Cover Awards With Mark PasetskyRemember Mark Pasetsky? The reportedly feng shui–loving, foundation-wearing, and alleged inspiration for Courteney Cox’s Dirt editor “resigned” from Bauer Publishing’s Life & Style last fall and went back to his job in marketing, but, apparently, he’s not feeling entirely fulfilled. Folio today tells us that the confirmed cowboy-hat lover has started a blog that is fascinating and gross and wonderful all at once, like a silkworm. It’s called Cover Awards, and on it Pasetsky weighs in on the covers of various weekly magazines, noting what he would have done different (“What do they mean when they say “Clinton vs. Obama. How to Win”?”) and giving kudos: “The Heath Ledger story, “Did Drug Doctors Kill Him?” is SUPER STRONG. It’s an obvious question, but one that hasn’t been answered.” Right, and we’re sure the Globe will get right to the bottom of it! Click, don’t scroll, your browser to this hot new site immediately.
Cover Awards Website [Cover Awards]
Ex-Life & Style Editor Launches Web Site [Folio]
Related: The Devil Wears Cowboy Hats
ink-stained wretches
Is the STU (Special Tabloid Unit ) After ‘In Touch’?Is it true? Complex magazine, of all places, is reporting that the FBI is investigating New Jersey–based tabloid In Touch and its Bauer Publishing brethren for pay-for-play placement on its covers. “They tapped the phones at In Touch,” a source told Complex. Bauer begs to differ: “This whole story sounds ludicrous,” the company told Jossip. Well, we thought Brad Pitt leaving Jennifer Aniston for Angelina Jolie sounded ludicrous, too, but then that turned out to be true! The spokesperson clarified: “In Touch has not been contacted by the FBI.” Could it be that this is all just a buzz campaign to get us really excited about the March 2 premiere of the second season of Courteney Cox’s crap-tacular show Dirt? Because if it is, it totally worked.
The Feds Get In Touch With ‘In Touch’ [Complex]
Paparazzi Payola at InTouch [Jossip]
company town
Fake-Lawyer Jokes Better Than Real-Lawyer JokesThe big news today in the city’s big businesses.
LAW
• Paralegal who claimed to be a lawyer (and was treated as such by Anderson Kill & Olick for two whole years) to be arraigned on Wednesday. [NYT]
• Aaron Charney, the gay associate suing his former firm for discrimination, hasn’t gotten the support he expected from New York’s Lesbian and Gay Law Association. [Above the Law]
• Alan Dershowitz gives his two cents on the Pentagon detainee debacle to the Times’ opinion page. While sharing the editors’ outrage, he smells just the faintest whiff of McCarthyism. [NYT via Law Blog/WSJ]
in other news
Mag-Drunk Bauer to Mix a Secret ‘Cocktail’Attention, Sex and the City–ites: Numerous news outlets are reporting this morning that Bauer Publishing — home to irresistible weeklies like InTouch and Life & Style — is developing a new checkout-line siren, Cocktail Weekly. It’ll be a new women-oriented title about — well, what will it be about? The Post gets confirmation from Bauer CEO Hubert Boehl that there’s a $2.49 cover price then wanders into a disquisition on the business model of magazine publishing. Women’s Wear squeezes the chief until he allows that they’re “developing a new niche.” And Mediaweek has the best scoop, coming in with the shocker that the female-friendly mag will be covering “relationships, fashion, beauty and health” with an eye on letting advertisers reach women with disposable incomes. (To be fair, we do also learn from WWD and Mediaweek that Maria Lissandrello, currently at Bauer’s First for Women, will be helming the mag.) We hope it’s a mag all about how to make drinks, but we can’t imagine we’ll be that lucky.
Cocktail in the Mix at Bauer [NYP]
Happy Hour [WWD]
At Deadline: Bauer to Launch Cocktail Weekly in Sept. [Mediaweek]