At this very moment, a panel of experts (or at least prominent people from various fields) have gathered at the Time and Life building to discuss the nominees for this year's "Person of the Year."
(Can you feel the excitement? We can—because we're there!)
So far ideas have ranged from French prez Nicholas Sarkozy, General David Petraus ("because of his credibility" in Iraq) Al Gore, because he has a "pretty good resume" [Ed: Albeit one that doesn't include "President of the United States] Mother Earth, suggested by Brian Williams,* and "the word green," a gem put forth by none other than Whoopi Goldberg, who explains, "it's being used by people…who don't give a rat's butt [about saving the planet]."
Congratulations, Apple!
After endless hype, countless most-emailed articles and ultimately screwing your early adapters, Time has the iPhone the Best Invention of the Year.
Just when we thought we were done hearing about the iPhone, it's end of the year round-up time. We're excepting at least three more iPhone covers before 2008.
It’s one thing to read a magazine on a StairMaster, but it’s a quite another to fill out timesheets on a treadmill. But let’s be real, if we could exercise while we worked, we’d end up procrastinating with a lot of “just catching our breath” breaks.
[Time]
Whoever says octogenarians don't know how to party has never been to former Time managing editor Jim Gaines book party. We have and, let us tell you, it's quite a "time."
Gaines and his well-preserved pals gathered at - where else? - Elaine's last night to celebrate Gaines' new tome, For Liberty and Glory. A riveting look at George Washington's friendship with the Marquis de Lafayette, Gaines told us he hopes his book will "remind Americans how much we owe the French." Trés intriguing.
Even more intriguing, the cast of characters who showed up to fete Gaines. And by "intriguing" we mean "Who are these people?"
To spice things up, we pretended to know the hunky Tad Smith, CEO of Reed Business Information, publisher of Variety. After introducing ourselves, Smith made us swear all his comments would be off the record. "What?!" we said. "You mean we can't tell the world you think [redacted]?" Shame …
CONTINUED »
"I am a lousy martyr," writes Jon Friedman, in the latest gripping edition of MarketWatch.
Then, since he was already on an honesty kick, Friedman also confessed to being grammatically-impaired, incurably verbose and a poor dresser.
Okay, fine, that last part didn't happen. But then again, it wouldn't have particularly surprised us, since it encapsulates the precise blend of honesty, integrity and unsolicited confessional we've come to look for in Friedman's incoherent biweekly rants. And today's column was true to form, grabbing our attention from beginning to end with Friedman's pseudo-intellectual, feelings of "shame" over his having attended the Time 100 fete!
Stay tuned for Friedman's shameful confession, after the jump!
CONTINUED »
• There's nothing quite like hearing Diane Sawyer muse about McG's "life-size" male nudes on a lazy Thursday afternoon.
• Time omits George W. Bush from this year's list of "100 Most Influential People In The World." However, Tyra Banks, Simon Fuller and Sascha Baron Cohen all still manage to make the cut.
• Screech has a nervous breakdown. Of the televised variety, of course.
• Cindy Adams defends Alec Baldwin, says his ex (Kim Basinger) has "a tenuous hold on reality." Kind of like a certain aging gossip columnist we know!
• And this just in, from Onion sports: "Manny Ramirez asks Red Sox if he can work from home." Fatty.
• Bruce Willis steers the yacht while his famous wife suck face with her younger, hotter move star hubby. Isn't Hollywood funny?
• Fort Lauderdale gays are instructed there's no parking in the Red Zone.
• The Los Angeles Times: It's what happens when people stop being polite. And start getting 'real.'
• CBS News' online coverage of the Couric/Edwards interview already has 49 pages of comments. And counting…[via TVNewser]
• Tribune seems to favor Zell offer. Just as we reported. Then forgot about. And are now reporting again.
• MySpace "star" Tila Tequila attributes her success to "any pimply dork with a computer." Pimply dork responds by saying, "OMG, she said my name!"
• Time, Newsweek agree that Americans are "already over" Afghanistan.
CONTINUED »
• Dave Zinczenko makes the CEO of Joseph Abboud look foolish and is forced to choose between Elaine's and the Waverly Inn. (What would Details do??)
• News Corp., NBC challenge YouTube by creating their own video site. Which is kind of like suing YouTube, except much smarter!
• Everyone likes the brand new Time except the editor in chief of In Touch weekly.
• The creator of the "Orwellian" YouTube ad against Hillary Clinton is anticlimactically revealed to be…some random Democrat who works for a digital consulting firm.
• Brian Grazer's personal life gets in the way of his professional ambitions. And for once, we're not resorting to low-brow "pee" humor.
