Who Wants to Be a Paparazzi Editor
Picture weeklies attack each other’s mastheads.
When celebrity glossies need a break from fighting over photos of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie engaged in alleged eye contact, they fight over the photo editors who fight over the photos. Feeling lonely after the exodus of four of its photo editors earlier this year, In Touch Weekly snatched photo editor Monica Thompson from Bonnie Fuller’s Star last week. The hire has that extra touch of Schadenfreude for In Touch because it comes at an awkward time for its rival: Another Star photo editor, Mary Seyfried, is also leaving. Both Seyfried and Thompson soldiered with the Star through two great Britney Wedding-Picture Bidding Wars in the space of a year, winning the first (Jason Alexander) and losing the second (Kevin Federline). Fuller can hardly be surprised: When she abandoned Us Weekly to oversee Star in 2003, she took her photo editor with her.
—Benjamin Nugent