The year's drawing to a close, which means it's time for gay glossy Out to celebrate 100 homo movers-and-shakers who made 2008 so damn great!
The journos over there are slowly leaking some of their honorees, including Rachel Maddow, who tops the list. And with good reason - Maddow's catapulted to fame as a pundit over at MSNBC, which in turn gave her a prime time slot. Well done, Maddow.
Regarding our earlier story about Chace Crawford's publicist demanding (but not receiving) solo treatment on the cover of Details, a new twist: When Crawford did the cover of Out, she demanded the exact opposite. Read about it in our updated original post.
The television show Gossip Girl is not all teenage sex in limousines, classy drinking at posh hotel bars, fashion internships with elite designers, and xoxo-ing. Behind the scenes, a compelx machine is at work, where diva personalities are "managed," drug abuse is "handled," and eating disorders are ignored. (No quotation marks on that one.) And while the tense relationship between Leighton Meester (Blair) and Blake Lively (Serena) is played out in the press like their fictional frenemy relationship on the show's Gossip Girl blog, almost entirely ignored is the backstage backstabbing going on among the guys.
Ed Westwick (Chuck), Chace Crawford (Nate), and Penn Badgley (Dan) all seemingly get along in non-fiction. Westwick, with his not so secret nasal sports, and Crawford are in fact best friends, and their living together and ubiquitous enjoyment of each other's company has led to ample evidence for gay rumormongering. Badgley, the real life and television boyfriend to Lively (well, they broke up, for now!), is friendly with the other two, but less so.
But just because the guys get along … doesn't mean their Hollywood handlers do. CONTINUED »
The nation's two leading gay print magazines, Out and The Advocate, were, until this month, owned by PlanetOut Partners. In a deal that's just closed, they are now the property of Regent Entertainment, the gay-focused entertainment company behind pay-channel Here! TV, which picked up the magazines for a song: $6 million, paid in a complex (read: we still don't understand it) advertising deal that didn't involve cash. That's because PlanetOut is basically a junk bond, carrying so much debt even Bill Gates' attempt to save it with a cash infusion didn't work. How come? Because somehow, even with all those ad dollars leaving television and fueling the Internet and niche markets like GLBT, the magazines are suffering. But also because it's generally accepted knowledge that the gays don't need a gay magazine anymore; Details and GQ are filling the void for fashion and lifestyle, while blogs like our own Queerty is where they're going for the news. Which explains why The Advocate, once the place for gay news, is admitting it's losing the battle to survive: CONTINUED »
Neil Patrick Harris graces the latest cover of gay glossy Out. And, like the mensch we know he is, the dreamboat actor spread himself wide open - emotionally, that is - to reveal the quiet trials and tribulations of his otherwise well-documented life. A taste:
The conveyor belt between Out/The Advocate and BlackBook continues this week, with the hipster photo-fashion glossy losing publisher Joe Landry to his old haunt at the gay rags, filling in for Out publisher Jay Adams, who was fired this week. [NYO] Landry left the PlanetOut magazines two years ago. But this isn't the only example of high-level shuffles between the two. Out's editor Aaron Hicklin was courted away from BlackBook in April 2006; he's since been named the company's editorial director. Landry's exit, meanwhile, comes on the heels of managing editor Una LaMarche and photo director Shannon Hall leaving the magazine, and editor Steve Garbarino, who took over in May 2006, in a bind.
Meanwhile, Landry's move represents more than your average publisher swap. Out and The Advocate have battled very public financial blows, with declining ad revenue and a parent company, PlanetOut, that has looked upon fiscal responsibility as a child's pastime. Last month, the company was sold to Regent Entertainment for a glorified ad deal worth $6 million, putting the pressure on Landry to move ad pages even more intense.
It’s a battle of the beautiful titans in the most recent edition of Out.
In celebration of their annual Hot Issue, the editorial team scoured some of New York’s greatest modeling agencies, plucked some pretty men, dressed them in some hot designers and have pitted them against one another.
There are new details on Regent Entertainment’s bid to buy The Advocate and Out.
San Francisco Business Times informs us that Regent, which owns gay network here!, gave PlanetOut an initial $500,000 to seal the deal, but the final sale will total $6 million in cash - far cheaper than we anticipated.
This year's Out Power List, not to be confused with the magazine's Out 100 issue, documents the top 50 influential gays and lesbians — even if they won't admit to it. (That's why Andy Cooper's No. 3!)