• The EIC of the Russian edition of Forbes was found guilty of defamation yesterday, in news that's probably "much, much more relevant" in Russia.
• Howard Stern's earning $700 million and you can't even afford a subscription to Sirius radio.
• On the heels of their two successful Hollywood feature films, penguins have become an advertiser's "best friend."
• CNN planning a celebration for Larry King's 50th year on the air, Dick Clark's corpse says, "Um, he-llo! I've been doing television since 1929!"
• If we lose the war in Iraq, conservatives say it's the mainstream media's fault.
• Time standing still, despite all that fanfare about "making big changes" this year.
• The secret to pulling off plagiarism is to turn in a "really, really good" fake.
New York magazine's party goer and PR team member extraordinaire Betsy Burton (left) is leaving the exclusive halls of New York for more corporate pastures.
Jossip has learned that Burton is unlatching from Serena Torrey's (right) side (where she held the title of communications manager) to join the PR team at Time magazine.
After a little more than two years working with Adam Moss, and sending countless emails to bloggers on behalf of New York, Burton will join the expanding PR machine at Time.
We are also told that other top-notch mag pimpers are fleeing to the new on-the-rise press team at Time, under Ali Zelenko. In addition to Burton's exodus, Nora Haynes has been snatched from Rolling Stone, and Daniel Kile is leaving the New Yorker.
While we might speculate that more and mags are working to build strong in-house PR teams, as far as we know, Maxim, Blender, and Radar will continue to be repped from the outside by e-mail blasting Four Corners publicist Noa Rabinowitz.
• Tween heartthrobs model themselves after the Olsen Twins. Only four more years until they stop eating and drop out of college. [NYT]
• Lindsay Lohan and Brett Ratner are just friends. Friends who know nothing about each other, but friends none the less. [Page Six]
• Time magazine lists the 100 most influential people. It's such a shame Jim Kelly didn't make it this year. [NYDN]
• We thought Britney Spears would be thrilled to bring another paparazzi/DCFS magnet into the world, but, no. [Scoop]
• Pete Doherty claims that the needle he was shooting into a passed out woman was empty. Because injecting air into an unconscious girl isn't at all harmful. [AP]
Today Lloyd Grove actually brings us something worth repeating. Speculation is on the rise that Jim Kelly, the managing editor at Time since 2001, will be leaving his post.
Kelly is Time's 16th managing editor, and while were sure plenty of staffers will find him irreplaceable, Grove spits out some possible candidates.
Time Inc. editor in chief John Huey, who took over from top exec Norman Pearlstine in January, will pick Kelly's successor. Possible candidates include deputy managing editor Steve Koepp, Fortune managing editor Eric Pooley, Time executive editor Priscilla Painton, former Time Washington bureau chief Michael Duffy, Time editor at large Michael Elliott and - admittedly a very long shot - New York Post media columnist Keith Kelly.
Two questions: 1) Should Grove really be ripping on the New York Post … we thought he wanted a job there? 2) Does this means Jim Kelly will be throwing another party? If so, we hope we can still be invited — we promise to bring our own plastic cups.
Time to turn the page to a new editor [Lloyd Grove, Daily News]
Time and Newsweek publishers are shouting "thanks a lot bitches!" to likes of Emma Watson and Lindsay Lohan today. The liquor industry has just announced that liquor companies will soon have to start facing tougher regulations when it comes to magazine advertising.
The liquor industry is toughening some of its ad standards for magazines, recommending that spirits makers should cease running ads on the back and inside covers as of July 1 in millions of copies of five major titles, including Time and Newsweek, unless the publishers can figure out a way to send thousands of school-library editions without those ads.
As of now, back page ads, which are at the top of the expensive page pile, can not be bought by liquor companies unless the publication has an adult readership over 70%. Yet, for some reason, schools think that kids can learn from magazines like Time, Newsweek, and ESPN, so these magazines (liquor ads and all) are often kept in the library. Makes it kind of tough to keep track.
Starting this summer, that means no more millions of dollars for those publishers, unless they can come with a solution to stop enticing kids to drink. (We're sure the kids won't mind if you just stop stocking their library.)
The liquor companies do have a point though. Middle schoolers would probably would never even wonder what drinking was like if all those ads in the library weren't forcing them to consider binging.
While advertising is at it, maybe mags should take out the perfume ads, too. Surely that would stop junior high kids from thinking about sex, too.
MAGAZINES GRAPPLE WITH SCHOOL LIBRARY LIQUOR AD BAN [Ira Teinowitz and Nat Ives, Ad Age]
Editorial Director
