Andres Martinez is joining the New America Foundation, as an Irvine Fellow. The former LA Times editorial page editor left in a huff after publisher David Hiller squashed a special edition edited by Brian Grazer. He’s joining former West editor Rick Wartzman and Gregory Rodriguez. Based in Santa Monica, Martinez’s mission is to :

focus his writing on how global interdependence affects the daily lives of Californians. He’ll be exploring the disconnect between attitudes toward globalization and its reality on the ground and asking whether politicians and the media sufficiently understand California’s place in the global economy.

Translation: op-eds about off-shoring by people whose jobs will never be off-shored.

The LAT is combining its book reviews section with its Sunday opinion page, Current on April 15. We hear its first review will be of a Brian Grazer memoir.

Victoria Beckham, aka Posh, is starting a book club with Katie Holmes and Jennifer Lopez. According to some British tabloid:

Books that Victoria wants to talk about, include Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Sense and Sensibility, as well as tomes by literary giants Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy.

In 2005, Posh told the Daily Telegraph that she reads books despite having said she didn’t.

In 2001, she wrote a book.

So, there’s been a progression of sorts. Remember, Brian Grazer doesn’t read himself, he has someone to do it for him. Who knows where this could lead? Maybe Posh will edit the LA Times?

FBLA thinks this is almost too good to be true:
Andres Martinez, the Op-Ed Editor at the LA Times has been dating Kelly Mullens, who was an executive with Sitrick and Company. One of that firm’s clients is Brian Grazer, the guest editor of this weekend’s Current section.

Former Sitrick exec., Allan Mayer, taking one for the team, told Kevin Roderick that he suggested Grazer to Martinez. Mullens never worked directly with Grazer. From LA Observed:

Martinez emerged from a hurriedly called meeting this afternoon with Publisher David Hiller to inform the editorial staff of the news and to deny that his romantic relationship with Mullens played a part in the selection of Grazer as Current’s first guest editor.

FBLA believes him. Stupidity played a part in the selection of Grazer, not pillow-talk. Nikki Finke interviewed Martinez way back when and genial cluelessness seems to be the over-riding tone.

Earlier:
Brian Grazer: Editor for a Day at LA Times

The LA Times is going for a guest editor for the Sunday Op-ed section, Current, and so picked the obvious candidate, Brian Grazer for the March 25th issue. From the press release:

We asked Brian Grazer to kick off the program because we wanted to tap into his creative vision. Brian’s an ideal choice because his interests are notoriously wide-ranging, and often unconventional. His career is powered by an endless curiosity, and we thought it would be fun to hitch a ride along the way.

Grazer has so few outlets for self-expression, and besides, he’s a rich white guy, and you know hard it is for them. Usually these sorts of “Something for a Day” go to the highest bidder at an elementary school fund-raiser.

And Nikki Finke has so much more to the story. Still not locally acclimated Nick Goldberg is behind Grazer who picked some not-very-unconventional choices for writers, who include Andre Leon Talley on “fashion and status” and rabid lawyer Marty Singer on the “power of allegations”. There’s also a Nobel Prize winner, because Hollywood types love to hob-nob with the big brains and more to the point, a facial interpretation expert on how to catch liars.

And, remember, Grazer can’t read.