That photo over there? Of Reese Witherspoon? On page 22 of this week's Us Weekly? The one with Prince William on the cover?
Janice Min & Co. paid $2,000.00 for it.
The sale was closed a week ago today, on April 17. The $2k payment gives Us "non-exclusive rights to publish such Photos, including the right to promote and advertise the Photos in connection with promotion of the issue in which the Photos appear."
It's a standard arrangement, sure. But how'd we get all those details? Because the magazine has a little problem with leaking all that sensitive information via email.
There's also the $1,250.00 payment back in October for photos of "Farrah Fawcett leaves UCLA medical center with ex hubby," according to an Us agreement. ("Ex hubby" would be Ryan O'Neal. The two, in fact, were never married.) When Us leaked their purchase, they set themselves up to ruin their own exclusive by tipping off other photogs, as this went down before anyone knew where Farrah was receiving treatment for colon cancer.
Then there's the $5,000.00 payment on August 21, 2006, for a photo of Jennifer Aniston visiting her ill father John Aniston in the hospital on August 20 — before it was public that he was sick. Again, another opportunity to botch their own exclusive.
So how is all this happening? Us has been sending this pricing info to at least unhappy recipient: Jill Ishkanian, the former Us staffer who left the magazine in October 2005, started her own paparazzi agency Sunset Photo and News, and has since been raided by the FBI following allegations she hacked into Us's computers to steal sensitive information.
And why is Us continuing to send these emails to Jill? She certainly doesn't know. We spoke to her camp, who informed us a cease and desist letter went out demanding to be removed from the tabloid's photo pricing emails. Says Jill's spokesman Glenn Feldman: "We asked them to stop sending us any confidential internal mail [and to] start controlling the channels of email that [they] disperse."
One theory is that Us wants this sensitive information in Jill's hands so they can fingerpoint when they allege she broke into their computers to steal the data.
Us seems to have made a policy of not responding to our requests for comment, but they do act fast: Shortly after last week's item about Jill's Us Weekly cell phone remaining active, Us terminated it (or at least the voicemail box).
In the meantime, we'll be hitting tomorrow's newsstand to see whether the cheque they wrote for the cover shot was worth it.
Editorial Director
Maybe the info isn't confidential, they want people to know? Just sayin'
Let's get a look at that cease and desist letter!
For the last year and a half, the "confidential" E-mails have been forwarded to the FBI and the Department of Justice as they came in, with notes about how they are being sent to Sunset Photo long after the "Cease and Desist" order.
OMG
that mag has some shady sh*t going on
there's two pics of Reese on that page, is it the eating ice cream or the little one? either way, they paid too much, dumb pic
Korean American Janis Min loves Tods. The bag company that is. It is not good for the editor to accept gifts. What type of example does that give to her employees? Remember HH.
Every heard of a delete button and the block sender list. People are too stupid and vain to be believed. I also doubt the "cease and desist" crap.
Jann, I hope you realize the editor's salary of US Weekly is worth about $250,000 at the most. Not a million, like Janis Min is allegedly being paid. Save the money for pictures, and your readers will be happier. Let's have a gin and tonic to that.