Though the cover is an ad for Brothers & Sisters, stars Matthew Rhys and Dave Annable (who's been known to stay the weekend where we live) are not of the homosexual variety, but show creator Jon Robin Baitz is! Reference this later when you're curious how EIC Aaron Hicklin chooses straights for the mag's cover.
Plenty of media folks make the list, from Gawker's bachelor-no-more Nick Denton and GQ's Jim Nelson (both friends of Hicklin …), to MTV/Logo's Brian Graden, New York's Adam Moss, and the list's No. 12 spot: The New York Times Gay Mafia, which includes Richard Berke, Ben Brantley, Frank Bruni, Stuart Elliot, Patrick Healy, Adam Nagourney, Horacio Silva, Stefano Tonchi, and Eric Wilson. But you probably already knew that from the Facebook group.
PlanetOut Partners is in a financial free-for-all, but that hasn't kept them from lifting Out magazine editor-in-chief Aaron Hicklin to the umbrella gig as editorial director for the whole company. Queerty exclusively brings news that Hicklin will be running all of the gay media company's operations, including, effectively, The Advocate. Perhaps it's just a stepping stone to give Hicklin full control of that floundering mag … or to help shutter it? Either way, there's talk of "Web 2.0"-izing hook-up site Gay.com and PlanetOut.com, which probably means they'll add Digg.com buttons to their stories.
We get a lot of mail. Mostly, it's of the electronic form. But from those marketing agents and publicists who found out our snail mail address, we get packages, too. They're almost always of the promotional form, trying to generate interest in a new TV show, movie, book, or rehab center. Herewith, we document their efforts.
Some gift bags are so stuffed with insignificant promotional items, they're barely worth being deposited into that wicker basket you keep by the door that you hope guests will pilfer while exiting your apartment. ("$1000 off your next Marquis Jet flight" certificates? We're talking to you.) Other gift bags are filled with merchandise that comes with a "Re-gift me!" sign practically stamped on it. (That's a good thing.)
The gift bag from Out magazine's Out 100 party on Friday night was a smattering of both. By "smattering," of course, we mean "a 50-pound doozy that nearly tore its canvas bag." We didn't mind the full-size bottle of Calvin Klein Man cologne or the packaged briefs, but anal cream and a bottle of KY in the same bag? Taboo. And the thumb-size Zirh shaving cream and pinky fingernail-size lip balm are certainly staples for your travel tote, but what are we gonna do with the Pepsi Mardi Gras beads?
Combine them with the anal cream, perhaps.
Friday night was Aaron Hicklin's annual chance to squash his anxiety in the face of celebs. He calls it the Out 100, which is Out magazine's challenge to the Tony Awards for handing out trophies for being gay. We spent most of the night catering to our Queerty pleebs, which means, as you might recall from last year, we slapped this video together of Jennifer Hudson walking around, Tim Gunn nodding, that gay on Mad Men getting a voicemail, and Annie Lennox spending some couch time with Gina Gershon.
Danny Fields is no stranger to incriminating quotes about his sex life. In Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, Fields told Legs McNeil,
When I wasn't getting laid elsewhere I went to Max's Kansas City every night… You could have sex with all the busboys. I mean, not right there, but later. And anybody who walked into the room, you could fuck, because they all wanted to be in the back room. And you would say, 'You'll have to fuck me and I'll let you sit at a good table.'
And yet, Fields claims Out ruined his reputation and “called me virtually a sexual predator.”
Hmm. Seems more like Out just confirmed Field’s reputation as a sexual predator.
Danny Fields believes his reputation is worth $100 million, which seems like a lot for someone who hasn't had a reputation since the 80s.
The manager of bands such as the Ramones and Iggy Pop was quoted in Out’s 70s issue saying:
The '70s was sure a lot of fun, but I was sure a lot of young. Boy, if you didn't get laid, then it was your own fault. I don't remember ever being inhibited by saying 'I'm the manager of the band. If you want to meet them, come to my hotel room and sleep with me, and I'll introduce you to them in the morning.
Bob Cohen, chief of Out and The Advocate publisher LPI Media, has just been let go. LPI's parent, PlanetOut Inc., has been drowning in financial problems as you might recall. But then Bill Gates came and saved the day with his checkbook. Well, except Bob Cohen's day.
The memo from PlanetOut's CEO Karen Magee below. CONTINUED »
Editorial Director
