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Steve Garbarino
Celebrities Like the Chateau Marmont Because They Are Co-Dependent Wrecks

Steve Garbarino is Maxim's new editor-at-large and, until one day earlier this week, he was the editor-in-chief of BlackBook. He's since left that position, but his words live on, including in a blog post published today, which might actually be the issue's editor's letter, about that Los Angeles institution for the famous people and their wranglers, André Balazs' Chateau Marmont, otherwise known as the closet where Lindsay Lohan stores her clothes. Including the sometimes stolen ones.

You see, this is where the famous come to eat, drink, sleep, sleep with each other, and generally be creative types. Celebrities like it because, supposedly, their names do not get leaked to gossipy tabloid outlets while they stay there. Except they do. But what's the real draw of this place, tucked away off Sunset Boulevard?

CONTINUED »

Everybody Who Used to Run <i>BlackBook</i> Has Left
Ray Rogers takes command

It's an all-out regime change at Ari Horowitz and Bob Hoff's BlackBook.

Earlier this month, managing editor Una LaMarche and photo director Shannon Hall took off. Publisher Joe Landry followed them out the door, with a gig lined up at old haunts Out and The Advocate.

And now Steve Garbarino, the magazine's editor since April 2006, is gone, but not without first securing his next step: editor-at-large at Alpha Media's Maxim.

Replacing Garbarino will be old features editor Ray Rogers, seen here, on the right, with his predecessor. [BBM]

Naturally, our first instinct when witnessing a wave of top-level departures is to expect massive unrest and patent unhappiness. Who hated who? Who backstabbed who? Who didn't love a glossy book filled with pretty people enough to stay? Tell us.

Congratulations to BlackBook EIC Steve Garbarino and new wife Maddy Simpson. And all this time we thought your canoodling at the Beatrice Inn was just a fling.

Media Blitz: Keith Olbermann Wins Award, Courtesy Fox News

Good Morning America is once again biting at the heels of Today.

• After canceling the O.J. Simpson special, it doesn't make much sense for Fox to have reality programming chief Mike Darnell sit on a National Association of Television Programming Executives panel in January.

• Fox News bestows Keith Olbermann the high esteem of "Turkey of the Year." But we all know how Decemeber superlatives turn out.

• U.S. Supreme Court says NYT must hand over phone records of two reporters. Not so interested in their YouTube clip viewing data.

• The deets on MSNBC anchor Alison Stewart's wedding to the network's primetime programming VP Bill Wolff make no mention whether guest Tucker Carlson spent the night Dancing.

• First CNN Pipeline asks you to cough up the bucks for exclusive video. Now CNBC Plus wants to charge you a monthly fee to watch the network — right on your desktop!

BlackBook editor Steve Gabarino is exactly what you'd expect when you hear the term "microeditor."

Jiblets: Keith Olbermann Will Refrain From Commenting on O'Reilly's Junk In The Future

• Those barely believable Nielsen numbers might get its ass whooped by the British competition.

• Ex-Spin-ster Andy Pemberton reduced to blogging. Anonymously.

• Keith Olbermann says sorry for commenting about Bill O'Reilly's manhood.

• After a scuffle with local Indian families, Angelina Jolie's bodyguards are out on bail. Must promise to save the world to avoid jail time.

• Congrats to BlackBook editor Steve Garbarino on his upcoming nuptials. Perhaps by the June ceremony, his scandal will have died down and he'll be able to enjoy the honeymoon.

• Daniel Craig's box office draw matches the size of his package.

Contrary to BlackBook's Beliefs, 'Indie' Doesn't Mean 'Will Work For Free'

For all its devotion to making readers feel like they're living in a world of indie glam, BlackBook isn't doing much to help its writers live that same dream. A bevy of BlackBook scribes are owed back payments on pieces written long ago — with some due payments in the four-figure range. No, these aren't Michael-Wolff-for-Vanity-Fair sums, but they are pay-Time-Warner-on-time-so-you-can-keep-a-blog-going fees. While we could laugh all afternoon at the excuses given for why checks weren't being sent – "we lost your contract" and "the check signer isn't here right now" – it's about time that the finger pointing begins, with current chief Steve Garbarino (perhaps rightly so) blaming past editors for stiffing the help, while Garbarino predecessor Aaron Hicklin (now EIC of Out) saying he fell into the problem when his tenure began. So who's to blame? The 8-ball signals Ari Horowitz and Eric Gertler, who took control of the magazine in 2005 from founder Evan Schindler. The twosome, who now own Vibe as of July, are said to be notorious for living the lifestyle in their glossy pages, but doing little to pay for the infrastructure. While it's clear we have the opportunity to make both Jewish and black jokes, we're not such an easy lay. Let's just attribute Ari and Eric's faults to being stingy and lazy.

TRENDY MAG STIFFS ITS WRITERS [Page Six]

(Note: Lawyers for OK! forced us to take down their exclusive photos of Gwen Stefani and crew. If anyone wants to sketch something from memory for us and send it over, though, we'll be glad to run it.)

Esquire guys want to have dinner with Condoleezza Rice, Jay Leno, and Jennifer Aniston? Thank goodness because nobody else wants to be anywhere near them. [Fox]

• Maybe with a new editor in the form of Steve Garbarino, BlackBook will be able to avoid those little Conde confusions. [Gawker]

Entertainment Weekly maintains we still need movie critics. And that movie critics aren't snobs. And that real critics are still more important than those playing around with technology like "the web." [EW via Romenesko]

Gwen Stefani's baby Kingston may not save Africa, but if he and Shiloh spawn that would be like hotness to the 8th power or something. [Mollygood]

• Are they positively sure that Arianna Huffington didn't say "daaahlings?" [FBNY]

The mystery of the missing Richard Johnson has been solved. Page Six, in all its gossip glory, is going glossy. Or, at least transforming into a glossy second version of itself. (Is anyone else reminded of Jem in situations like this?)

Anyways, the new Page Six magazine won't be replacing the daily New York Post column, but the 76 pager is set to be distributed along with the paper. Expect it to stray away from pure gossip to include:

"… a feature on Victoria's Secret, with pictures from a [catalogue] shoot; an Oscar package, because the issue is coming out between the nominations and the Oscars, and we're going to have a nightlife guide, focusing on clubs opening in New York."

The cracker-jack team on the launch is made up of Johnson, along with old school industry insiders Jared Paul Stern and Steve Garbarino. Finally, a group of people who actually care about Victoria's Secret fashion shoots as much as we do.

Page Six Spin-Off [Sara James, WWD]

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