We're hearing senior writer Joey Bartolomeo has left Us Weekly, where she penned many a major cover story, for competitor People.
Bartolomeo was one of editor Janice Min's favorites, and also co-authored, with Mara Reinstein, 2005's horrific guidebook Brad & Jen: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood’s Golden Couple, which was thrown together in five days. And read like it.
Her departure is, inarguably, a major loss for Us, especially when she's one of few people who can convincingly shape the discussion about a tragedy like California's wild fires into a sob story about the privileged celebrity set who might lose their mansions.
Without Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan's daily antics, it's fallen on Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt to fill the gossip blogs and tabloid covers. And they've more than made themselves available. "We're always the juicier story," Spencer tells the LAT. "And when Heidi and Spencer are gossip machines, it's like, 'What did Heidi and Spencer do?'"
This is the stock of celebrity we've allowed ourselves to settle for, and they're cleaning up; $50,000 each for hosting a party here, $15,000 for posing for "paparazzi" photos there. CONTINUED »
Us Weekly news director Lara Cohen: "To say the news media's coverage of Reverend Wright has been exhaustive is like saying that Us was mildly interested in Brad Pitt's split from Jennifer Aniston. Or, as Chris Rock said recently, "It's like they gave [Wright] his own channel." More accurately, they gave him several channels. His diatribes were on a never-ending loop and the networks unleashed an army of pundits to discuss whether the connection to Wright made Obama inherently unelectable. Personally I'm surprised none of the news outlets employed our resident Body Language Expert to dissect the relationship's nonverbal cues. (Though in fairness, I don't watch Fox so she could've made an appearance there.)" [HuffPo]
In the winner's corner: Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer dominated the tabloids this week, with most publications declaring them the hot new couple. There's not much to be negative about, except for the fact that any relationship involving Jen is doomed to fail.
In the loser's corner: Jessica and Ashlee Simpson are competing to see who can make it to the altar first, because isn't that what romance is all about? We can't decide who's the bigger loser in this situation — the Simpsons or their poor significant others.
Also this week: Britney continues to get her act together, Lindsay gets mixed reviews and Angelina is possibly getting married. But don't hold your breath. CONTINUED »
We're switching things up a bit this week: Instead of simply summing up the tabloids, we're presenting the week's winners and losers in the eyes of the magazines. Which publications favor which celebrities? And does the relationship change from week to week?
This time around, Britney seems to have won back the love of the tabs, because not a single bad story was written about her. The mags are split on Lindsay — some say she's in a happy and stable lesbian relationship; others declare that she is off the wagon (again).
And congrats are in order to the biggest loser of the week, Jessica Simpson, who is apparently pathetic and in danger of losing boyfriend Tony Romo. When even the tabloids are pitying you, you know there's a problem. CONTINUED »
The CW network spent a fortune promoting the return of Gossip Girl with that OMFG campaign and, unintentionally, with actress Kelly Rutherford's plot spoiler. So how come their latest ploy – a contest giveaway with Us Weekly – is the most obvious low-budget effort ever?
In exchange for your name, address, and email, you have a chance to win a tote bag and mirrored compact courtesy of the CW network. Yes, THAT IS ALL.
Which weekly glossy just signed a mega-million-dollar contract with a certain annoying celebrity couple? The deal is the magazine will get exclusive interviews with the couple, but in turn they need to break up (again), get back together (again) and actually get married.
Kudos to Us Weekly for being the only tabloid wise enough to realize Americans might be just as interested in Beyonce and Jay-Z's (maybe) wedding as, say, a white girl like Katherine Heigl's.
Janice Min might be the only celeb weekly editor who understands the newsstand lure of black celebs; her magazine's Janet Jackson "How I Lost 40 Pounds" issue was among its best selling ever (though it's said that Min was on leave, and didn't have much to do with it).
While the paparazzi hounded the Tribeca apartment building where Jay-Z and Beyonce supposedly got married, and the local television news had a field day guessing why everyone was wearing white, OK!, In Touch, Star, and Life & Style all ignored the week's biggest story on their covers.
How come? CONTINUED »
Turns out People magazine's Christina Aguilera baby photo issue, which cost them a reported $1.5 million, sold better than the estimated 1.3 million copies originally thought; it moved 1.45 million on the newsstand.
That's one highlighted stat from the latest tabloid data, which shows People up 5 percent year-to-date, with an average 1.5 million copies moving on the newsstand, according to ABC data being released today. The mag's biggest mover? January's Heath Ledger, which sold 1.8m, thanks to it being the only weekly to close late enough to catch the obit. But that issue is expected to be bested by Jennifer Lopez's newborn twins, with estimates of 1.9m.
And how is the competition faring? CONTINUED »
Us Weekly is backing off its Barack Obama bias by allowing the spouses of Hillary and Barack to pen first-person arguments for the candidate they sometimes sleep in the same bed with. Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama have 1,000 words to argue who deserves to be Us' "Look of the Week," and who deserves a citation from the Fashion Police.
Keeping with its roots, Us Weekly is revving up the denial train. You know, where they take those erroneous reports from less trustworthy weeklies and get sources to deny the reports?
And it's always a good time to take a crap on the reports in other tabloid magazines — Us, after all, used to devote an entire two-page spread to the matter. So what to do when the competition gets its credibility put through the gossip mill shredder? Fiesta!
OK! magazine has been catching flack for its 2003 photo of Britney Spears that supposedly showed the star had lost 15 pounds in four weeks. Thus, Us Weekly's item "See What Britney Spears' Body Really Looks Like."
And what about Star's report that Britney and Kevin Federline reconciled over Easter weekend and were planning a Hawaii trip together? Not true, Us gets a Britney camp member to report, but not before pointing out that the cover photo is from their 2004 honeymoon. In Fiji.
