and marketed toward just-average audiences, but .. well, okay, that's what they're pretty much admitting.
Nikki Finke is blowing the lid on studios suddenly slashing advertising budgets for mainstream newspapers like the New York Times and Los Angeles Times because their readers are snobby, elitest and old — and probably have no interest in paying $10.75 to see Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo.
Already, marketing departments are killing plans for $100,000 full-page ads in the major papers, hoping for a bigger payoff for less cash in more niche titles that can reach a younger audience with operating debit cards.
And if newspapers have any hope of recouping these ad dollars, we might be looking at a Howell Raines era redux, with some front page play when Britney Spears gives birth.
Editorial Director
