The Freedom Tower Has an Empty Dance CardThe Port Authority is offering it up for sale, according to the ‘Post.’ That, and more city news in our daily industry roundup.
company town
Bloomberg: Crane Collapse ‘Intolerable’The mayor gives developers and union leaders a piece of his mind at a press conference on this morning’s crane collapse, students and colleagues of a popular Wall Street figure are flabbergasted by the SEC charges filed against him, and CNN’s Jessica Yellin gets into a war of words about the war.
Schadenfuller!Bonnie Fuller’s out at ‘Star,’ and the ‘Post”s Keith Kelly could not be more delighted.
it just happened
Breaking: Bonnie Fuller Steps Down at AMIThat’s right: American Media Inc. executive vice-president and chief editorial director Bonnie Fuller will resign from both of her positions as of Wednesday. But she’s not giving up ‘Star,’ Goddamn it!
in the magazine
New ‘WSJ’ Luxury-Title Editor: Which Archetype to Assign?Today we learn that Tina Gaudoin will be the editor of a yet-to-exist quarterly luxury supplement to The Wall Street Journal. We imagine it will be sort of like the Times magazine T. Well, probably it will be exactly like it. But anyway, according to the memo obtained by Romenesko:
Tina will bring [the Journal] a valuable set of skills from her extensive career in the magazine world. She began her career at Tatler working as beauty editor. In 1992 she moved to New York to work on the re-launch of Harpers Bazaar. During her time in New York she also worked at Vogue as senior writer and then as a presenter on Barry Diller’s Q2 channel. Returning to London, she became deputy editor of Tatler before launching the women’s magazine Frank. After that she became editorial director of the iVillage UK web site . She joined The Times of London in 2003 as style director of its Saturday magazine and was named editor of the quarterly magazine The Times Luxx in June 2007.
So luxury-journalism experience luxury-journalism experience something about Barry Diller luxury-journalism experience. Hm. There doesn’t seem to be anything in there about whether she is qualified to run a luxury journalism title. That is, there’s no explanation of whether she has a ridiculously over-the-top personality and outrageously self-demanding personal (and sartorial) daily regimen. With a touching underdog story.
in other news
If the Spearses Insist on Ruining Their Careers, Who Will Be Left for Bonnie Fuller to Kick Around?Like a junkyard pit bull, Bonnie Fuller has got her teeth in the 16-year-old flesh of pregnant Jamie Lynn Spears, and she is not letting go. Today brings Bonnie’s second Huffington Post column on the subject of Spears the Younger’s pregnancy. Yesterday, Bonnie was pissed off that Lynn Spears was paying too much attention to her daughter’s career to notice Jamie Lynn’s pregnancy. “Were you too tied up lining up meetings with record company executives, TV networks, publicists and tour managers to check on whether you were instilling personal values and self-esteem in your daughters?” she asked. Today, after a poll of Star readers showed that 93% of them believed Jamie Lynn should be fired, she’s pissed that Lynn didn’t pay enough attention to her daughter’s career. “If I’m Lynn Spears,” she wrote, “I would have been very concerned about the possibility that she was pregnant on every level — how it would affect her personally and how a pregnancy could also be a career killer.”
intel
Hello, Kettle? This Is Bonnie. You’re Black.We’re a little confused by Bonnie Fuller’s Huffington Post tirade about Lynne Spears. Just a month ago, Fuller wrote a column on the Website thanking celebrity moms for making real moms feel better about themselves. “Every time that our girl [Britney Spears] cluelessly tries to whitestrip her toddler’s teeth instead of brushing them or runs a red light with the court-appointed monitor and her two sons all strapped in her car,” the tabloid queen wrote then, “working moms across the continent can set back our own personal guilt-meters about our mothering skills.” Aw. Perhaps that’s a little demented, but we can appreciate the sentiment. But today she no longer loves celebrity mothers. She hates them. Specifically, Britney’s mom, Lynne, whom she accuses of not properly teaching her daughters about the birds and the bees, and inadvertently causing her young daughter’s pregnancy. “Were you too busy pushing their careers to ever have this heart-to-heart with them?” the Star editorial director demands. “Were you too tied up lining up meetings with record company executives, TV networks, publicists and tour managers to check on whether you were instilling personal values and self-esteem in your daughters?”
in other news
Bonnie Fuller: She’s Just Like Us! Except, You Know, NotBonnie Fuller, Star magazine editor, author of The Joys of Much Too Much: Go for the Big Life — The Great Career, The Perfect Guy, and Everything Else You’ve Ever Wanted, and mother of four, offers a disturbing glimpse into her brain today on the Huffington Post. Turns out it really is just a dusty swirl of celebrities, body issues and ego! Bonnie has been moved by the plight of Britney Spears, she says, but not quite in the way that you might think. She finds Britney’s poor parenting skills kind of comforting. Quoth the Fuller:
It’s not that I and women like me don’t care about the plight of little Sean Preston and Jayden James. We do. Obsessively so. And we’re relieved that the unlikely dad of the year, K-Fed, has primary custody. Nevertheless, every time that our girl Brit cluelessly tries to whitestrip her toddler’s teeth instead of brushing them or runs a red light with the court-appointed monitor and her two sons all strapped in her car, working moms across the continent can set back our own personal guilt-meters about our mothering skills.
