• 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.
You know it's so fun when your friends are dating? Like when they can't hang out because they have to spend time with their girlfriend, or they spend the night at dinner with their tongue shoved down their boyfriend's throat. No? Not fun for you?
Well, for some unbeknownst reason, magazines think you all want to read blogs about people dating. And the latest to Jane and Glamour is Redbook. Yay! Old lady sex!
Quick on the heels of Glamour's See Alyssa Date, a blog by former Us Weekly reporter Alyssa Shelasky, Redbook has launched Sex and the Single Mom, a blog by former Fitness Editor in Chief Emily Listfield (pictured).
Listfield's first post is all about a divorcee with whom she likes to "make out in the street like a teenager," even though he dates other women.
Ew. Ok, sure. Jessica Cutler and Stephanie Klein both had solid followings. But unless one of these magazine bloggers puts Pam up her butt, we don't think too many people are gonna' read.
Dating Blogs From Women's Mags: They Don't Stop, They Won't Stop [Fishbowl, NY]
Sex and the Single Mom [Redbook]
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]
• Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are making a new movie, but none of their writerly brilliance (by "their" we mean "Matt's") will influence this one. [Variety]
• Thank you, Julia Stiles. Now we finally understand what our non-white friends are talking about when they use the term "white trash face." [Page Six]
• Britney Spears and Kevin Federline are fighting again? Is it because she tried to kill the baby? [Star]
• Since quitting the Observer, socialite Jessica Joffe has been "writing her book" (a.k.a. "attending fashion shows with other socialite friends.") [Gawker]
• Maybe it was the Redbook curse that ruined Heather Locklear's marriage, or maybe it was Richie Sambora's affair? Or maybe the age requirement of being on Redbook is relative to the liklihood that your husband will cheat on you? [People]
• Katie Holmes really needs to find a new coffee shop where she wont be blogstalked. [Defamer]
Blogger Jim Hanas may have picked up on a media trend. Either that or his lack of decaf is leaving him in a psychotic paranoid state of conspiracy.
I began tracking the Redbook curse a year ago, when Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards graced the February cover, then promptly hit the rocks. Since then, cover subjects Nick and Jessica (March 2004), Jennifer Aniston (June 2003), and Heather Locklear (October 2001 and July 2005) have all taken up residence in Splitsville. Hilary Swank (March 2005) has also been pricing real estate there.
Between the glossy sheets, Sheryl Crow dishes, "“Lance and I were and are just happy to be together.†That was probably back in November, before the curse of the Redbook had time to work its magic.
And what about poor Richie Sambora? Bet he wishes he had known about this curse … then, maybe he wouldn't have been the very last person on the planet to know that his wife was filing for divorce.
Curses. Again. [Updated] [Encyclopedia Hanasiana]