The tabloids had a good variety of stories this week, with one Angelina and three Britney covers. Life & Style was the only magazine to get desperate with the typical "celebrities starve themselves to get skinny" cover story. Trailblazers, those L&S staffers.
There is, as usual, a plethora of Spears family stories covering Brit's mental illness and Jamie Lynn's upcoming wedding. It's nothing we didn't already know — except for Star's made-up story about Britney and Kevin rekindling their romance. That was very creative.
Also this week: Lindsay realizes she looks old, Perez Hilton needs attention and Jason Wahler stars in yet another reality show. Count us out. CONTINUED »
As the Daily Mail reminds us, the album-promoting Janet Jackson is suddenly very svelte again, which means it might be time for Us Weekly's Janice Min to look back to June 2007 and resurrect one of the tabloid's best selling issues ever.
On Saturday, at around 8:30pm, Star magazine sent an email blast to blogs and entertainment media types announcing its major exclusive: Earlier that day, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, despite assurances they wouldn't marry until the gays could too, tied the knot in New Orleans. Then industry denier Us Weekly took action, calling the other outlets liars and furiously searching old interviews of the two to print quotes of them talking about marriage. Even People got in on the rebuttals.
And now, when you visit Star's original item, it's been updated to say, "After further investigation, the sources are not standing by their story. Brad and Angelina's reps have not commented." Over at OK!, they're smartly breaking down how the rumor got started, smartly distracting you from any of their own reporting errors.
But the real irony in all of this? That Star magazine got caught up in the "Brangelina are getting married!" game that's been the bread and butter of Bauer's In Touch and Life & Style for months. Neither of those tabloids, however, bothered to confirm or refute the story on their own sites.
Haven't you heard? Britney Spears is on the road to recovery! Sure, you thought this was the case when she finally divorced then-nutjob Kevin Federline and made her David Letterman appearance, but now she's doing Responsible Person things like showing up for work and keeping her hair in tact. And her guest spot on How I Met Your Mother? It's getting rave reviews all around!
OK! applauds the effort: "Her performance was so good, she managed to wow not only the audience, but her co-stars as well." People says Britney "took a major step in reviving her career." Us Weekly is pleased to report on "her big TV comeback."
And it looks like it's only Star who can't get on the happy train. Its new issue's secondary cover story? Britney's "Secret Meltdown."
After Us Weekly supposedly tricked Lauren Conrad into bashing "friends" Audrina Patridge and Brody Jennfer, the Hills star found herself apologizing on her MySpace blog, blaming the tabloid for a bait-and-switch. Conrad, who is friends with the Us reporters she spoke to, was shocked to find EIC Janice Min went with a cover story that pieced together interview segments into a "How I Was Stabbed in the Back" article — so she went off on the tabloid.
Naturally, Min wasn't having it — she was left fuming after the press-needy Conrad slammed Us. Which means Conrad spent the weekend using Page Six to relay her apology to Min, who could easily kill the money train to Conrad if she stops buying paparazzi pics of her.
It's been a troubling week for Conrad, who then had to wake up this morning to see the New York Times crown foe Heidi Montag as a "feminist hero." Nevermind that even after all of this, millions of viewers watched her call friend Jenner "scum" on The Hills premiere. Or maybe we're in the middle of a Hills scripted segment?
Who's surprised to find these "candid" Pacific Coast News shots of Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt spending Easter with her neice pop up on Us Weekly? It's as if they had no idea the photographers would be there … when they phoned them in. [Us]
Merchandising expert Lauren Conrad wasn't happy with the cover Us Weekly gave her this week. She agreed to give Janice Min's tabloid an exclusive interview (whatever that means with press-hungry reality tarts), and they had the audacity to write a cover line that made her look all woe is me instead of girl power. CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY WOULD DO THAT TO HER?!?!
So she took to, where else, her MySpace blog to set the record straight: "Hey! I just wanted to take a moment to clear something up. I recently did an interview to talk about the show coming back on and what everyone had to look forward to. Unfortunately it was turned into yet another 'poor me' story. The article itself is a nice one but it follows headlines that, in no way, represent my words or feelings. I do not feel betrayed by Audrina or Brody. I love them both and said nothing to contradict this. I understand that headlines sell magazines, but I value my friendships above magazine sales any day. On a more positive note, I got to see some of the first episode yesterday and it looks amazing. I’m sooooooo excited for everyone to see Paris. Best wishes and I hope everyone tunes in Monday."
Unless you're friends with Lauren, perhaps you weren't alerted to the post the way you usually are — by MySpace's PR team, which issues releases whenever one of its celebrity clientele does something meaningful like string words together. So how come tabloid TV producers and their kin weren't notified?
We're just riffing here, but a one Shelly Reinstein happens to work at MySpace PR. She used to work at Us Weekly. And her sister, Mara Reinstein? She still does.
After the jump, a photo of Lauren's dog Chloe, just 'cause. CONTINUED »
Say what you will about Lauren Conrad’s clothing line — at least it looks quality. And it’s obvious she created every design herself and put her heart and soul into the collection.
Keep that in mind as you view Heidi Montag’s new line, not-so-creatively titled “Heidiwood,” that she most certainly did not have a hand in creating. Also? The line looks like something on the sale racks at Forever 21.
The guy behind the anonymous sports blog The Big Lead outs himself as Jason McIntyre, who recently left his gig as Us Weekly's assistant news editor to run the site full time. Guys who like sports and celebrity gossip? Freaks.
So how'd the blog, which started in February 2006 as an email chain among friends, get so popular? By running interviews with big shot sports media types. Huh. Getting press attention by feeding the media's ego? Now where have we seen that business model before …
Editorial Director