Really, Bonnie? You and “women like you” feel this way? Okay then, mothers of America, please raise your hand if you see celebrity mothers as “guilt-evaporators”; if it has ever once occurred to you to “pat yourself on the back” for not being as bad a mom as Britney Spears. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Oops! Brit Did It Again! (Made Moms Feel Awesome, That Is) [HuffPo]
gossipmonger
But Does Jerry Like Laura Bush’s Corn?Laura Bush and the First Twins saw Grey Gardens (the twins laughed; mom did not). Paula Abdul was caught on tape sobbing and complaining about her former publicist, Howard Bragman. (She also claimed she doesn’t get drunk or do drugs). Hedge-fund manager Scott Bessent bought the late Pat Kennedy Lawford’s co-op for $12 million. Lindsay Lohan is set to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in 21st-birthday-party sponsorships because of her DUI arrest. A waiter head-butted a hostess at Alison in Bridgehampton. Mischa Barton called Cisco Adler after being rushed to the hospital for an allergic reaction, much to the dismay of her dad. A bunch of female celebrities, including Gabrielle Union and Erika Christensen, posed naked for a book. Michael Bublé tried hooking up with Emily Blunt at a hotel but failed. Red Eye contributor Rachel Marsden had to be escorted out of Fox News headquarters for “bizarre and erratic behavior.”
gossipmonger
Wang vs. WangDesigner Vera Wang is suing another Vera Wang for copyright infringement. Bonnie Fuller is looking to branch into TV, and her NYU film-student son may be involved. Silly Billy, the clown from weird documentary Capturing the Friedmans, now goes the name by Dr. Blood. André Balazs and Naomi Campbell might be dating. An upcoming bio of Condi Rice claims she’s accrued power personally but not professionally. The broker for Bob Guccione’s East Side mansion (current asking price: $50 million) quit. Ellen Barkin reiterates that she regrets marrying Ron Perelman. Gisele will jump ship to H&M when her contract with Victoria’s Secret expires. Court TV is going through a rebranding process.
gossipmonger
Vanity CareLimos parked outside Graydon Carter’s Waverly Inn delayed an ambulance en route to nearby St. Vincent’s Hospital. Former Citigroup chairman Sandy Weill cut down his use of the company’s corporate jets right before 17,000 people were laid off. Michael Chabon is proud to have been branded an anti-Semite by the Post. Ellen Barkin is writing a novel based on her marriage to Ron Perelman. Bonnie Fuller is branching into TV. Barbara and Lauren Bush sang karaoke. The famous hawks living at 927 Fifth Avenue will soon be in a kids’ book. Jay Leno confused two Mexican comedians. Joe Francis says his Girls Gone Wild videos don’t feature black girls because they ask for money, not because he’s racist.
gossipmonger
Reliving HistoryJeff Gerth and Don Van Natta’s Hillary bio will come out in August and may cause ethics problems for her in the Senate. Bonnie Fuller worried she showed too much chest on TV; also, she was cold. Hooters won’t host a PETA book party, prompting bad jokes from a PETA exec. Newt Gingrich and Lally Weymouth ate lunch. Thora Birch’s dad watched her shoot sex scenes. Martin Scorsese wants Leo DiCaprio to play stock swindler Jordan Belfort. And he’s also making a movie about Queen Victoria, says Liz Smith, with Sarah Ferguson as a co-producer. Sean Penn spoke at an antiwar rally in Oakland, didn’t make much sense. Whoopi Goldberg and Kiefer Sutherland had brunch.
gossipmonger
Lindsay Dries Out, or Tries ToLindsay Lohan checked herself into rehab after passing out in the hallway of a hotel following an all-night drinking binge. Perhaps it’s just the Method: Lindsay plays Dylan Thomas’s boozy wife in a movie out next year written by co-star Sienna Miller’s mom. Ketonah residents are not pleased that Martha Stewart is trying to trademark the name of their village to use for a line of home furnishings. The people behind fictional literary “It” boy JT LeRoy don’t think what they did constitutes a hoax. Bronx native Frank Lombardi was not fired on The Apprentice, and the borough rejoiced.