Entertainment writer Ramin Setoodeh — whose recent Newsweek.com article about the inability of gay actors to convincingly play straight got him so much national attention that the creator of Glee called for a boycott of Newsweek, and actors Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth tacitly referenced the story in the opening for the Tony awards last week — has left the magazine to go work for People. “At the end of the day, I’ve been doing this job long enough to know that you judge people on the bulk of their work, the totality of their work,” People editor Larry Hackett said in an interview with the Observer today. Having achieved probably as much pop-culture permeation as is possible for a Newsweek writer (for better or for worse), Setoodeh will be largely leaving the entertainment beat behind to cover breaking news and human-interest stories for People. Setoodeh is merely the latest in a string of writers and editors jumping ship from Newsweek, which is currently for sale.
